By Barbara Augsdorfer, editor for the Effingham Herald
The Four-time Grammy-nominated band Lonestar is bringing their mixture of popular county and rock tunes – live – as part of the Springfield Fall Festival Nov. 9. The band will perform one 90-minute show on an outdoor stage beginning at 8 p.m.
Lonestar has been together as a band since 1992 and is currently comprised of Dean Sams on keyboards, Michael Britt on guitar, Keech Rainwater on drums, and Drew Womack on vocals.
The band’s latest project is the soon-to-be released Iconic Vol. 1 – where each member of the band selected a hit sung by an iconic female artist and the band created a cover.
“The idea was kicked around by our lead singer Drew about doing a project where each one of the band members chooses an iconic female artist and picks a song that everybody would be familiar with, whether pop or country or whatever,” said Rainwater. “And we’d record it in true Lone Star fashion.”
The result is a five-song EP with “Rolling in the Deep”, originally by Adele; “Try”, originally by Pink; “Time After Time”, originally by Cindy Lauper); “Here Comes The Rain Again”, originally by Eurythmics; and “You Make Loving Fun”, originally by Fleetwood Mac. “Here Comes the Rain Again” and “You Make Loving Fun” are already available on various streaming services.
“It was a really fun project,” Rainwater said.
“We’ve had a busy summer. 90s country has never really gone away and it’s made a hige impact on people,” Rainwater continued.
“And I think after COVID and all that, people are just really wanting to get out and enjoy shows and celebrate the fact that there’s live music to be heard,” Rainwater said. “And we have prided ourselves from the very beginning about our live show and really making sure that our music is first rate and the sound. We just make sure that our show, with the lights and the sound and the video screens and everything is absolutely stellar.”
Rainwater added he believes that the live music industry actually came in stronger after COVID.
“We’ve been making music for 32 years as a band. We are still just as excited about it today as we were back then, getting to get up there in front of fans,” Rainwater continued. “and when we started out, nobody knew who we were. We were doing other people’s songs, and now we’re getting in front of thousands of people playing songs of our own that they sing along with, and that’s just so flattering.”
Lonestar’s 32-year career has garnered them 22 top-10 singles with 10 of those going No.1 – some of which included hits such as “No News,” “What About Now,” “I’m Already There,” “My Front Porch Looking In” and “Amazed.”
“Amazed,” spent nine weeks at No. 1 and also became a crossover hit, climbing to No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, and becoming one of the most iconic wedding songs to date.
Be sure to stay for the encore.
“At the end of the show, we just rock out a little bit, kind of more for ourselves than anything. We do a little bit of Van Halen, Pink Floyd … We just have a good time playing some rock and roll hits at the end, and it’s just kind of a nice little wrap up at the end of our show, and a nod to some of our heroes.”