![]() ![]() ![]() The band were early adopters of the internet and social media (they have over a million followers), using a grassroots approach to maintain a presence on the music scene, even when their songs weren’t getting played on the radio as much as they used to. We try to be the soundtrack to all of these life experiences that they’re going through.Sister Hazel have maintained a loyal fanbase ever since they peaked on the charts in the 90s thanks to a DIY approach to touring, marketing, and engaging with their audience. And there’s a really big online community that keeps in touch and makes plans to see shows. We’re very involved with our Lyrics for Life charity, which our fans have really gravitated to. Throughout the years, we’ve done different events like the Hazelnut Hang, where we get together with our fans at the beach and hang out for a long weekend. We wanted the songs to become part of people’s lives. “We’ve always wanted to do more than put out songs and go out on the road. “When we decided to start doing this on our own, we also decided to be as accessible as possible to our fans,” he says. Regardless of which chart it’s on, a top-10 release is still good news, and Newell says that Sister Hazel, which will perform at the Peace Center’s outdoor TD Stage on Friday, can still command those sales because it’s worked hard over the years to maintain a connection with fans. If you listen to country music nowadays, it’s what was on rock radio years ago.” We’re still being true to ourselves, but the format we were lumped into for years has disappeared, and most of our listeners have kind of moved over to the country genre. The main difference is that we started writing with writers in Nashville, and we record our albums there, and you can’t help but be influenced. “Everything we’ve done still has the Sister Hazel sound. “I don’t think we made a conscious shift,” Newell says. Of course, if there is a little more twang in the band’s sound lately, its base of operations is in Nashville, Tennessee, now, so that might have helped. Newell says that the band has always defied easy genre classification and that the country-radio format has simply moved closer to Sister Hazel’s rootsy-rock sound. “Water” actually hit the top 10 on the Billboard Country Album charts, which might come as a surprise to Sister Hazel fans who have never considered the band country at all. This seemed like the best way to do it,” he says. ![]() “Instead of doing a big record every three years, we just decided to put out the songs we were writing as often as possible. Newell adds that the ambitious EP plan is an outgrowth of the band’s desire to get more music out more often. “The first one was called ‘Water.’ The next one is ‘Wind.’ It’s something we’ve never done before, which is rare when you’ve been in a band for 25 years.” “We’re planning on putting out four EPs back-to-back as a larger project called ‘Elements’,” says Ryan Newell, Sister Hazel’s lead guitarist. “Water” is the first step in an ambitious, conceptual plan. It’s a rare band that can say it’s just scored a top-10 hit more than two decades into its career, but that’s what Sister Hazel did when “Water” was released in February.Īnd the band has continued to challenge itself creatively rather than regurgitating the same old hits every night. The band has even managed to flourish as an independent act without a major label, releasing albums on its own Croakin’ Poets label and making waves on the country charts with its newest EP, “Water,” without significantly changing its sound to fit a format. Long after the appealingly rootsy acoustic-electric rock of its biggest hit single, 1997’s “All for You,” drove its album “… Somewhat More Familiar” to platinum status, Sister Hazel has kept on keepin’ on, touring successfully around the world and holding onto a large fanbase long after its late-’90s contemporaries have faded. But that’s what the Gainesville, Florida, quintet Sister Hazel has managed to do. Doing any job for 25 years is pretty impressive maintaining a successful band in a fickle music industry for that long is near-miraculous. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |