Aaron Raitiere is a lyricist, performer, and visual artist from Danville, Kentucky

He shared a 2019 Grammy for co-writing “I’ll Never Love Again” with Lady Gaga, Hillary Lindsay, and Natalie Hemby for A Star Is Born. (He co-wrote it in about 30 minutes on his first-ever trip to Los Angeles.) He’s also placed cuts with Miranda Lambert, Ashley McBryde, Lori McKenna, the Oak Ridge Boys, Lone Bellow, Randy Rogers Band, Chris Shiflett, Midland, Brent Cobb, Shooter Jennings and more.

Raitiere’s latest single “Dear Darlin’'' is produced by Miranda Lambert and his college friend and longtime collaborator, Anderson East. Co-written with Jon Decious with Waylon Payne on background vocals, a listener is treated to a searing (and sort of funny) letter to an ex (“Like a sailboat on the ocean / My world was yours to take / ‘Til your wind became an anchor / And my ship just up and sank”.

“It's a detailed description of a particular lady we know that had been particularly mean to a particular man we know and we decided to write her a letter in his defense,” explains Raitiere. “I remember Miranda kept saying “Keep it country!” That's the reason it's so sparse and talked out. It’s a story of heartbreak, loss, and toxicity in a relationship.”

Raitiere and East first met in a songwriting class at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro about 15 years ago, and East held firm to his promise to record him someday. When East was discovered by esteemed producer Dave Cobb at a writer’s night in Nashville, Raitiere was enlisted to co-write some new material for East’s next album. Consistently satisfied with the results, Cobb then signed Raitiere, who was 30 at the time, to his first publishing deal.

An avid reader, Raitiere names Edward Abbey, John McPhee, and Delia Owens as among his favorite authors, while musically he cites artists ranging from Raffi to Dave Van Ronk to Too $hort. Among his greatest influences is Shel Silverstein, a master of wordplay and storytelling who established himself as a Nashville songwriter, author, and visual artist. A talented illustrator himself, Raitiere often posts his original sketches to Instagram and hopes to mount an exhibit in Nashville sometime in the future.

“I’ve never been great at anything but I’ve always been pretty good at everything, I think,” he says. “I’m lucky as hell, too. Once you have some luck in anything, then you start taking it a little more seriously.”