A seasoned singer/songwriter whose sonic palette is colored by his love for country, Southern rock and R&B, Brice currently finds his music evolving as his rowdy single guy days give way to the joys of marriage and new fatherhood. With the enthusiastic response to such new songs as “She Loves My Country” and “NASCAR Fast,” it is readily apparent his audience loves being along for the ride.
“I played ‘She Loves My Country’ and ‘NASCAR Fast’ the other night and when I finished my set, I went to the signing table and there must have been 150 or more people there waiting in line,” he smiles. “Everybody had so many good things to say. It made me feel so great that they loved the new songs.”
Releasing March 21, “She Loves My Country” is the first taste of Brice’s forthcoming sophomore album, the follow up to his acclaimed 2023 collection Product Of. Surprisingly, it’s the first song he’s ever released that he didn’t write himself, but he couldn’t pass it up because it fit him like a glove. “I love this song because I can relate to it,” he says. “I met my wife when she was bartending downtown at Tin Roof in Nashville, so when I heard the lyric ‘I met a girl at a Broadway bar’ that locked me in.”
Brice was also intrigued by the song’s sonic familiarity. “I’m country to the bone, but I’m rock and roll also and this song is an interpolation of the Puddle of Mudd song ‘She Hates Me.’ They rewrote the lyrics to that song. They kept the same music and same kind of feel but they changed it from ‘She Hates Me’ to ‘She Loves My Country.’ I’ve never been a big fan of an interpolation song, but when I heard this, I was super excited. I’ve played it live and the reaction is uncanny. Every time I play it, it’s like somebody whistles in a chicken house. All the heads come up,” Brice says with a grin.
Another new song that has been getting enthusiastic reaction during his live shows is “NASCAR Fast,” a poignant treatise on life and how quickly it races by that Brice penned with Billy Dawson and Michael Carpenter. “I was on my way to the writing session and was thinking about how long I’d been in Nashville and thinking about how things go by so fast. There’s a lot of correlations between how fast life goes by and NASCAR,” says Brice, who admits that life seems to be speeding along more quickly now that he’s watching his baby girl grow. “There are life lessons to be learned from NASCAR: Don’t be afraid to take chances. Celebrate the good times. There are going to be bad times, but whenever there are wins, don’t be afraid. Celebrate them! Take in the wins, but also take in the journey because you’ll see a lot of things in the middle of the race that you don’t want to miss.”
Brice’s life has been an interesting journey. A native of Sumpter, NC, he grew up singing gospel music in church and listening to a variety of music from Southern gospel favorites The Cathedrals to Linda Ronstadt, Aaron Neville and the Eagles. His love for country music developed early on. “I had my little radio in middle school, and I’d always have it on a country station, listening to Travis Tritt, Clay Walker and Vince Gill. That’s also when Garth Brooks was starting to crush it. I just loved that high energy, so I was really drawn to that.”
During his college years, he gravitated to rock bands, including Pearl Jam, AC/DC and Aerosmith, but it was a Fuel concert that changed his life. “They had a hit called ‘Hemorrhage,’ which was the first rock and roll song I ever learned,” he recalls. “When I went and saw them, it was a killer concert. At that time, I was figuring out what I wanted to do with my life—go to Nashville or stay in school and be a chiropractor. The Fuel show just lit me up! When I left that concert, I said, ‘That is what I’m supposed to do.’”
At 23, he moved to Nashville but didn’t take the usual route to success. Instead of playing the bars on Broadway as most aspiring country artists in Nashville do, he opted to hone his skills in the Florida Keys. “Key West is a big part of who I am as an artist,” Brice shares. “I’ve never been a Broadway guy. I’ve never been big on playing a lot of covers. I’ve always been keen on playing my own music. At the time, I was writing quite a bit of music and I could fill a three-hour set in Key West with 75% of my original music and 25% covers and people would dig it. You’ve got people from all over the world in Key West, so you learn how to work a crowd with all different kinds of people from all different places.”
That showmanship has helped Brice build a devoted audience and his songwriting has not only earned him the loyalty or his fans but also the respect of his peers. He recently signed with Sony/ATV Publishing, and he’s had songs cut by other country luminaries, including Jelly Roll, and co-write the title track of his brother Lee Brice’s new album Me & My Guitar. “Any song I write always has a piece of me in it,” Brice says, who feels more confident than ever in his gifts.
After releasing a six-song EP, then following up with his debut album, Product Of, Brice says he’s learned who he is as an artist. “When you start making music, you start comparing yourself to other people, but I had to stop doing that because I was losing pieces of myself,” he says. “With this record, I’m going to do songs that are truly me. Every one of those songs have pieces of me and it’s how I want to do music. If anything, it made me a little more confident to be Lewis Brice. If somebody asks me, ‘What does your music sound like?’ It sounds like Lewis Brice.”
That sound is propelled by his distinctive voice, an instrument capable of both surprising vulnerability and soul-searing grit. “I’m a passionate singer, and I have to believe what I’m singing,” he admits. “These new songs perfectly represent where I am now in my life. My first EP was about fleeting relationships, heartbreak and crazy nights, but now I’ve graduated from there. I have my little girl and my wife and more direction. I still have some cool heartbreak songs, but the only reason is because I’ve been through it. This new music really shows the real me. I’m very, very fortunate to be able to do what I’m doing and we’re doing well. As long as I can pay the bills and do music, I’m doing alright.”