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It’s usually our job to come up with all the clever descriptions for everything, but sometimes the artists just sum it up perfectly and save us all the trouble.
“The song sounds like a cross between Keith Urban and U2 to me,” Caroline Jones tells us about 'Lawless', and she isn’t wrong. It’s also got a little bit of Shania in there, a little sprinkling of 90s Belinda Carlisle and maybe even a hint of the Celtic tinged pop of The Corrs.
The follow-up to her wonderful ‘Keep It Safe’ single - featuring Alyssa Bonagura - from earlier in the year, ‘Lawless’ feels like a full-on embrace of 90s country at the same time as sounding like a completely fresh take on the high-octane sophisticated country pop production of that era.
“I wrote the song with Pete Good and Brandon Ratcliff and co-produced the song with Brandon Hood and Ric Wake. We had a lot of fun cramming in as many hooky melodies as possible. The fact that the song never goes to the one chord, or the tonic, creates a feeling of being constantly suspended, or ‘on the edge’, as the lyrics read. By extension, the sonic landscape evokes the images in the lyrics: ‘Lawless’ compares love to the Wild West, in which desire, desperation and dreams rule.
“I love the line ‘you care so damn much you couldn’t care less,’ which captures the out of control, both terrifying and electrifying high that is devotion.”
Caroline Jones must be one of the busiest people in country music right now. Not only is she a multi-genre singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist turning the genre on its head as a solo artist, she officially joined GRAMMY-Award winning Zac Brown Band in 2022 as a full-time band member, making her the first and only female in the now 9-piece group.
Caroline’s skilled musicianship and addictive, foot-stomping hits have led to performances on The Tonight Show, The Kelly Clarkson Show, TODAY Show, as well as multiple appearances at the legendary Grand Ole Opry, but perhaps what’s most impressive her journey through country music is the list of mentors who have taken her under their wing and out on tour. When you can count Kenny Chesney, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Vince Gill, Jake Owen, Trisha Yearwood, The Eagles, OneRepublic, and most significantly, Jimmy Buffett and the Zac Brown Band as friends and fans then you must be doing something right.
Jimmy Buffett, notorious for having no openers, brought Caroline out as an opening act and special guest in 2018 and 2019, which was followed by a distribution deal with his label Mailboat Records for the release of her debut album and the release of ‘Gulf Coast Girl’ featuring Buffett, Kenny Chesney, Mac McAnally, and Lukas Nelson. The breezy summer track, which was written specifically for Caroline by Buffett and Mac McAnally quickly became a hit on SiriusXM’s The Highway, helping the video reach nearly 2M views to-date.
Next up, she is headlining performances with her bandmates, and solo sets, in London, Glasgow and Dublin as part of the C2C Country to Country Festival this weekend, as well as headlining shows at CMC Rocks in Australia later this month. The band is hitting the road again in the U.S. this summer for their From The Fire Tour, kicking off in Columbus, OH, on June 30. They will perform over 30 shows, including a return to Fenway Park, where they have sold out 13 times previously.
'Lawless' is out now on True To The Song.
