Pittsburgh's Aris Paul Band wins national honor for best rock act

Pittsburgh musician Aris Paul delved deep into family history for his song, “Better Man’s Shoes,” and ended up winning a national award for his band.

The Aris Paul Band received best rock song honors in the recent Hollywood Music in Media Awards.

“I had no expectations,” Paul said. “I was stunned when we were even nominated.”

He didn’t even stay up to watch the awards livestream on Jan. 27.

“It was at 11 or 12 o’clock. I was in bed — I had to work the next day,” he said. He found out by checking his phone the next morning.

Winning was made sweeter for Paul and his family because “Better Man’s Shoes” is a tribute to his late maternal grandfather, Herbert “Bing” Kosanovich, a veteran of both World War II and the Pittsburgh steel mills. Paul, 29, was 10 when Kosanovich died.

To accompany the song on YouTube, Paul wrote this tribute: “A dignified, quiet man who served his country during WWII and was awarded 7 bronze stars for his heroism. A man who spent his life working in a Pittsburgh steel mill to provide for his family. A man who trained as a boxer, sang in the opera, and stood as a pillar of the southside serb community. A man who treated all men and women fairly regardless of creed or color … A real man.”

“The family is very proud of it,” Paul said. “We play it loud in the house, because we feel like he’s listening.”

Both sides of Paul’s family have deep roots in Pittsburgh’s South Side.

“Everything we’ve done in the past 100 years has been within 10 blocks on the South Side,” he said.

Paul lives in a house that’s been in the family for generations. His father, Paul Pantelas, was a touring guitarist in the 1970s and ’80s and the family also owns Excuses Bar & Grill, a venerable South Side blues bar.

Kosanovich was a crane operator at the Jones and Laughlin mill “right across from the bar,” Paul said.

The current iteration of the Aris Paul Band has been together since 2018. The trio comprises Paul on guitar and vocals, Matt Scott on bass and Aaron Wagner on drums and vocals. Its sound melds rock, jam, blues, funk, country and metal.

Prior to the shutdown, the band played at Excuses and other local haunts like Club Cafe and Mr. Smalls Theatre, and in cities such as Nashville, Knoxville, New York and Boston.

Their last live show was with Raelyn Nelson, granddaughter of Willie Nelson, and they were planning a cross-country tour when the shutdown hit.

“It took a year to plan and one afternoon to cancel,” Paul said.

Although the HMMA award is the band’s first national recognition, Paul won the 2016 WYEP/Dos Equis singer-songwriter competition for his song, “Ramblers Creed.”

This year’s HMMAs also recognized another Western Pennsylvania band. “Unforgiving Tree” from Westmoreland County-based Derek Woods Band took honors for Americana/Folk/Singer Songwriter Song of the Year.

The Aris Paul Band’s album, “Ghosts,” charted at No. 11 for the week of Jan. 30 on the Roots Music Report’s Top 50 Rock Album Report.

Paul said the band also will be featured in the March issue of Relix, a print and online magazine that focuses on live and improvisational music.

Until live music venues reopen, they’ve been doing livestreams whenever they can.