Review: Jason Michael Carroll – Waitin’ In The Country

Jason Michael Carroll – Waitin in the Country

When I think of current baritone vocaled country singers, guys like Trace Adkins and Josh Turner pop to mind. After listening to Jason Michael Carroll, he’ll be a new one in the same spirit as Trace Adkins. The first two tracks, Waitin’ in the Country and I Can Sleep When I’m Dead, are adrenaline infused pieces to get your blood flowing. The third song slows the tempo way down and is the popular first single from Carroll, Alyssa Lies, that some have suggested may overshadow his career.

Jewel joins Carroll on one of my favorites from the album, No Good In Goodbye. Carroll starts the song off with his deep baritone, but Jewel quickly takes over and pretty much hijacks the rest of the song. Despite Carroll taking a backseat to Jewel I think it’s a solid song and will help pique people’s interest in her own country album.

The rest of the album continues on a roller coaster of uptempo, Adkinsesque songs and slower paced love ballads. None of them are particularly memorable upon the first listen, but do have a lot of replay value. He ends the album on a strong note with Let It Rain, one of the aforementioned ballads and another one of my favorites. It’s easy to see that Carroll has a lot more in the tank than Alyssa Lies and it’ll be interesting to see how his career progresses. I think his main challenge will not be living in the shadow of his first single, but in overcoming the comparisons to Adkins, something I feel he’ll be able to do. He already has a uniqueness to his sound that a lot of newer artists lack.