Jordan Rowe is a fat up and coming country artist from South Georgia. He has released the title track from his forthcoming record – Bad Case of the Good Ole Boy – out on the 6th August. Listen to the title track here. Here, we interview Jordan Rowe about the record and its genesis.
Hi, Jordan, how are you doing?
Hey, doing great. How are you?
I heard you talking about your Alan Jackson influences – I can definitely hear that. Are those the people that you have grown up listening to and have inspired you?
Oh 100%, Alan Jackson, early Luke Bryan was some of my favourite stuff growing up because he was the first artist that I watched go from the beginning to where he’s at now – when his first record came out, I was around nine years old, so that was kind of the first stuff I really grabbed on to I guess. He’s one of my favourites, along with Eric Church – I have drawn a lot of writing inspiration from Eric Church.
You’re also talking about your Georgian roots and there’s so much talent that has come out of Georgia – it’s crazy. I know you’ve been in Nashville now for two years – how much has being in town transformed your songwriting and the way you approach your music?
It’s really taught me a lot of the tricks of the trade – if you get stuck how to get unstuck, looking at stuff from every angle you can. I’ve learned to talk in hooks and with song titles, when you think of them, automatically going into thinking of the line before. There’s a trick that Drew Parker taught me that when you think of a title before you bring it into a write, he said to always try and come up with a line right before the last line of the chorus because that’s what’s gonna set up the whole thing, if you can’t get that none of it’s gonna happen. I’ve just learned stuff from different people and jumped off the deep end when I got here – having to get on their level really quick.
Obviously the whole record is coming out in August, how ready are you for people to discover all the sides of your artistry? It’s really with the entire record that people can see who you are as an artist.
Yeah, I’m really excited for people to hear all sides of my sound, because it’s so broad. It’s gonna be a crazy broad record. There’s stuff like, ‘I Didn’t Sleep Last Night,’ which you’ve heard and is more progressive. Then we’ve got ‘Bad Case of the Good Ole Boy’ which is very heavy, almost rock-country. Then there’s stuff like ‘Mom and Jesus’ that’s stripped down and very emotional and acoustic. It’s so different, but it’s all congruent at the same time. I think it really shows all my influences.
How did the project come together? Are these songs that you’ve had in the back pocket for years or ones you’ve written very recently?
Yeah, so when I got here in 2019, I started writing my butt off – I had written for a couple of summers in Nashville, but once I got here full time, I wrote five times a week, I’d say on average – four songs a week over the last two years. I just write as many good songs as I can. Then, when it was time to put out new music, we went in and just listened to everything and the best songs raised their hand. We also wanted to wait till there were enough good songs that once this project is out, we can follow it up with other good songs. I feel like a lot of people jump the gun, get a couple good songs and put them out and have nothing to follow it up with. Then, you lose momentum. It makes it hard to pick songs because you’ve got so many to choose from.
I know you worked with Derek Wells on the record. You’ve done such a great job in bringing all those influences and all that 90s and rock sound out. How did you come to partner with him for the record?
I can’t say enough good things about that guy, he’s awesome. My manager knew Derek, and he has worked with him before with another artist. He knew Derek was getting into production, he is just a crazy guitar and session player and he’s won a lot of awards for session work. He recently got into production – he did stuff with Scotty McCreery and some of the Hardy stuff, which I’m a big fan of. I was excited to see what he could do. We went to lunch or breakfast one morning and hit it off and decided that we would get along great and see how it went, so we went in and cut our first stuff, I loved the process and wanted to work together again on this stuff. He’s so good at it – I think from being a session player, because he has to play so many different kinds of music on the fly. He’s so good, I’ll explain something in the most non-technical way ever, but he gets it. He’s like, ‘Oh, I know exactly what you mean.’ He goes in there and nails it. He just knocks it out of the park.
I’m fascinated by all that stuff. I like to sit with him while he’s mixing stuff – he’s got so many cool little personal tricks and all.
Obviously ‘I Didn’t Sleep Last Night’ was the most recent release. Can you talk a bit about that track and what it has meant to you?
I think it’s the most progressive track that I’ve done sound-wise, with the fiddle, it was very country mixed with modern programming. It was just this cool own thing. You know, I told Derek a long time ago, I was trying to find a lane on my own a little bit. It turned out just so cool, because it’s kind of heavily in your face, but the fiddle brings it home a bit. It’s just got a sweet sound to it, but it’s got more response than anything I’ve put out before – people seem to love it. I was kind of nervous about it to be honest.
I do think the fiddle is so under-utilised. It’s such a foundational instrument in country music but it’s not used enough. I love the idea of keeping those traditional elements.
100%, I think I think it’s been missing for the last few years, so I’ve been bringing it back.
I’m excited for this record to be out. Are you going to have the chance to play the record out live?
Yeah, we did our our first shows a few weeks ago – we had three weekends with Cody Johnson, which was super fun, I can’t say enough good things about that guy. Then, the next thing we’re going to do is Jon Pardi, in July we start with him and go on tour with him this summer and then in the fall, I’ve got shows with Jameson Rodgers.
Well, we’re excited for you and the release in August.
Thank you.
