Country Boy ; Up-and-Coming Performer’s Eyes Were Opened By Billy Ray Cyrus

By VICTORIA SHOULDIS

Jason Michael Carroll is a storyteller.

Yes, he’s a rapidly rising country singer with more than a dash of rock sensibility and sensitive, pop-poet hair. In fact, he opens tonight for hot country duo Montgomery Gentry tonight at Meadowbrook. But Carroll is also a thoughtful, people-watching guy, who finds meaning in tales – sometimes redemptive, sometimes tragic – of life in America.

At the age of 29, Carroll has had a good slice of success: His debut album Waitin’ In the Country spawned four top-40 singles on the country charts; he has performed more than once at the Grand Ole Opry; and he has honed his songwriting skills with Jewel. But he’s also had a good slice of hardship: a restrictively religious home with a stern preacher for a father; a failed early marriage; and the responsibility of raising four children (three from that first marriage and one from his current marriage).

Growing up in North Carolina, Carroll was forbidden from exposing his ears to the secular music that was captivating his peers. His musical expression – and his developing deeply expressive baritone – was restricted to use in church and school choirs.. Finally, music broke through (in his case, it was Billy Ray Cyrus who did the deed.) From that first exposure Carroll began to take music very seriously, performing at karaoke competitions as he worked days at the mill. His big break came with a win in a singing contest on a local radio station. The station did not, mind you, have contestants come down to the studio to compete – contestants literally sang a song over the phone.

An invitation to join an established country band that had lost its lead singer followed; though that gig was temporary, it helped Carroll begin to navigate his course in the world of rockified- country.

Over the years he’s been mentored by Garth Brooks and Rob Thomas; well-respected producer Don Gehman (he’s produced classic works by John Mellancamp, and Hootie and the Blowfish) stepped in to make his first album broadly appealing while capturing Carroll’s individual worldview.

In his song “Alyssa Lies,” which rose to No. 5 on the country charts, Carroll tells an uncomfortably familiar tale of child abuse and grown-ups who don’t intervene quite early enough. (Alyssa lies/ every day at school/ Alyssa lies . . . /as she tries to cover every bruise).

His sophomore album is due out later this year; In the meantime, he is bringing his country rockability and storytelling to the stage.

Is the story about your dad losing it when you brought music by Billy Ray Cyrus into the house true?

Oh boy. Absolutely. I heard Billy Ray on the radio when I was not at home and I just truly fell in love with the music. My friend finally made me a tape of his album and I brought it home with me. My dad was . . . kind of crazed. You would have thought I had brought home the most vulgar, disgusting music.

You’re a young man now and doing more than okay for yourself. How are things with your parents now?

Very, very good, actually. My dad is no longer a preacher, and he and my mom divorced. It’s ironic really – they got divorced because they supposedly couldn’t stand each other, but now they live like a half mile apart and they spend a lot of time together.

A couple of years ago I got a great voicemail from my mom. She said how there couldn’t be two more proud parents in the whole world. I still have that message.

You came of age when there were a lot of hugely popular styles of music and expression. What do you think it was that brought you to country as opposed to, say, metal or straight-ahead rock or rap?

I listen to everything: country, rock and roll, rap. Aerosmith is my favorite band of all time. I like Tupac Shakur – the stuff he was putting out when he was alive, anyway . . .

Yeah he and Elvis didn’t let death get in the way of putting out records, did they?

Nope. I am sure Elvis and Tupac on are on a beach somewhere sipping margaritas together.

But back to country music . . .

Country is the music I have always related to the best. It seems to be about life. There are so many artists in country who really speak to me, who capture the essence of who I am. I didn’t find that in any other type of music.

What else do you like?

My grandma loves Latin music and she wants me to make an album in Spanish. I have sung in Spanish; I did “Via Dolorosa” – the trail of sorrow – in church and my grandma loved it.

You moved relatively quickly from being a kid becoming belatedly acquainted with popular music to a young man itching to perform popular music. How did that transition happen?

It was the singing in church, actually. I was never a guy who was embarrassed to be in front of a crowd. There are people who don’t want to be noticed, and then there’s . . . me.

You really got a breakthough with a radio contest.

Yes! It was just this thing where you had to dial in and be the right performer to be in the contest. I dialed, it was busy. I dialed, it was busy. I kept dialing. My dad – he was no longer a preacher by then – encouraged me, too.

That interest in telling stories, telling tales that are at once global and personal – that developed from what you listen for in the music of others?

Yes – I know for myself, as much as I like to hear poppy music sometimes, I really overall want to hear something that sounds for real, real life. My mom gave me my favorite compliment of all time after I gave her an advanced copy of my first album. She said “For as long as I’ve heard you sing, I’ve never heard you sing a song that didn’t clearly mean something to you.”

And if people are coming tonight to see you for the first time, what will surprise them the most?

I am definitely always excited to be on stage in front of people and I do everything to make sure everybody feels that – that everybody really gets their money’s worth. This is what I love, and this is my ideal. My ideal is not, you know, necessarily winning a whole lot of awards. My ideal is that for the next 30 or 40 years, I’m still out there playing, and people are still out there wanting to see me play.

(Jason Michael Carroll performs with Montgomery Gentry tonight at 7:30 at the Meadowbrook U.S. Cellular Pavilion in Gilford. Tickets are $29 to $74 and can be purchased at 293-4700 or meadowbrook.net.)

Originally published by VICTORIA SHOULDIS For the Monitor.

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