NEPA Scene Staff

Staind’s Aaron Lewis plays country music at Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre on March 13

Staind’s Aaron Lewis plays country music at Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre on March 13
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From a press release:

It was announced today that Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum-selling singer/songwriter Aaron Lewis, who is now known for his country music as well as his breakout hard rock band Staind, is coming to the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Township on Friday, March 13 as part of his State I’m In Tour.

Tickets, which are $29.50, $49, and $75, plus fees, go on sale next Friday, Dec. 13 at 10 a.m. at the arena’s NBT Bank Box Office (255 Highland Park Blvd., Wilkes-Barre), ticketmaster.com and all Ticketmaster outlets, and by phone at 800-745-3000.

Throughout his more than two-decade career, whether topping the charts as frontman of hard rock heroes Staind or his second act as a No. 1 artist on the country charts as a solo artist, Aaron Lewis has always been painfully honest in his music.

“That’s all I’ve ever done. My songs have always been me wearing my heart on my sleeve, and my emotions on my sleeve, and my misfortunes on my sleeve, my sins on my sleeve,” Lewis said. “I don’t feel like it would be genuine nor worthy of this crazy ride I’ve been on if it wasn’t.”

He is 100 percent open, as he has to be, about his stunning new collection, the Buddy Cannon-produced “State I’m In,” released by the Valory Music division of Big Machine Records on April 12.

“The songs I wrote on this record, they were some dark times,” he explained. “The state I’m in is not Mississippi, or Texas, or Massachusetts – it’s more about the emotional state I’m in and everything I’ve surprisingly talked about in this interview. I’m always surprised by what comes out of me. I’m always surprised by the overall content of a record. It is a flow of consciousness.”

“State I’m In” is the follow-up to “Sinner,” which went No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums, Top 200 Albums, and Top Digital Albums charts upon release chart and blasts through today’s country music doldrums like a shot of 100-proof whiskey, with the singer making zero compromises with either himself or the restrictions of a format that seems to have abandoned its rougher tendencies in favor of pop and ‘70s rock inclinations largely lacking in grit.

That led Lewis to the most vulnerable record of his career. In the gorgeously melancholy title track, he sings candidly, “I’m still working my fingers to the phone / When the show is over I sit alone / Where the angels and the devils are my only friends / And I get up in the morning and I do it again.”

Lewis, who fronted the wildly successful rock group Staind, has sold 13 million albums worldwide and four consecutive Top 3 debuts on Billboard’s Top 200, including the single “It’s Been Awhile,” which remains the most-played rock song of the decade.