Country road

Steve Azar fits the bill as opener on Seger tour


By Scott McLennan ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST
Ever notice how a lot of new country songs sound like old Bob Seger songs?

Bob Seger apparently has. His new album “Face the Promise” actively courts the country crowd as the Detroit rocker serves up a duet with country’s Patty Loveless. And for Seger’s teaming with Kid Rock, the Motor City Mutual Admiration Club turned to “Real Mean Bottle,” a song written by Vince Gill and inspired by Merle Haggard. Seger’s 11th platinum-certified album wasn’t made in Motown; it was cut in Nashville (except for the tune with Rock, which understandably took life in Michigan).

Seger is currently on tour, his first road work in 10 years, and the success of the first leg of shows — including four sold-out nights in Michigan’s Palace of Auburn Hills — prompted additional North American dates through February, including a stop Tuesday in the DCU Center in Worcester.

And just as “Face the Promise” has some country flourish, Seger’s concerts this time out likewise have a country twist, as Steve Azar is opening the dates.

The opportunity is an explosive one for Azar, a singer who enjoyed some success on Mercury Records before leaving to record on his own and more fully explore the confluence of the blues he grew up around in Mississippi and the country music he was drawn to when he came to write songs that told meaningful stories.

Though independent, Azar isn’t unknown, having scored a big hit in 2001 with “I Don’t Have to Be Me (Til Monday)” from the album “Waitin’ On Joe.” Azar’s rising star stalled, though, when he blew out his voice and required throat surgery in 2004.

Azar marked his return with the independently produced and richly textured “Indianola.” The album’s title comes from the area of Mississippi where Azar grew up. His father owned the state’s first liquor store and there bluesmen Eugene Powell and Sam Chapman would convene for jam sessions that became tutorials for the aspiring musician who claims to have started writing songs when he was 10.

Azar’s musical trip back to his roots is paying off.

“My new manager told me I had a shot at a big tour at the end of last year. I just guessed it was Bob. At first I heard I got the first seven dates. But I guess Bob watched from backstage, liked what he saw and we got the rest of the tour,” Azar said when reached at a tour stop in Uncasville, Conn.

Seger may have seen a little bit of himself in the way Azar belts out songs about fidelity to family, faith in some greater good, and frustration with the maddening pace of the modern world. Any resemblance, Azar assured, is purely intentional.

“For me, when I was growing up, there were all the Delta influences. Then I started listening to Seger, Springsteen and Mellencamp. Then I found my way into some of the songwriters like Carole King and Neil Diamond. Basically I was into singers and songwriters who were saying something,” Azar said.

Azar’s music is inevitably cut with noticeable amounts of blues and rock, even as the mood and sound of his work sticks to a country blueprint. Like a traditional country artist, Azar knows how to pull at heart strings and deliver the sort of broken-spirit confessionals many rockers stop just short of singing when baring inner thoughts.

“I’m a problem child for the format,” Azar said. “It’s country. But it’s also blues and rock and roll.”

Azar said he was offered shortcuts, especially when “Waitin’ For Joe” took off. But he turned down the fast cash, opting instead for the long road, claiming the Delta bluesmen who gave him his first shots to perform would roll in their graves had he chosen the wrong path at the crossroads.

Azar recorded “Indianola” for his own Dang imprint. He is selling the record along the Seger tour and will launch a national release in late winter or early spring. The trick, he said, is to combine old-fashioned road pounding with modern technology.

“We want to work with acts that tour and do press and meet people and then use modern technology to stay connected with the people and make the music available,” Azar said.

One listen to “Indianola” and it is clear that Azar has a natural feel for the older ways of the music business. He banged out a dozen diverse tracks (plus two hidden acoustic numbers) that defy the rules of conformity typically placed on a country record. The record reaches a boiling point with “Flatlands,” a scorching soundtrack to a Cadillac ride through Azar’s Mississippi Delta stomping grounds.

Azar said he has had that song in his repertoire for some time, even playing it once when invited to the Grand Ol’ Opry. Though that did not go over so well with Opry host Porter Wagoner.

“Porter said, ‘I thought they played country music at the Opry,’ and I said, ‘Listen to the words.’ I was called the next day and asked to apologize to Porter. I said he asked me to come on the show. I’m not like everybody else. I didn’t apologize. The song got a great response,” Azar recalled (and for the record, Porter Wagoner’s next album is coming out Anti- Records, an arm of the punk-rock-oriented Epitaph label).

Azar also sets himself apart from many of today’s country singers by writing, and co-writing, his own material. There is no better way to make a song sound sincere and honest.

Which is another tip Azar picked up listening to Seger and Springsteen.

“Bob and Bruce write the best country songs,” he said.

Just don’t tell that to all the classic-rock guys.

Courtesy of E.Worcester.com