Monday's show in Springfield is a benefit for St. Jude's Children Hospital.
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Lonestar
Still going strong after 20 years, county foursome Lonestar is marking a career milestone with a new tour, new album, and top at the MassMutual Center on Monday.
Now reunited with their original lead singer, Richie McDonald, the multi-platinum country music quartet is working on a new album to be released in 2013 year and has embarked on an extensive anniversary tour with over 90 dates scheduled in North America alone. (The Springfield show, sponsored by WRNX-FM, is a benefit for St. Jude's Children Hospital).
“It’s great to be back in the band on our 20th anniversary. It feels right. I left to spend time with my family and slow down a bit. It’s really better to be together than apart and its almost like I never left the group. We’ve been having a lot of fun recording, laughing and cutting up, and playing music which is a passion for all of us,” said McDonald, who also left the band in 2007 to pursue a solo career.
The upcoming album will be the follow-up to 2010’s “Party Heard Around the World,” which was recorded with singer Cody Collins, who stepped in after McDonald left to pursue a solo career in 2007. Parting ways with an original member, even temporarily, could have spelled the end for many bands.
“We’ve been very fortunate that a lot of our fans have stuck with us through the good and the bad,” keyboardist Dean Sams has said. “You know who your true friends are by who stands by you during the low times, and we found out we have a lot of friends.”
Even before their current tour, a recent string of European dates with Reba McEntire, Ricky Skaggs, and Little Big Town found Lonestar performing for audiences in England, Ireland, Switzerland, and Germany to the pleasure of many new and old fans.
Originally formed in Nashville in 1992, Lonestar features McDonald, Sams, guitarist Michael Britt, and drummer Keech Rainwater.
As a result of their numerous gigs – Lonestar played over 500 shows before landing a recording contract – by the time they released their self-titled debut album in 1995 they group already had a loyal fan base. Their first single, “Tequila Talkin’,” went Top 10 on the country charts. Its follow-up, “No News,” did even better and was the first of some 10 No. 1 singles for the group, including their big crossover hit “Amazed,” which was also No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the first record since 1983’s “Islands in the Stream” to top both charts.
In addition their chart success, Lonestar’s many awards include a 1999 ACM Single of the Year for “Amazed,” which also won the song of the year award, and the 2001 CMA Vocal Group of the Year.
But it isn’t the hit records and trophies on their mantles that has kept Lonestar going over the years.
“Honesty, through it all, the one thing that has kept us around is that we’re just four good old boys from Texas. No matter how much success we’ve had, it didn’t change us as people,” McDonald said.
The group’s lead singer said their new compact disc next year will be packaged with a DVD entitled “Life as We Knew It,” featuring 20 years of behind the scenes footage of the band shot over time by their drummer.
“We’ve sat down collectively, writing 10 of the 12 songs that will be on the album,” Sams has said. “We had an idea, a vision, of where we wanted to go with the music – edgier than some of our past albums, yet keeping it country. And I think that producing the album on our own with the creative control to do what we wanted, has resulted in probably the best album we’ve every made featuring a mixture of ballads and fun party songs.”
Now transplanted from Texas to the Nashville area, the new ABC television series “Nashville” takes on new meaning for McDonald.
“I watched it for the first time a couple of nights ago and thought it was a really good show. It’s a good portrayal of what the industry is like from artists to songwriters to management, and I think it’s going to help country music,” he said. “Just look what the television show ‘Dallas’ did to promote the city.”