Partly Cloudy / 37° FCountry star headlining Apple Fest
- Country music performer Steve Azar, who has opened for Carrie Underwood, Tim McGraw and others, will headline Saturday’s Four Flags Apple Festival in Niles. (Photo submitted)
Steve Azar is unusual among his peers in that he can entertain audiences as a solo performer with a guitar, in a small three-piece combo or with a full band. He is also distinctive in that he can enthrall a wide variety of audiences.
During the past two years, he has opened shows not only for Bob Seger, but Carrie Underwood, Tim McGraw, Hootie and The Blowfish, Montgomery Gentry and a wide variety of other artists.
And on Saturday Azar will bring his talent to Niles for the Four Flags Apple Festival.
He is co-starring on The Golf Channel’s series, “Playing Lessons.” The magazine Golf Digest ranks him as one the top-five golfing musicians, alongside his fellow country entertainers Rudy Gatlin, Marty Roe (Diamond Rio) and Vince Gill, plus saxophonist Kenny G.
The next-to-youngest in a family of five children, Steve Azar had music in him from an early age. Home was little Greenville, Miss., where his father owned the state’s first liquor store. Tutored by local blues musicians, Steve began writing songs when he was just 10 years old. That led him to develop as a guitarist. He had his first Nashville recording session when he was 14.
Steve Azar moved to Nashville in 1993. By the end of his second day in Music City, he was offered three song-publishing contracts. Getting a recording contract took longer. After signing with Mercury Records, Steve released what he considers to be his first “real” album, 2001’s “Waitin’ on Joe.” Its breakout single “I Don’t Have to Be Me (‘Til Monday)” has been played more than 3 million times on the radio to date.
Azar made headlines again when Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman agreed to guest star in the chart-topping 2002 video for “Waitin’ on Joe.” Steve Azar worked so hard to promote his first hits that he developed vocal problems in 2003 and underwent surgery in 2004. In 2005, he again hit the popularity charts with his Mercury single “Doin’ It Right.”
In 2006, he formed his own independent label and hit the charts in 2006 with the rocking “You Don’t Know a Thing.” The song also appeared on his acclaimed 2008 CD Indianola. That collection took him back to his Mississippi roots and included “You’re My Life” as another Steve Azar radio single. The Indianola CD subsequently reached No. 1 on XM Radio’s “Country Outlaw” channel.
During the past year, Steve has reorganized his business, forming a new team, expanding his office staff, signing with Sanctuary Artist Management and created a new imprint for his music, Ride Records. Slide on Over Here and “Moo La Moo” are the company’s first products.
