Known for genuinely gritty lyrics and hard rock anthems, Aaron Lewis is getting back to his country roots with his first album on Dot Records entitled Sinner. Lewis comes out of the gate "with both fists flying" on the lead single "That Ain't Country," where he laments the current state of "Country, if you call it that," and pines for the sound of his honky-tonk heroes. The Bocephus-styled musicality and Lewis' accessible vocals showcase the "pain, heartache and desperation," a bedrock of traditional country that is often missing from the airwaves today.

Produced by country legend Buddy Cannon (George Strait, Merle Haggard, George Jones), and recorded over 16 intense hours at Nashville's Blackbird Studios, Sinner captures Lewis' mindset, a laid back soundtrack that is reminiscent of the genre's most honest and musically adventurous artists. "I'd like to think that Sinner is a newer take on classic, traditional Outlaw Country, Waylon and Merle and Willie, and Hank Jr. and Johnny Cash and all that stuff," says Lewis. "That was the music I heard a kid, and that's the country music that permeated my soul and stuck with me my whole life."

While Sinner may surprise those unaware of Lewis' lyrical depth and vocal authority, hard-core fans of his concerts (which he describes as "a very healthy mix of cowboy hats, baseball caps, tattoos and black shirts") will rejoice in having definitive copies of songs they've been hearing live and on the Internet, some for a couple of years.