Don’t you just really miss country music, sometimes? The shuffles, two-steps and blue yodels, the twin fiddles and sobbing steel guitar. Unadorned and direct, country voices that sing heartfelt songs about real people—songs that soar with hope, crackle with laughter, or just profoundly and completely break your heart.
If you miss the heart and soul of real country music in voices like George Jones, Merle Haggard, and even Charlie Daniels, John Conlee and Hank, Jr., you’re going to love Dennis Ledbetter.
A Louisiana native and a lifelong student of country music (the real stuff), Dennis Ledbetter brings a fresh, but achingly familiar voice to the stage and radio airways. His classic instrumental arrangements and vocal style harken back to country music of the 1970s and ‘80s—when the genre still had its trademark twang and was damn proud of it, thank you very much.
On July 2, 2018 Saint and Sinner Records is releasing a new EP for Dennis Ledbetter. It is a 4 song EP. If you enjoyed the first two CDs you are going to love this one. Country is almost an understatement. The title cut, “It Might Be the Whiskey,” is a new original song from unapologetically country singer, exploring the pain of knowing you screwed up a perfectly great relationship—and now there’s no going back and fixing it. The second cut, “I’ll Let the Bottle Kill Me (Before Her Memory Does),” written by Brad Howard, contains the essentials of a hard-hitting, traditional country song. The third song, and the first single to be released from the EP is “JD’s My Whisky (Not My Name),” a tune that his brother Ken Ledbetter inspired many years ago and was co-written by Dennis Ledbetter and Chris Bellamy. There’s something undeniably satisfying about a cryin’ in your beer country shuffle that sports twin fiddles and a no-frills lead guitar laying down the heartbreak beat. The final song on the EP, “That Ain’t Country,” will explain difference between modern “bro country” music and the authentic article as preached by Conway, Haggard and Jones, this new song from Dennis Ledbetter and Chris Bellamy will spell out all you need to know.
Country radio has fallen in love with Dennis Ledbetter’s music. The debut album, “If You Drive Me to Drinking (I’ll Buy the Gas),”generated five #1 singles on the New Music Weekly internet charts. His sophomore CD, “My Life Is a Country Song,” garnered three #1 singles on the same charts. The 21st Annual Academy of Western Artists nominated Ledbetter in several categories for 2016: Pure Country Male Artist, Pure Country Album, and Pure Country Song for “Open a Vein” and “Motel Blues.” Ledbetter was also awarded the Pure Country Song of the Year for 2017 by the Academy of Western Artists for, “Tell Me I’m Wrong.”
Good songs and stories—the ones that leap through the lines of music to touch your heart with characters that seem as real as the friends and family you interact with every day—aren’t portrayed effectively in shallow, bro-country ditties with a five-note vocal range, predictable lyrics, screaming rock ‘n’ roll guitars and heavy drums.
The kind of country songs that Ledbetter writes and sings are the ones that can be a little tough to get through without tearing up because they’re so incredibly sad and true-to-life. As a country singer and also a songwriter, Dennis opens a vein, and let’s true life stories and emotions flow.
Ledbetter and his Unapologetically Country band are entertaining, yes. But there’s more to their music than that. The simple, yet poignant lyrics, the singer’s unapologetically, stone cold country vocals, and the steely glint of blue eyes that peer out from beneath the wide brim of a real cowboy hat…. These things consistently and completely grab listeners by the heart and pull them into a song.
Ledbetter is a working man—a skilled steam turbine engineer of 42 years who chooses his words carefully before speaking, or singing. His word is his bond, and his trad-country perspective isn’t an act or a costume chosen for a polished, retro CMT video. Dennis has loved country music all of his life. He’s spent years onstage at honkytonks and clubs in the South, honing his craft and earning the years and miles that show in his authentic voice.
Friends and fans will be pleased to hear Ledbetter’s third album, which is now available to radio and available for sale in all digital formats including CD Baby, Amazon, & ITunes.
