Lonestar brings classic country hits to Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium: Upstate Beat

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the resurgence of the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium, and how country artists who sold millions of albums in the 1990s — artists like Dwight Yoakam, Clint Black and Travis Tritt — were packing the house.

Well, it turns out that our area isn’t an outlier. Country music from the 1990s is making a serious comeback.

Just ask the members of Lonestar. Starting in 1995, the band spent about a decade at the top of the charts, scoring five gold and three platinum albums and sending songs like “No News,” “Come Cryin’ to Me,” “Amazed” and “Smile” to the top of the country charts.

Lonestar plays at Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium Nov. 8. Band keyboardist Dean Sams said he has definitely noticed a resurgence in Lonestar’s concert crowds lately.

“It’s been interesting over the last couple of years,” Sams said. “The crowds seem to be getting bigger, and the fan base has become very vast. I think people are longing for some of that late ’90s, early 2000s music.”

Lonestar lead guitarist Michael Britt said the reappraisal of the traditionalist 1990s country music doesn’t surprise him at all.

“I think anytime you have a really fertile era where a lot of good music comes out, that’s going to affect a lot of people, even years later,” Britt said. “There are still people that are huge fans of ’70s rock music, for example. I think it was just a really fertile time for country music, and a lot of great songs came out.”

Speaking of a lot of great songs, when it comes to planning their live show, Lonestar has an enviable problem: The band has scored so many hits — more than 30 — that it can’t fit them all into one show. Plus, the band is previewing its new EP, “Iconic, Vol. 1,” which covers rock songs by female performers.

“It is a great problem to have,” said the band’s drummer, Randy “Keech” Rainwater. “We have a lot of No. 1 songs that we’re trying to fit into a show and a new project. And some of the hits we had, those are undeniable; you have to put those in the show. We just try to keep the crowd entertained, and hope that at the end of the night they walk away with smiles on their faces.”

Singer-guitarist Drew Womack rounds out the group.