Jason Michael Carroll's 2011 CD, Numbers. Photo courtesy of Webster PR.

As the latest addition to Cracker Barrel’s exclusive CD music program, Jason Michael Carroll returns with Numbers, his first collection of new songs since 2009’s Growing Up Is Getting Old. Anchored by his deep southern drawl, Numbers showcases Jason Michael’s honest songwriting with 12 songs unafraid to face the truth.

Jason Michael wrote or co-wrote eleven of the twelve tracks on Numbers, and along with Patrick Davis and Mark Dearnley, serves as co-producer for the album as well. Being tied so closely to all aspects of the project seems to have carried over into a genuine feeling of honesty throughout the collection. On the mid-tempo, heartsick power ballad “Stray,” (co-written with Radney Foster), Jason Michael clearly acknowledges the intentions of the song’s love interest, singing You’re gonna stray and leave me standing alone/ You’re gonna stray, baby, your love’s already gone/ You don’t want to be here, it’s perfectly clear and you think you got it hidden away/ I know you’re gonna stray. The hard country “Can I Get An Amen” (co-written with Rivers Rutherford and George Teren) puts interesting twists on what would have been a more generic redneck anthem with lyrical jabs like, I believe in loud guitars, smoky bars and muscle cars/ pick-up trucks and gun control, as long as they leave mine alone. Compelling stories and the ability to express complex feelings through just the right words are a highlight here as Jason Michael conveys so much with his delivery.

Jason Michael’s voice is rich and full throughout the album as it twists and turns through clever melodies. Opening with the Western-edged Continue Reading

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Jason Michael Carroll photo by David Bean, courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

To be a female celebrity is to undergo a constant evaluation of the latest hair style. Kellie Pickler’s shift from blonde to red and back to blonde? All over the ‘Net. Carrie Underwood’s new ‘do on the CMAs? Lots of folks registered opinions. Taylor Swift’s newly straightened locks? In some quarters, it gets more hits than stories about health care.

Hair is sort of a thing with male singer Jason Michael Carroll these days. When he came to prominence with a mop that wasn’t all that different from, say, a 1988 version of Motley Crue’s Vince Neil, Jason’s rock-star image — enhanced by the Steven Tyler-bred scarves hanging from his mic stand — cut a unique figure in country circles.

With the release of his Growing Up Is Getting Old album earlier this year, he’d mowed it all to a more manageable level. But when he hit the stage at Nashville’s Exit/In on Thursday, Jason evinced an even leaner cut. The back of his hair barely brushes the bottom of his collar, and the worldly soul patch is completely buzzed. The new JMC is cleaner, less brooding and… well, if you didn’t know he was born in 1978, you’d swear he was only 22.

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