Jake Owen's 2011 CD, Barefoot Blue Jean Night. Photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

Though Jake Owen found success with his previous blend of country/rock stomp on hits like “Eight Second Ride” and “Tell Me” off of 2009’s Easy Does It, he was left seeking a more personal sound when working on his new project, Barefoot Blue Jean Night. Teaming up with Producers Tony Brown (George Strait, Reba McEntire), Joey Moi (Nickelback) and Rodney Clawson (writer of such hits as Big & Rich’s “Lost In This Moment”), Barefoot Blue Jean Night takes a more reflective approach than its two predecessors, offering a more intimate look at the singer.

5 Things You Don’t Know About Jake >>

Crisply produced, Barefoot Blue Jean Night is tied together with radio-ready choruses, hook-laden electric guitar melodies and songs about women, life’s lessons and a few good times. On the lead single and pop-leaning title track, “Barefoot Blue Jean Night,” the Florida native’s slight southern drawl sounds at home on the summer beach song amidst acoustic guitars, subtle drum programming and a couple well-placed Whoa-oh-ohs in the chorus. We were shining like lighters in the dark in the middle of a rock show, Jake sings with attention-grabbing imagery and a touch of nostalgia. The laid-back, standout song “Heaven” opens with sentimental piano as his smooth delivery intertwines thoughtfully with the notes. Well, there’s a place that they call heaven/ Just south of town way up on a hill, he sings with easygoing measure on the sexy love song. This same seasoned experience also extends to other songs like the traditional-based, “The Journey Of Your Life,” where Jake recalls his Grandfather’s words, singing possibly the album’s best line, On the straight and narrow path you need to learn to bend.

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While Barefoot Blue Jean Night succeeds in providing a few softer looks at Jake, this is not to say the collection doesn’t include a healthy dose of amped-up guitar work and banging drums. Toward the end of the album, the classic rock-sounding “Nobody Feelin’ No Pain” feels similar to Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “Takin’ Care of Business” as Jake cuts his way through distorted guitars and tasteful, bluesy piano leads to tell the story of how the hotel on a tour stop turned into a full-blown party. Well, 2 a.m., room 509/ We were all still good to go/ Well, we damn near blew the speaker out/ Of that alarm clock radio, Jake sings with a self-assured and confortable delivery. On the up-tempo, country/rock “Wide Awake,” (written by Brett Eldredge, David Lee Murphy and Rivers Rutherford) Jake passionately sings, And I’m wide awake/ Thinking ‘bout you baby/ I’m wide awake/ And I’m going crazy, through the chorus over big guitars and a strong piano melody.

Barefoot Blue Jean Night features more songs written by Nashville songwriters than on Jake’s previous albums. However, Jake did co-write the closing song, “The One That Got Away” with Dallas Davidson and Jimmy Ritchey. Here, he opens up about a long gone lover that still haunts him, singing, We wrote our names in the sand/ Under a star-soaked sky/ But they disappeared just like she did/ With the rising tide. Jake’s personal touch on this song is evident, but his dedication to developing his sound is felt throughout the album as it works to tie the entire set together. Barefoot Blue Jean Night succeeds in this way as a rich collection that provides the step needed to display Jake’s substantial growth as an artist.

Jake Owen’s “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” is one of this summer’s biggest songs – have you used it as the soundtrack to your beach weekend?

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Garth Brooks photo by Mark Tucker, courtesy of Pearl Records.

Spurs, chaps, dust, cheering crowds and angry bulls. They call the thing rodeo, to quote a Garth Brooks song, and Championship Bull Riding sets the scene for this weekend’s edition of GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown with host Nan Kelley.

Country music’s love affair with the rodeo is well-documented. Reba McEntire and Chris LeDoux both participated in the sport prior to their careers as country singers, and Chris was a particular inspiration for Garth’s very first hit, “Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old).” It’s hardly the only rodeo-themed song to make the grade in country. George Strait had “Amarillo By Morning” and “I Can Still Make Cheyenne,” Moe Bandy found success with “Rodeo Romeo” and “Bandy The Rodeo Clown,” and Jake Owen played with rodeo culture for the title of his hit “Eight Second Ride.”

Nan was in Window Rock, Ariz., for a CBR event at the Navajo Nation Fair, and she met up with plenty of the pros. Among her guests this weekend are professional bull riders Ardie Maier, Clint Craig, Jarrod Craig, Luke Kelley and Chandler Bounds — and the Navajo Nation President, Joe Shirley, Jr.

Top 20 Country Countdown counts down the week’s top country videos from No. 20 to No. 1 as voted by viewers on each week on GACTV.com. A new countdown premieres every Friday at 8 p.m. ET on GAC and airs again Saturdays at 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. ET; Sundays at 1 p.m. ET; and Mondays at 10 a.m. ET. Viewers can vote for their favorite videos, as well as purchase Top 20 artists’ albums and ringtones at GACTV.com.

THIS WEEK’S CHART:

1. Carrie Underwood “Undo It”
2. Blake Shelton “All About Tonight”
3. Chuck Wicks “Hold That Thought”
4. Reba McEntire “Turn On The Radio”
5. Miranda Lambert “Only Prettier”
6. Darius Rucker “Come Back Song”
7. Sugarland “Stuck Like Glue”
8. Katie Armiger “Leaving Home”
9. Toby Keith “Trailerhood”
10. Laura Bell Bundy “Drop On By”
11. Chris Young “Voices”
12. Rodney Atkins “Farmer’s Daughter”
13. Little Big Town “Little White Church”
14. Randy Montana “Ain’t Much Left Of Lovin’ You”
15. Trace Adkins “This Ain’t No Love Song”
16. Gary Allan “Get Off On The Pain”
17. Danny Gokey “I Will Not Say Goodbye”
18. Kellie Pickler “Makin’ Me Fall In Love Again”
19. The Band Perry “If I Die Young”
20. Billy Currington “Pretty Good At Drinking Beer”

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Jake Owen photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

Wednesday marks exactly a year since Jake Owen released his sophomore album, Easy Does It, and it’s been a winner for him. Thanks to the hits “Eight Second Ride” and “Don’t Think I Can’t Love You,” his profile has risen within country music, and he’s clearly staking his claim to fame.

He’s not above playing around with that fame, either, like when he tweeted “Let’s get naked” to fans back in October. A short bit later, he noted that he’d “never had so many responses in my life.”

But even though Jake plays around with the celebrity he’s created, he insists that it’s not his primary motivation as an artist.

“You have to love what you do,” Jake told The Zanesville Times Recorder. “A lot of people put more emphasis on how big of a star you can become, how much money they have in their bank account.”

But, he added, in his view “it’s about the music and being creative and entertaining people, that’s what I really enjoy. Other things like fame and money, that comes along with it, but I don’t think you can strive for that.”

Underscoring that attitude, when he’s not touring, Jake is pretty much a home body, hanging out with his bulldog, Vern.

“I don’t get out too much,” he said. “If I do, that’s a feat in itself. There’s places on the road I look forward to, but when I’m home it’s usually only for a couple days, two or three days at a time, [so] I like to spend time at my house and with my dog. I like being home.”

Jake will be making his home in Ohio this upcoming weekend. He plays Zanesville on Friday and Lima on Saturday.

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Jake Owen photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

By triggering his early career with “Somethin’ About A Woman” and “Don’t Think I Can’t Love You,” Jake Owen made a strong connection with female fans. And he seemed to be courting them again with the sexual references in his current hit, “Eight Second Ride.”

But women didn’t have as strong an influence on the song as Jake’s brother.

“He and all his buddies,” Jake says, “they’re like, ‘Man, all you do is write songs for girls, man. Your girlfriend — you’re always writin’ her tunes. Why don’t you write us a song that we can play in our trucks and have a good time with and crank it up loud?’ So it was like, ‘All right.’ So I did.”

In addition to its signature, Southern rock-style guitar lick, “Eight Second Ride” is full of lyrical swagger. And the real “guy” lyric comes in the chorus, with its references to over-sized truck tires and a cup for tobacco juice.

“My brother — back in the day and still does — has always spit tobacco,” Jake notes. “Every time I’d get in his truck, he’d always have a spit cup sittin’ there on his little console. And he’d always say, ‘Hey, man, watch out, man. I been spittin’ in that cup,’ and I’d always have to look out for it. So I put that line in the song about ‘climb on up, but honey, watch the cup where I’m spittin’ my dip inside.’”

Kissing a man who’s been chewing tobacco is probably a turn off to a big percentage of women, though some likely figure it’s just boys being boys and put up with it. As a result, the song hasn’t hurt his female fan base at all.

“Every girl relates to that,” Jake insists. “If, you know, they’re a good ol’ country girl, they’ve dated a guy that’s done that before. And then every guy comes up to me at shows now makin’ me sign their spit can, you know, or dip can, and it’s pretty funny.”

“Eight Second Ride” juiced the No. 12 slot on the first USA Today Mediabase country singles chart of 2010.

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Jake Owen photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

It takes a good eight hours to drive from Nashville to the Florida Panhandle, but Jake Owen used to make that trip regularly when things were tough during his early days in Music City. He needed to play some shows to pay the bills, and he wasn’t making much headway in country music’s capital.

It was a lonely time in Tennessee, but Jake is now experiencing a huge amount of popularity; in fact, his current single “Eight Second Ride” brought him into country’s Top 15 this week. The difference is stark.

“I remember the days when I left Tallahassee and moved up here to Nashville, and I didn’t know anybody,” Jake says. “I didn’t know one person. I just moved here with the intentions of meetin’ people, getting a record deal, and touring around the country. And spent a lot of time on my own, by myself, in my little apartment, and workin’ at a golf course as a caddy to earn some extra money, and having to drive all the way to Tallahassee to play a gig, eight hours away, to earn some money. And now, I catch myself sometimes goin’, ‘Man, do we really have four shows and five shows in a row this week?’ And then I’m like, ‘Wait a second! That’s awesome!’ You have to appreciate it. You know, I really do.”

With the holiday season upon us, Jake’s tour schedule is slowing down a bit, giving him some time to do some Christmas shopping and to rest up from some of those five-cities-in-five-nights runs. His next three-day stretch of shows comes next week when he plays Grand Rapids on Dec. 3; Chicago on Dec. 4; and Columbia, Mo., on Dec. 5.

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Jake Owen photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

Jake Owen’s “Eight Second Ride” uses a rodeo phrase for a sexy come-on that has his latest video at No. 18 on GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown, but some real rodeo pros join Suzanne Alexander from this week’s CBR (Championship Bull Riding) finale in Kansas City.

Suzanne checks in with a bunch of bull-riding cowboys — including Jarrod Craig, Ardie Maier, retired champ Gary Leffew and the Kansas City winner, Hugo Pedrero — as she works through the biggest videos in country music.

The “Eight Second Ride” video meanwhile is helping Jake buck his way through the national singles charts. It reached the Top 20 this week in the USA Today Mediabase country singles list. Jake is hoping he has reason to romp to the stage on Wednesday during the 43rd annual Country Music Association Awards. He’s a finalist for New Artist of the Year along with Randy Houser, Jamey Johnson, Darius Rucker and the Zac Brown Band.

Top 20 Country Countdown counts down the week’s top country videos from No. 20 to No. 1 as voted by viewers on each week on GACTV.com. A new countdown premieres every Friday at 8 p.m. ET on GAC and airs again Saturdays at 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. ET; Sundays at 1 p.m. ET; and Mondays at 10 a.m. ET. Viewers can vote for their favorite videos, as well as purchase Top 20 artists’ albums and ringtones at GACTV.com.

Click here to preview each song on our Top 20 list and download the ones you want!

THIS WEEK’S CHART:

1. Carrie Underwood “Cowboy Casanova”
2. Lady Antebellum “Need You Now”
3. Kellie Pickler “Didn’t You Know How Much I Loved You”
4. Miranda Lambert “White Liar”
5. Luke Bryan “Do I”
6. Reba McEntire “Consider Me Gone”
7. Keith Urban “Only You Can Love Me This Way”
8. Chris Young “Gettin’ You Home”
9. Trace Adkins “All I Ask For Anymore”
10. Taylor Swift “Fifteen”
11. Josh Turner “Why Don’t We Just Dance”
12. George Strait “Living For The Night”
13. Billy Currington “People Are Crazy”
14. Toby Keith “American Ride”
15. Tim McGraw “Southern Voice”
16. Martina McBride “I Just Call You Mine”
17. Jason Michael Carroll “Hurry Home”
18. Jake Owen “Eight Second Ride”
19. Sugarland “Keep You”
20. Jason Aldean “Big Green Tractor”

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Jake Owen photo by GAC Staff.

Many male musicians will tell you their earliest motivation to sing or play guitar was a simple one: They wanted to attract girls.

Jake Owen has discovered firsthand that it works. He’s become a magnet for female fans, and he doesn’t mind it one bit, though his parents have mixed reactions about the frenzy their son has stirred.

“We were out in Portland at this place called Duke’s [Country] Bar & Grill,” Jake notes, “and there’s a photo of me on stage playin’, and there’s literally like 40 bras on my microphone stand — 40 of ‘em!”

His mother was a bit put off when she saw the photo.

“She just shook her head,” Jake says, “like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. I can’t believe my son…I raised my son to do — he’s out there doin’ this!?’ I said, ‘Mom, look, I must be doin’ somethin’ right.’”

And his father?

“Dad’s high-fivin’ me!” Jake says. “You know, he’s just like, ‘Let me ride around. Let me hang out with you.’”

For his part, Jake invites the ladies’ response. His current single, “Eight Second Ride,” is loaded with suggestive innuendo. And on Friday, as rain pelted the top of his bus before a show in New Jersey, he tweeted, “Let’s get naked.” Not surprisingly, he got deluged with comments.

“Never had so many responses in my life,” he tweeted again less than an hour later. “People like gettin’ naked. Especially in the rain.”

Jake begins hosting daily webisodes for ABC.com Nov. 4 as the network gears up for the 43rd annual Country Music Association Awards. The installments might be titillating, but it’s a safe bet Jake will keep his clothes on.

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