Album of the Month (September 2016): Aaron Lewis, ‘Sinner’
The Boot's readers have spoken: Aaron Lewis' Sinner is September 2016's Album of the Month.
Sinner, Lewis' second full-length solo country project and first with Dot Records, is set for release on Sept. 16. The singer-songwriter and former Staind frontman formally announced the record in June, after hinting that it was in the works in the summer of 2015. The disc's first single, "That Ain't Country," is a song that Lewis debuted live in concert back in September of 2014, shortly after he penned the track.
“I’d like to think that Sinner is a newer take on classic, traditional outlaw country — Waylon [Jennings] and Merle [Haggard] and Willie [Nelson] and Hank [Williams] Jr. and Johnny Cash and all that stuff,” Lewis says. “That was the music I heard a kid, and that’s the country music that permeated my soul and stuck with me my whole life.”
In addition to the first single, Sinner contains 10 other songs, including its title track, which features Nelson. Of the 11 tunes in total on the work, Lewis wrote or co-wrote nine of them. A full track listing can be seen below.
Lewis released his first-ever country project, the Town Line EP, in 2011; his debut country disc, The Road, followed in 2012. The artist released seven studio records with Staind before revealing that he felt more at home in the country music genre.
“I don’t really feel like the pi--ed off, angry young man [I was during] my Staind career,” he says. “Life takes many twists and turns, and it leads you places … I felt like it was the best fit for me.”
Sinner is available for pre-order via Amazon and iTunes. The record earned 35.52 percent of votes to take the Album of the Month title, besting new releases from fellow country artists such as Jason Aldean (They Don’t Know), Willie Nelson (For the Good Times: A Tribute to Ray Price) and the Drive-By Truckers (American Band).
Aaron Lewis, Sinner Track Listing:
1. “Sinner” (feat. Willie Nelson)
2. “That Ain’t Country”
3. “Whiskey and You”
4. “Northern Redneck”
5. “Mama”
6. “Sunday Every Saturday Night”
7. “Lost and Lonely”
8. “Story of My Life”
9. “Stuck in These Shoes”
10. “I Lost It All”
11. “Travelin’ Soldier”
More of 2016's New Country Albums