While "We Three Kings" may stealthily be a top-tier Christmas song, it's also one the most apocryphal of the lot. The Bible (Matthew 2:1-2) states nothing about the number men or royalty, only that "wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, 'Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.'" But maybe the tune's creative liberties can still be used in other Christmas contexts...
For example, this week, three kings of country music are traversing afar to spread musical holiday cheer with a concert at Spokane Tribe Resort & Casino. All you need to do to join the unofficial early birthday party for baby Jesus is follow the Lonestar.
The three kings of country in question are founding Lonestar members Michael Britt (guitar), Dean Sams (keys) and "Keech" Rainwater (drums). The Texas band — which lands somewhere sonically between pop county and adult contemporary (with a dash of its honky-tonk roots) — boasts 10 No. 1 country hits including "Amazed," "My Front Porch Looking In" and "I'm Already There," The insturmental trio has kept the group going even as former singers like Richie McDonald and John Rich have come and gone. In recent years, Lonestar has been in the groove with former Sons of the Desert singer Drew Womack on lead vocals, even rerecording all their chart-toppers to give them fresh life for the 2023 album Ten to 1. But when it comes time for the holiday season, the band finds its yuletide spirit and tours with a show that blends Lonestar fan favs with Christmas favs.
Before Lonestar gets festive in Airway Heights on Dec. 13, we caught up with Britt to talk about balancing country holiday cheer, how a band is like a train and finding new ground in old No. 1 hits.
INLANDER: What sort of programming should people expect from a Lonestar Christmas concert?
BRITT: Almost half the show is Christmas songs, but we still managed to squeeze in all of our No. 1 songs — all 10 of them. So people are still going to hear all of our big hits.
It's very exciting for us, because we only get to play these songs this time of year, for only about a month. So it's always kind of exciting for us, because we get to work them up again, try to remember all the parts and change things up just a little bit every year so it's not the same.
It's a festive time of year. It's fun playing these songs, because it's outside the box, so we're not bored up there on stage playing the same things over and over.
I guess while most folks can get sick of Christmas music because it's the same stuff every year, but if you're a touring musician, you're playing the same songs every night. So getting to play Christmas tunes must be a relieving change of pace.
Yeah, it's fun for us. I think we have nine Christmas songs in [the concert] out of 22 songs. Some of those Christmas songs kind of sound the same, but over the years, every time we put out a Christmas album, we try to change the arrangements or make them somehow unique to us.
So every Christmas song we have is a little different. You have your fun, happy, silly songs like "Jingle Bells" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," "Jingle Bell Rock," stuff like that. And then we do some more serious stuff, like we do "Little Drummer Boy" and "Mary, Did You Know?" — these more heartfelt and religious-version things. And then we rock out at the end of the show with the Trans Siberian Orchestra's "Carol of the Bells."
Do you have a personal favorite of the holiday lot to play live?
Well, being the guitar player, the "Carol of the Bells" is so much fun, because I get to just kind of rock out at the end of the show.
But one of the favorites, one of my favorite moments in the show, is we do a version, a rendition of "Mary, Did You Know?" that Drew brought when he joined the band. And it is so beautiful. He sings it beautifully, and the whole mood of the song is that kind of slow, loping, ballad-y thing. It's very moving for me on stage every night. And I don't really do much on it — just strum some chords — but, God, just listening to Drew sing that is amazing.
You, Dean and Keech have been playing together in Lonestar for decades now. What's it like having such a long, prolonged musical relationship with two other guys like that?
You know, we take it for granted, but having Drew join the band, he kind of sees it new.
But he fits right in. We never felt like we had to adjust anything when Drew joined the band. And he's so good at listening too. Because that's what it's all about — when you're playing with other people for so long, you're listening to each other for years. And so I can predict what Dean's going to play, when he's going to do it. And it happens all the time. We'll be working up a new song, and Dean and I will just instantly start playing off each other without thinking about it. So that's the beauty and joy of being in a band for this long. We gel very well.
We always equate it to a train. Once the train gets going, it's going to get to the station. We really have to try to screw it up and derail things. And that's the way it feels. Anytime we start playing a song, we just all start playing, and it just rolls down the track and gets to where it's going without a lot of thought.
And is that sort of what led to wanting to do Ten to 1? Just that you've been playing these songs forever, and they've evolved while playing them live over the years?
Yeah. And depending on where the song fits in the show [changes things]. Like "Amazed" became our biggest song, so it became our final song of the set. So we had to make it bigger and more bombastic than it was on the record, which is fun for us to do live. But, yeah, we did want to capture that on Ten to 1.
And then songs that we quit doing live, because for some reason they were just kind of boring or they didn't capture people's attention. So we wanted to rework them for Ten to 1. And that's what we did with songs like "Come Cryin' to Me," which is now our show opener for non-Christmas ones. We changed it up to have a little bit of a more of a Mumford & Sons vibe to it.
Have fans responded well to Ten to 1? Or are some still very precious about the originals?
I'm hearing good stuff, so if there are people complaining, they're not complaining to me. There's always the handful of trolls online that you know won't be happy with anything unless Richie comes back, but we can't control that. All we can control is trying to make people smile and be happy.
Beyond that Texas connection, what makes Drew a fun guy to play with on stage?
Drew's always been a band guy, because he was in Sons of the Desert. Drew and I actually were living in Waco, Texas, in 1990 at the same time, and we played in kind of rival bands. So I've known Drew since before Lonestar ever started. So I was a fan of his, and he's just genuinely one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. He's super professional. I've never heard him have a bad night singing. He's just the most respectful. I mean, I cannot say enough nice things about him. He's one of my best buddies now. And having him want to be here and want to sing like he does, is just fantastic for us. It's almost like having a new lease on life. ♦
Lonestar: Country Christmas • Fri, Dec. 13 at 8 pm • $48-$87 • All ages • Spokane Tribe Resort & Casino • 14300 W. SR-2 Hwy., Airway Heights • spokanetribecasino.com
