Single Wide Dreamer

When a few friends offered to make a debut recordon him, Nashville songwriter Aaron Raitiere simply agreed to go along with it. In the four years since that first session for what would become Single WideDreamer, the auspicious project has retained its casual charm even as its guest list gradually expanded.Anderson East and Miranda Lambert, who co-produced the album, now appear alongside Nashvillemusicians like Dave Cobb, Natalie Hemby, Ashley Monroe,and Waylon Payne, as well as RobertRandolph, Foy Vance, and Bob Weir.“I think the record kind of made itself, and that was the vibe I was going with,” Raitiere says. “It was just a bunch of friends getting together trying to help me create something, because they thought I needed a record." The first sessions took place in East Nashville, where Lambert had just completed work on her album, The Weight of These Wings. Raitiere gave his producers complete creative control, from curating the songs to suggesting arrangements to adding guest vocals.He even rode into the studio with them everyday. Two years later, to round out the project, Eastand Raitiere reunited in RCA Studio A, ultimately ending up with 18 tracks in all and narrowing them down to 10.With a laid-back, speak-singing delivery, “SingleWide Dreamer” immediately conveys Raitiere’s contentment in living a low-key life. And although every song on the album could be considered a love song in its own way, what really ties them together is his observant writing, which is sometimes reflective, sometimes irreverent, but always inspired by his own experiences.