AARON BLANTON |
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Aaron is the lead singer of By the Tree. What's really cool is that Aaron has gotten a chance to work with the former lead singer of By the Tree, Chuck Dennie, who produced this album.
I saw By the Tree perform for the first time long before this music project ever entered my head. My church had decided to change-up the Sunday night services for six weeks and to get us all outside the church walls together as a church family to do some things that were new and different and to give the pastors a bit of a summer break.
On one of those breezy blue evenings, the pastor told us to meet down at the Simon Estes Amphitheater by the river downtown to listen to a young Christian rock band called By the Tree. Nobody I knew had ever heard of them because their very first CD had just been released, but I was game. You can't beat a warm Iowa night downtown by the river, no matter how badly a band sounds!
What a night it turned out to be! That amphitheater was brand new and was well worth the trip. It was a wonderful place to see a show and to let the younger kids mix it up with their friends while the teens tuned into the band.
But I couldn't help tuning in to the band as well. They were awesome, and I don't say that lightly. While I don't have an eye for talent like a Randy Jackson from American Idol, I used to work security in the Bay Area of California for a couple of years and I've seen more rock shows than I'd care to count. Because of that, I can usually recognize a special talent when I see one, and By the Tree had that kind of talent, even at the beginning. As they cavorted all over the stage that night, I turned to my wife and predicted, "These guys are going to be big."
And, of course, they have been. They've also been big on Win This War. Not only have they graciously allowed me to use one of the songs from their These Days album, they've also headed into the studio to lay down the music tracks for all the original songs and song covers on Win This War. Eight of the twelve songs on this project are either original songs or new covers of songs by other artists, and By the Tree laid down the tracks on seven of them. They've done great work, and I'm extremely thankful to know them.
Check out By The Tree's Official Website
Thanks guys for all your encouragement and help,
Fred Stoeker
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