1300 Calories Later, Jason Michael Carroll's Numbers

Jason Michael Carrol
image from  Cracker Barrel's website

Did you know that Cracker Barrel actually has its own record label? The other day I had to google "Cracker Barrel locations" in order to purchase Jason Michael Carroll's new album, Numbers. I met my friend Rachel and her sweet little girl for lunch and as we walked in I shook my head and said to Rachel "the things I'll do for country music...."  After partaking of a biscuit, chicken & dumplin's, green beans, fried okra, sweet tea (all adding up to over 1300 calories, oh no!) and good conversation, I bought the CD, loaded it into the player in the trunk of my car and headed home, speakers blasting.

Country Kibitzer wondering why she's eating at Cracker Barrel when she's on a diet.

This was just the beginning.

 Jason Michael Carrol lives in the Raleigh area, so I've seen him perform three times in the last nine months and have heard at least half of the songs on the album during those performances. I expected to like this album. What was unexpected was my becoming so completely immersed in the album that I missed two separate exits onto highways that could take me home. If you happened to see a chubby but cute blond mama in an old Mercury, singing and dancing in her seat while circling the RDU Airport on August 2nd, after lunch, that was me.

The album opens with a "This is for the Lonely", an uptempo song, with terrific lyrics, that showcases Carroll's beautiful voice. When Carroll hits those low notes, it goes straight to my toes. Of all the songs on the album, they definitely chose the right one to start with. I'd like to hear "This is for the Lonely" on the radio.

JMC performing "This is for the Lonely" at UNC-Pembroke.

As videos recorded from the audience go, this one has decent sound.

Numbers, the first single off the album, has grown on me over the last few months. QDR, our local country station, has played it with such frequency that my original wall of resistance crumbled. That was the song I was belting at the top of my lungs as I missed the exits to the highway.  Still, the subject matter is perplexing, but who cares? It's a pretty song.

A fan made video for "Numbers" with photos of JMC in concert. 

"Numbers" is followed by a spiritual but sad "Ray of Hope", a song about loneliness and prayer. It is a quiet and lovely song that many people will be able to relate to.

"Meet Me in the Barn" is the party song on the album and I'm thrilled to finally have a recorded version to dance around the kitchen to. I've heard him perform "Meet Me in the Barn" three times with his band, so was taken by surprise when toward the end of the song a female voice enters the mix. The addition of the female voice is great but it's unclear who the woman singing is. Does anyone know? This song was supposed to be the first single from the album, but due to another song about a barn being released by Trace Atkins at the same time, they decided to release the song "Numbers". I do hope "Meet Me in the Barn" makes it to radio because it makes me smile.

Another good recording from the UNC-Pembroke show by the same fan.

"Meet Me in the Barn" performed without the female vocalist mentioned above.

Another entertaining song is the quirky "Can I Get an Amen", an odd and unexpected political song. It sports lines like "I believe in equal pay, if the job's the same why pay somebody less. It don't make sense. And I believe in women's rights, but I ain't gonna lie, I do like a short, tight dress." and "I believe in loud guitars, smoky bars and muscle cars, pick-up trucks and gun control, as long as they leave mine alone." The originality of having a gospel choir accompany him on this type of song is disarming and caused me giggle until I teared up with happiness. Finally, a song about being a moderate redneck. Beautiful!

The remaining six songs are all about relationships.  They range in quality from OK to good. He performed "Let Me" and "Last Words" at Rapids Jam and I enjoyed them live. The weakest one is "My Favorite" which is just too schmaltzy. "Stray" is interesting but it's about knowing that your partner is destined to cheat. Oy. What a bummer of a topic. According to the dates on YouTube videos, "Stray" (click for info) is a song Carroll has been performing for some time.  Apparently he wanted to put it on his first album but the record label refused.  If he's been performing "Stray" for this long it was probably a great decision to finally record it.

"Stray"

He closes the album with his hit from a few years ago, "Alyssa Lies". I have seen grown men cry during this song at his show. It's a good one.

If you like Jason Michael Carroll's voice I suggest going to Cracker Barrel and buying the CD, but learn from my mistakes. Don't overeat! Tonight I had carrots, celery, and pickels for dinner.

  

Jason Michael Carroll: Impressions from a Small Local Show.

Friday night, March 18th, Jason Michael Carroll, our local country music star, appeared at Crossroads Entertainment Complex in Wake Forest, NC.  Mary Selvidge and Will Guyton, two emerging local singers, opened for him.

There was not a huge crowd on Friday to see JMC, but the ladies were enthusiastic. Jason Michael Carroll is the handsome hometown hero with bambi eyes, a big white smile, and a deep manly voice that can send shivers right down to the knees, so who can blame them (us)? The enamored women, ranging in age from 12 to 120 and of all shapes and sizes, crowded around the stage, passed him notes, money with requests on it, and had him sign autographs. In return they received friendly and occasionally intense eye contact, handshakes and the occasional hug or kiss. He is a very energetic performer and as much as I'm sure the admiring eyes of all those women must feed his ego, he gives back to his audience.

The two hour performance was wonderful. He sang his hits, some new material, and a few covers. Any criticism that comes later in the article should be read in the context that I really like Jason Michael Carroll. When he sang "Where I'm From" and "Alyssa Lies" it drew a tear. When he sang "I Can Sleep When I'm Dead" we all laughed, shouted out the lyrics and jumped up and down with him (this is silly but rather fun). He did a memorable cover of Garth Brooks "Much to Young to Feel this Damn Old". He is talented and I'm looking forward to seeing him again at Rapids Jam (Roanoke Rapids, NC) in June.

Video for "I Can Sleep When I'm Dead"
 He said (maybe as a joke) when he started the show that he'd take requests on $20 bills. I didn't see any $20s go up there, but I sent up a request on a $5 for "Meet Me in the Barn" a perhaps cliche but rather sexy song he had intended to release as his first single from the new album. According to a blog post by Billy Dukes, a DJ at 94.7 WQDR, Carroll saw that Trace Atkins was releasing a barn related song at the same time, "Brown Chicken, Brown Cow", and didn't want to compete with the blond powerhouse for the attentions of country radio. As anyone who is paying attention knows, "Brown Chicken, Brown Cow" is a huge flop, Trace Atkins actually apologized to fans for it and lamely blames the songwriters for telling him it is a surefire hit. I can't predict whether "Meet Me in the Barn" would have been a hit, but it would not have been an embarrassing flop. My friend and I saw him perform "Meet Me" at the Country for Kids concert in November and enjoyed it. When he played it again on Friday, we remembered the words from November. It's a very catchy song. I hope it's at least on the new album.

Carroll singing "Meet Me in the Barn". All videos I found were fan recorded from shows. This one captures his energy and had the best sound of those available.

Carroll sang his newly released single "Numbers" and there were already people singing along. I know many JMC fans will strongly disagree, but I don't like the song "Numbers". It is pleasant to the ear, but don't find anything to connect to among all of those numbers in the lyrics. Is it a love song? He gives a girl a ring. Is it a Christian song? It has references to the Book of John and the Second Coming. Is it about Kabbalah? (Just kidding.) I do hope that Jason Michael Carroll becomes famous enough sometime soon to be Elmo's guest on Sesame Street. The chorus of this song is only a few word changes away from being a perfect children's song. This may seem like a mean thing to write, but you never know. Maybe Carroll will make a wildly successful children's album all inspired by what seemed at the time to be a snarky comment by a nobody blogger.

"Numbers"

In addition to songs we already know, he sang a couple songs that are in the works for the new album.  I thought the one called "My Favorite" was too sappy, but the song he sang before "My Favorite" was interesting. He didn't give us the name of this song. He said that he is debating whether or not to include this title unknown song on the new album. I gave a resounding hoot when he asked the crowd to weigh in. I liked this song because it is a little more sophisticated than the other three songs I've heard from the upcoming album. The only thing, apart from the words George St. and New York, that I remember about this title unknown song is that I want to hear it again.

Alyssa Lies, Zahra Baker, Maimonides, and Self Control

Read to the end. I'm giving away a CD.

I've been listening to quite a bit of Jason Michael Carroll (JMC). He's performing in the Country for Kids concert to support N.C. Children's hospital on November 18th, together with James Otto, Clay Walker, and Rodney Atkins. I've made a nice mix of their best songs to get me in the groove.  It's a little pre-concert routine I have.


Lately when JMC's "Alyssa Lies" comes up in the shuffle I can't help but tear up. Assuming he plays this song at the concert, there isn't likely to be a dry eye in the place. Many of us are going to be thinking about the sad search for the Zahra Baker, who has been missing a month from the Hickory, N.C. area. The fact that Zahra Baker has battled cancer, which resulted in her losing her leg and partial hearing, and that the concert supports a childrens hospital, is going to hammer home the sad circumstances of her recent life and assumed death from abuse. There is a certain communal guilt in stories like hers, and one that is expressed in the song. If you want to read an article detailing how Zahra was treated in the public setting of her neighborhood, read this article from the Winston-Salem Journal.


The song isn't new, but if you haven't heard it, Alyssa Lies tell the story of a father who takes a couple days to understand that his daughter has a new friend who comes to school full of bruises. He decides to go to the school the next day to report what he has heard but it is too late. The child has died.  This story isn't far fetched.  Neighbors and family reported Zahra's abuse to social services but ultimately not enough was done to help her.


It makes me question my response to something I witnessed on the beach this summer. There was a group of adults and their kids sitting nearby, listening to music and playing in the water. Then all of a sudden a father starts yelling at his eight year old son because he dumped sand on his mother's feet and towel, puts him over his knee and proceeded to spank him on his bare tuchas, a handful of smacks. I shook my head and moved my chair away. Others shook their heads and glared at them. My sister-in-law, an attorney, told me that I should have called the authorities, but on what grounds? Spanking is legal in South Carolina. The man wasn't beating his son. He humiliated his son in public and proved to all the world that he's a humorless father with a terrible temper and weak parenting skills, but he didn't damage the boy physically.


Now, looking back, I ask myself, if that father was angry enough to spank his kid in front of everyone on the beach for something so trivial, what does he do when the child truly misbehaves?  To this day I'm not sure what I should have done.  Should I have spoken up? "Hey there! Take a deep breath and get a grip, Mister."? Perhaps.


I was reminded of this incident further during a Jewish ethics class I take once a week. We were discussing the characteristics of an ethical person.  Maimonides, a renowned Jewish philosopher from the Middle Ages, said that anger is one character trait that we should avoid completely, even in situations where anger would be a normal response.  "Therefore, [the Sages] instructed us that one should distance himself from anger so much so that one accustoms himself not to feel even things which [would ordinarily] incite one to anger. And this is the ideal path."  To apply this to parenting, Maimonides says that if one needs to act angry to get a child's attention, that's OK, but one shouldn't actually be angry. Why? One reason is that when people are very angry, they do irrational things. Their wisdom and good judgement escapes them.


But the culture of using corporal punishment is not based on anger. Anger escalates it and ultimately is what kills children, but if we take the Montgomey Gentry song  "You Do Your Thing" that says "I ain't gonna spare the rod, Cuz that ain't what my daddy did, And I sure know the difference between wrong and right" it shows a rationally made parenting decision. One of my graduate school professors tells a story about how she learned basic carpentry.  She misbehaved in a way her father found so egregious that he had her go out to his workroom and use his saws, drills and sand paper to make a paddle that he later beat her with. It was obvious from the telling of the story that the memory of her father's cold cruelty was far more significant than any memory she had of the lesson learned. An angry parent who inflicts pain as the standard consequence for misbehavior is not going to be able to make good decision regarding the intensity of such a punishment. A parent who isn't angry, and still uses pain as a method of punishing or training a child, is either a bit of a sadist or sadly misguided by family tradition.


One of my favorite parenting songs is  "Watching You" by Rodney Atkins, who is also performing at the Country for Kids concert. His song sweetly states that our children see how we behave and behave accordingly. In the song, the boy uses a swear word and tells the father he learned it from watching him, and when the boy prays, and the father realizes that the boy’s faith comes from watching him as well.


What part of our behavior do we want to see reflected back at us when we visit our children's households? How are we going to prevent sad stories like Zahra's from happening over and over again? I bet that some people don't think that these things are connected, but they are. Our tempers and methods of discipline are on a continuum.  It's up to each one of us to decide where we are along that line and if we're really comfortable with how our behavior could ultimately affect our children and our children's children.

To promote discussion, I'm giving away the latest CD of one of the four artists performing at the Country for Kids concert, James Otto, Jason Michael Carroll, Clay Walker, or Rodney Atkins.  Leave an interesting comment on this subject. Extra credit goes to the writers who uses a musical reference in their comments. I'll announce the winner on Monday Nov. 15th. The winner chooses which CD they want. If the winner doesn't want a CD I'll make an equivalent donation to N.C. Children's Hospital in thier honor.

Oy, They Got Me. Facebook has Changed My Consumer Behavior.

Lately my Facebook page has more posts from bands, musicians, and radio stations than friends.  A friend from my high school class, Seth Goldstein, is an expert and entrepreneur in the area of social media.  He is definitely on the leading edge while I am following far in the rear. He sometimes posts his thoughts on social networking and advertising. Seeing these posts made me realize that people are thinking long and deep about something most of us just consider a nuisance. I say to myself, "He isn't talking about me. I'm never clicking on any of those FB ads. Those advertisers think they've got my number, but they consistently miss the mark." I even had confirmation. A while back, probably because I googled horseback riding lessons, all of the ads on my FB page became horse related.  I'm not a horsey kind of gal. I'm actually a little afraid of horses. These horse related ads persist, months later.

Then, the other day, an ad for Sean Patrick McGraw popped up. I was skeptical but I couldn't resist. I clicked. I listened to the one song I could listen to on his website, "My So Called Life", and the next thing I knew I was spending 99 cents.  I am a very impulsive and loose music purchaser, so let's not overthink this purchase, but I am going to concede that they got me. I even "liked" him. Now today, I see his status is "My So Called Life" hits country radio TODAY. Call your local stations!!" I don't call radio stations to make requests but, dang, I have been sucked right into his little marketing ploy.

I think of the time I bought a t-shirt and koozie from Joe Nichols. He posted something about his website's merchandise sale, like he's doing his fans a favor.   I wanted a t-shirt but he didn't have my size at his concert. I went to his website, found my size, added the koozie (which I do love) and typed in my credit card number. I don't regret that purchase, but I wouldn't have made it if it hadn't been for that post.

Other examples are Toby Keith's "Bullets in the Gun" and Kenny Chesney's "Hemingway's Whiskey", two new albums being released within a few days of each other. I see both artists' posts, or rather, posts by their people. They are promoting their albums ad nauseum and I bought both albums within a week of their releases.  This is very uncharacteristic behavior. Usually I download albums in pieces.

Now, to my surprise, I find myself occasionally voting in a peoples' choice award called The ACAs (American Country Awards).  A few of the nominated artists encourage their fans via FB posts to vote for them at least once every day. I rarely do things like vote in online contests. It requires registering initially, signing in each time, and voting over several pages.  I have always assumed that there is some very obsessive group of fans to whom such tasks were automatically delegated. That was not my job.

I've had enough. I'm about to hide the posts of all of the artists I've "liked" on FB, apart from the ones who do the posting themselves and occasionally say something mildly interesting (and I'm using the word "interesting" loosely).  Dierks Bentley, Jaron, Jason Michael Carroll, Jace Everett and Joe Nichols will make the cut .  The first one to be blocked is Jason Aldean.  "Vote for this. Download this. Buy this. Request this." That's enough, Mr. Aldean. Sing a good song, and I'll listen.

I've successfully avoided the distractions of Twitter but am considering giving it another shot.  I've heard a number of artists talk about how they like communicating with their fans via Twitter and am a little curious. Am I just asking for it?

It's Oct. 29th. The post's title has been changed to reflect that FB is the social networking website I use. So far I've hidden Trace Adkins, Toby Keith, Kenney Chesney, and Jason Aldean.  Now that I'm paying attention, I will applaud Dierks Bentley, The Band Perry and Lady Antebellum for making and effort on Facebook to connect with their fans in addition to their fan's wallets.