No; Lonestar is not dead, and that is a message the band wanted to share with country music fans. In fact, the ACM award-winning group is making a musical statement of relentlessness and timelessness with the release of its 2016 album, Never Enders.
You may know Lonestar best for its late nineties, early 2000s success with hit songs “Amazed” and “I’m Already There.” While having such defining songs may seem a little like a habit you can’t shake, Lonestar sees these monumental career moments as complete blessings.
Having a song that people make a part of their lives, whether it’s in their weddings or just their love song for their significant other . . . that kind of cements your memory into part of their life, which . . . is great. . . . it’s always a blessing when you can get people loving a song that much.
Going into this album, Lonestar simply wanted to continue to release that kind of good music and set out on the venture as an independent act, working amongst themselves to record songs they could “like and live with.” However, about halfway into the process, a new record label, Shanachie Entertainment, heard what they were working on and approached them to team up on the release.
We were just kind of doing what we wanted to do and then they just liked it. So, it was a good partnership.
The result of the partnership is the band’s new album, Never Enders. The title track, which served as the lead single, set the tone for the album and sent a message to the industry that Lonestar is still making exceptional music. Like moths to a flame, Lonestar fans have taken to the band’s project, likely because what they are hearing from the foursome is the sound they have been able to rely on for all these years. To that end, the band can truly be classified as timeless, which was actually the theme to the first single.
[The reception’s] been great. That was kind of like the gist of the song when were listening to it. Richie and Dean co-wrote it and then when Keech and I heard it, I just thought, “Well, that’s just perfect.” It just kind of tells a story of where we are now, what we’ve been doing, and that we’re still gonna try to keep going, so it’s a little autobiographical. Plus, it’s just more of a, it’s got a universal theme as well, you know? Just try to do things that last.
Despite having previously released eleven albums since the mid-nineties, Lonestar still gets that eager feeling, synonymous to setting a child free into the world. Letting go of the music and reaching out to touch fans was something Lonestar was especially ready to do, considering the live show aspect of the group’s career.
It’s still really fun for us to put out new music. We get excited when we put out new stuff because we’ve been playing the same twenty songs for the last twenty years. . . . Every year or two, [we] will get together and just brainstorm and kind of come up with new things to do in the show. There are going to be songs that everybody wants to hear. We can’t not do “Amazed,” and “What About Now,” and “Front Porch Lookin’ In.” We probably have ten songs we have to do or we’ll get run out of town.
Keeping those ten tunes in mind, Lonestar is left with about one-third of a show to flex creative muscles and dream up new ways to keep fans entertained.
We change it up. We’ve got a rock medley we’ve been doing kind of for years, and every year or two we’ll change up some of the songs in it. Plus, we do some really cool covers, just stuff we like to do. Anything that will keep it kind of fresh for us.
Now, with the addition of the Never Enders album and its contents into the pool of songs to choose from for shows, Lonestar has the opportunity to provide more feel good music to fans. Even more than lending a little bit of musical positivity to lives, the album offers something for everybody to ensure that no listener feels left out.
It’s got rockin’ stuff, it has really sweet songs too, but I think really, a lot of country music in the seventies was dark and depressing “woe is me kind of stuff.” I think our music has just always been really positive and a little bit uplifting. Even though there are a couple of sadder songs on this record, the thing in general is there is always a ray of hope at the end, even of those songs.
Lonestar’s Never Enders is now available on iTunes. You can also follow the very much alive and well band on Twitter, Facebook, and its website to stay up-to-date on all information related to the new music and live shows.
