The members of Lonestar are (L-R): guitarist Michael Britt, keyboardist/producer Dean Sams, drummer Keech Rainwater and lead singer Cody Collins
Keyboardist/producer Dean Sams says his band Lonestar’s new album is the most collaborative project the country/rock group has made to date. The release came together during a two-and-a-half year span that started with the bandmembers co-writing and arranging together in Sams’ personal studio in Nashville. The first cuts were tracked and mixed by engineer Justin Niebank at Sound Kitchen (Franklin, Tenn.), which also hosted later mixing sessions with the band and engineer Jeff Balding, who used his own Pro Tools HD5 rig and Genelec 1031A monitors.
Some Party tracks were recorded in The Tracking Room (Nashville) by Niebank, and still more recording and mixing went down in Blackbird Studio D. It all happened in segments while the band balanced the recording process with concert commitments and Sams’ other production work. The final album, out now on Saguaro Road Records, includes 10 tracks; two bonus songs are added to the version distributed by Walmart. Lonestar also went back into Sams’ studio and recorded acoustic versions of six of their hits for a limited-edition EP that will go to QVC customers who buy the album. “To be honest, whether we sell 5 million records or five records,” Sams says, “this is the most proud I’ve been of any record we’ve ever done as a band because we did it as a band.”
