Today's Pick

Sunshine can be a metaphor for many different feelings, and in Steve Azar's case, it's the realization that after searching for so long, he's finally found his true love. For his new video, "Sunshine (Everybody Needs a Little)," he makes his way through the nighttime streets of Nashville to get home just in time to watch his sleeping beauty wake up. To him, her dark hair draped across his pillow means he finally got it right, while the morning breaking through his window reveals that she really is the one. With Azar's careful vocal delivery and a peaceful rhythm, this track would definitely be a sunny way to wake up.
The country musician Azar grew up along the silted riverbanks of Greenville, Mississippi, near the Arkansas/Louisiana state lines. His love affair with music began early. For Azar, a veteran who's craft likely still feels like new, making music is a compulsion. His songs come in spurts, and are often far between, but fans can sense the time, feeling and spontaneity put into the pieces he releases. The second single, is a ballad sweeter, softer and achingly powerful like few on country radio. It's a laid-back groove-filled number from his fantastic new album "Slide On Over Here." Following on the heels of the top 40 hit "Moo La Moo," a catchy and fun number, Azar changes attitude to a love song in the true sense of the word. The song is an ode to his Sunshine – a tome of what she means to him, and his words invoke images of the summer sunshine pushing away a bleak dawn. Azar channeled his softer side with this ballad about finding that special someone. "I haven't written many love songs, but this one feels really special to me," said Azar. "It can be about any special relationship that brightens up our life. Whether it's new, or one that's been around for years. And, who doesn't need a little sunshine now and then, especially in today's troubled world."
"It's playing in heavy and medium rotations in a lot of markets," he said about "Sunshine." After moving to Nashville to pursue a career in music, he has made a living with the kind of lyrical outpourings rare in the genre, both whimsical and lovestruck, heartfelt and party-going. His words sound of one who has been writing for nearly 20 years, and the ability to mix cliché with lyricism impresses even more. The now 46-year-old Azar proves that age has not stripped him of any of his vocal prowess, as he uses the soft guitar strumming and an oh-so-perfect harmonica to compliment to sultry cool that he brings with a half-spoken vocal. The song "Sunshine" is about a protagonist obviously in love, and the effect comes through not only in the lyric, but in the melody and vocal as well. The album "Slide On Over Here" is the most emotionally complex one the artist has ever crafted. The sweetly melodic "Sunshine" is as pretty a love song as Azar has ever sung.