New York, NY (Top40 Charts) As a Nashville transplant with no real place to call a hometown, Sam Lewis' goal upon moving to
Music City was to make friends. "I felt its pull, its draw," he recalls. "Some of my favorite people live in Nashville and I thought maybe I could rub up against a few of 'em." After a few years, he did more than just make a few connections, he got some of Nashville's top musicians to perform on his album while recording it in one of America's most legendary studios. As the follow-up to his self-titled debut, Lewis' sophomore effort Waiting On You will be released on April 21 via Brash Music. Guitar World's Acoustic Nation holds the first look under the hood of Sam's new album with the exclusive premiere of the first single "3/4 Time."
LISTEN: Sam Lewis - "3/4 Time" on Guitar World's Acoustic Nation:
Waiting On You features several generations of Nashville royalty such as Kenny Vaughan (Marty Stuart, Lana Del Rey, Ray Lamontagne), guitarist Darrell Scott (Steve Earle, Guy Clark, Robert Plant), harmonica legend Mickey
Raphael (Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Neil Young), guitarist Will Kimbrough (Rodney Crowell), pianist Gabe Dixon (Paul McCartney, Supertramp), and Nashville's favorite vocal group The McCrary Sisters (Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash,
Buddy Miller, Patty Griffin).
Last summer, Lewis united his all-star team at Southern Ground Studios, the site of classic recordings by Kris Kristofferson, Tony Joe White, and Roy Orbison, with roots music maestro and producer
Oliver Wood (Tedeschi
Trucks Band, Shemekia Copeland, Kathy Mattea) of acclaimed group The Wood Brothers. As on his previous recordings, the band played together live on the studio floor, tracking a dozen songs in just two and a half days. The cast of iconic players ably adds texture and filigree while never overburdening Lewis' elemental ballads and finely etched character studies.
With his compelling songs, stirring melodies, and preternaturally soulful voice, Sam Lewis has quickly established himself as one of Nashville's most talented new tunesmiths. Waiting On You reverberates with earnest emotion and restless energy, rich with the intimate lyricism of folk, country's raw integrity, and a lived-in muscularity born of Lewis' captivating vocal timbre. This 12-track gem reveals Sam Lewis to be an exceptionally gifted troubadour, forthright, genuine, and completely his own.
Watch his performance of "Reinventing The Blues" on
Music City
Roots HERE, where host
Craig Havighurst called his songs "Americana with a groovy twist."
"I live what I write," says Sam Lewis. "But the older I get, the more I find that some songs are actually ahead of my physical evolution. It's weird. I live all of my songs but some of 'em, I think I haven't yet lived through."
Waiting On You Track List:
01) 3/4 Time
02) Love Me Again
03) Waiting On You
04) She's A Friend
05) Things Will Never Be The Same
06) Talk To Me
07) Reinventing The Blues
08) Never Again
09) Texas
10)
Little Time
11) Virginia Avenue
12) I'm Coming Home
Tour Dates:
Feb. 14 - Watseka, IL @ Watseka Theatre (w/ Marty Stuart)
Feb. 19 - Plains, PA @ River Street Jazz Cafe
Feb. 20 - Sellersville, PA @ Sellersville Theater (w/ Marty Stuart)
Feb. 21 - Philadelphia, PA @ Tin
Angel (w/ Nighthawks)
Feb. 27 - Indianapolis, IN @ Rathskeller (w/ Caroline Kole)
Feb. 28 - Stoughton, WI @ Opera House (w/ Marty Stuart)
Mar. 03 - Portsmouth, NH @ The Press Room
Mar. 04 - Cambridge, MA @ Atwood's Tavern
Mar. 13 - Asheville, NC @ The
Orange Peel (w/ SteelDrivers)
Mar. 15 - Newport, KY @ Southgate House (w/ Chatham Country Line)
Apr. 02 - Oxford, MS @ The Lyric Oxford (w/ Chris Knight)
Apr. 30 - Maryville, TN @ Barleys
Jun. 26 - Dover, DE @ Big Barrel Festival
