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Steve Azar

Steve Azar is a roots music artist whose songs are steeped in the influences of the American South. Blending country, blues, folk, and rock flavors, Mississippi-born Azar vivifies his songs of love, perseverance, and the particulars of Southern living with soulful vocals and evocative instrumental work that's dynamic and a fine match for his potent lyrical imagery. Azar's country side was strongest on early albums such as 1996's Heartbreak Town and 2002's Waitin' On Joe, while blues and soul were more dominant on 2009's Slide On Over Here, and 2017's Down at the Liquor Store found him collaborating with a group of veteran musicians who worked with B.B. King and Elvis Presley. Steve Azar was born in Greenville, Mississippi on April 11, 1964. Like many Southerners, he was introduced to music in church, and first wrote songs for church services when he was a boy. Azar was ten years old when he took up the guitar, taking lessons from Sonny Boy Nelson, a blues artist who was a regular customer at the liquor store run by Azar's father. His family was supportive of his ambitions to make music his career, and his father arranged for him to cut a demo in Nashville when he was just 15. While studying business at Delta State University, Azar and his brother formed a band and toured regionally, but the group came to an unfortunate end when one member died by his own hand and another was charged with murder. Leaving the band behind, Azar performed as a solo act; in 1993, he relocated to Nashville, hoping to land a record deal. He signed a contract with River North Records, an independent label distributed by A&M, which released his debut album, Heartbreak Town, in 1996. While two songs from the disc made the country singles charts, "I Never Stopped Loving You" and "Someday," Azar was unhappy with the final product, and when River North went bankrupt in 1997, he was stuck in contractual limbo for two years while he toured and wrote songs until he was able to buy himself out and became a free agent. Azar next signed with Mercury Records in 2001, and his first single for his new label, "I Don't Have to Be Me ('Til Monday)," became a hit, peaking at number two on the country singles charts and crossing over to the pop chart, where it rose to number 35. The song appeared on Azar's second full-length release, 2002's Waitin' On Joe, which included guitar work from Sonny Landreth. (The title song was issued as a single, with a music video that featured an appearance from actor Morgan Freeman.) In 2005, Azar released a single for Mercury, "Doin' It Right," but sales didn't live up to the label's expectations, and a year later he was dropped. Tired of dealing with major labels, Azar started his own imprint, Dang Records, and struck a deal with Midas Records for distribution. After debuting the label with a seasonal tune, "Catfish Christmas," he began work on an album, and the single "You Don't Know a Thing" (which he wrote with Radney Foster) charted on release in 2006, thanks in part to a music video that included a cameo by pro golfer John Daly. (Azar is an avid golfer who regularly appears at charity tournaments and hosts his own annual golf outing to raise funds for Mississippi children's charities.) However, problems with Midas kept the LP, Indianola, from appearing until 2008, while Azar focused on touring during the interim, including 46 dates opening for Bob Seger. Azar shut down Dang, and started over by launching another label, Ride Records, where he would have greater control over marketing and distribution of his releases. Ride reissued Indianola, and in 2009 they brought out Slide On Over Here, which, like Indianola, found Azar adding a stronger blues influence to his music. Two tracks from the album, "Sunshine (Everybody Needs a Little)" and "Moo La Moo," hit the Country Top 40, and for his next LP, 2011's Delta Soul, Vol. 1, he gave fans four fresh songs and new recordings of five tunes from his back catalog; the following year, the album's recut of "Doin' It Right" was used in the Kevin Smith comedy Here Comes the Boom. In 2017, Azar released a special project, Down at the Liquor Store, which was recorded at Club Ebony, a music venue that's part of the B.B. King Museum in Indianola, Mississippi, with Azar accompanied by a band of veteran musicians who had worked with King and Elvis Presley. Azar paid homage to his home state again with the 2020 release My Mississippi Reunion, which featured noted blues drummer Cedric Burnside. The LP, a mix of new performances and remastered tracks from previous releases, included the song "One Mississippi," a song written to commemorate Mississippi's bicentennial in 2019. "One Mississippi" was declared the state's official song in a bill that was signed into law by Governor Tate Reeves in April 2022. Azar has also been named an official Music & Culture Ambassador of Mississippi, and he's the host of a podcast In a Mississippi Minute with Steve Azar, which focuses on the legends and lore of the state he loves.
© Mark Deming /TiVo
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Diskografie

27 Album, -en • Geordnet nach Bestseller

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