AARON LEWIS HAS NO. 1 SELLING COUNTRY ALBUM IN AMERICA

Frayed At Both Ends Sells More Copies Than Any Other Country Record

As “Everybody Talks To God” Resonates with People Across the U.S

Aaron Lewis doubled down on his unfiltered take on a kind of country long-forgotten with Frayed At Both Ends (The Valory Music Co.). Stripped even further back, the project was built around songs the songwriter had written – for the first time with friends – and allowed the room to give the emotional charge and musicianship full rein. The result is an album that is the #1 selling album in America this week based on physical sales and digital downloads.

With a core band of Academy of Country Music Guitarist of the Year Tom Bukovac, Country Music Hall of Fame Medallion Ceremony band leader Biff Watson and bluegrass award winner Seth Taylor, who joined Grammy-winning Dan Tyminski on acoustic and mandolin, dobroist Ben Kitterman, and supplemented with Sturgill Simpson vet Laur Joamets acoustic slide and baritone where needed and Jim Moose Brown on keyboards, Frayed was a real record capturing human interaction and a voice hailed by the Los Angeles Times for its “mournful baritone.”

“The players assembled are beyond the very best,” Lewis says. “To hear them in a room is so much more than just what they play, you feel the intentions and emotions of the songs. To strip things back this far is scary, but with players this good, it also turns into something thrilling.”

Having previously earned two No. 1 Billboard Country Album debuts, State Line and Sinner, the decision to slash everything back to the essence was a sonic decision predicated in large part by the songs he’d written. After 10 years in Nashville, having dedicated a large portion of his life country music, he wanted to cut to the core of what the music meant to him.

He’d also made enough friends, he’d started – organically – writing with Grammy-winner Tyminski, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famers David Lee Murphy and Jeffrey Steele, ACM Award winner Ira Dean and hard country writer Chris Wallin. Wallin’s “Everybody Talks To God,” 20 years without being recorded, was the performance for Lewis’ “Fox & Friends” appearance on Monday. Response to the guitar and string section performance took the song to #2 on the iTunes all-genre Songs chart and the album to #5 on Amazon’s physical sales chart.

“Great country songs prove life can be distilled down into 3- and 4-minute books and movies,” Lewis offers. “This is how people who need to work are actually living their lives. Mistakes get made, consequences happen, hearts get broken – and then you have to deal with that. Frayed, like a lot of the Merle Haggard records in the ‘80s, deals with those things. And ‘Everybody Talks To God’ suggests that no matter what you think, ultimately, and it’s what makes this song great, you’re going to speak to God.”

Having recorded with George Jones, Willie Nelson, Charlie Daniels, Vince Gill, Alison Krauss, Mickey Raphael, the Cox Family and Ben Haggard, Lewis built a singular place in Nashville by absorbing his grandfather’s 8-tracks. As importantly, he’s now maintaining the space for adult music occupied by mid-career David Allan Coe, Hank Williams, Jr and Waylon Jennings.

Mixed by Chris Lord-Algae, the 5-time Grammy-winning engineer captured the warmth of what is becoming Lewis’ most successful tour – his Frayed At Both Ends: The Acoustic Tour -- and left room to let the splinters and reckonings that once made country such a good place to drown one’s sorrows and figure out how to move on from the wreckage one creates stand out.

Stream / download Frayed At Both Ends here.

#ITSAMUSTLISTEN - AARON LEWIS RELEASES "FRAYED AT BOTH ENDS" - A STRIPPED DOWN TAKE ON CLASSIC MID-CAREER HAGGARD/COE COUNTRY

Performance of “Everybody Talks To God” on

'Fox & Friends' Jan. 31

Having had two #1 Billboard Country Album debuts with Town Line and Sinner, Aaron Lewis has quietly made an impact on country music without flexing to let everyone know what a big deal he was. With a decade invested in a genre that’s seen him record with Willie Nelson, George Jones, Charlie Daniels, Vince Gill, Alison Krauss, Mickey Raphael, the Cox Family, and Dan Tyminski and producer Buddy Cannon, the 15-million selling front man of Staind doubled down on "Frayed at Both Ends".

Starker, more acoustic and with the focus on what The Los Angeles Times cited as “his mournful baritone,” Frayed is a meditation on shrinking opportunities, mistakes made, consequences of our actions and squaring up to it all with the dignity it takes to be a full-grown man. Drawing on the tattered reality and stoicism of Merle Haggard, the yearning of David Allan Coe’s "Darlin’ Darlin" era, the ragged fringe of Johnny Paycheck, Lewis collaborated with many of the songwriters who’ve become his friends over the last dozen years for the first time.

“Over the years, you hang out and one thing leads to another, and you’re writing songs,” the deep voiced songwriter explains. “When you’ve got Chris Wallin, Dan Tyminski, Ira Dean, Matt McGinn, Jeffrey Steele or David Lee Murphy sitting there talking, songs just tend to fall out. And when you realize what you've got, you just keep going. These are all men who know country music’s depths, so for all of us, we got to write songs you don’t hear every day.”

That same truth applies to the recording. While co-producing with musical collaborator Ben Kitterman and Ira Dean, they drew on the wealth of top-flight musicians who’ve become core to reflecting the tavern country sound Lewis’ heard on his grandfather’s George Jones, Waylon Jennings and Haggard 8-tracks. Guitarists Tom Bukovac, Biff Watson and Seth Taylor, dobroist Kitterman, acoustic slide and baritone guitar from Sturgill Simpson veteran Laur Joamets, keyboard player Jim Moose Brown, and acoustic guitar/mandolin from Tyminski were the core band.

“The beauty of country music is that often less is more,” Lewis says. “These songs did the work, all we needed to do was support them. These players are so gifted, they can say more in a few notes than a lot of people... It was a privilege seeing them bring these stories and feelings to life.”

With the post-Dust Bowl country of the reap-what-you-sow “Get What You Get,” the broken “Pull Me Under,” the minor keyed double entendre road life lament “Life Between Bars,” the dobro-heavy acceptance lullaby “Kill Me Like You Love Me,” high lonesome memory that can’t be outrun “Waiting There For Me” and the hopeful closer “Someone,” Lewis built on the starkness of “Am I The Only One,” his #1 Billboard Hot Country Songs debut – only the ninth such debut since the chart’s debut in 1958 – of frustration voiced and manifested.

To celebrate Frayed’s release, Lewis returns to Fox & Friends on Jan. 31. With a performance of “Everybody Talks To God” taped at an intimate concert for the troops at Kentucky’s Fort Campbell, Lewis will talk about the new album, his commitment to country music and his stripped down Frayed at Both Ends, The Acoustic Tour.

Mixed by Chris Lord-Algae, the 5-time Grammy-winning engineer made the warmth of the playing and depth in the room undeniable. For fans of Lewis’ haunted, brass tacks kind of country music, this is the essence of what he’s been chasing since arriving in Nashville to make music that honors the roots of his raising. Having invested in the community, the community has become an outgrowth of that love for the splinters and reckonings that once made country such a good place to drown one’s sorrows and figure out how to move on from the wreckage one creates.

Stream / download Frayed at Both Ends here.