31 minutes | Monday, 16 October 2023
'The CountryLine Songwriter Series', is where you'll hear from some of the most successful artists and songwriters working in Nashville today. Country music is all about storytelling and this is where you'll discover the stories from the people themselves of how they managed to find their way into such a competitive industry and rise to the top. What motivates and inspires them and what they've learnt along the way.
Born in New York City, Caroline Jones grew up in Connecticut and developed a love of music at an early age. When she was nine, she asked her parents to enrol her in singing lessons and at ten years old she wrote her first song. Jones also took piano lessons, and after mastering the keyboard, she learned to play guitar, banjo, and Dobro. She was 16 when she visited Nashville for the first time and attended a songwriters' night at the famous Bluebird Café. This experience then influenced a move to Florida and she began studying the compositional styles of country artists she admired, including Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, and Hank Williams.
While honing her songwriting skills, she relocated to New York City, and began performing regularly at schools and colleges as part of The Heart Is Smart, an educational program that encourages young people to use music and songwriting as a means of expression. She also became the host of Art & Soul, a satellite radio show in which she chats with fellow musicians about the art and craft of songwriting.
In January 2011, Jones issued her first album, a self-released effort titled “Fallen Flower”, which was soon followed by “Nice to Know You” in January 2012, “Clean Dirt” in March 2012 and her fourth album, “The Heart Is Smart”, in September 2012. In 2016, she teamed up with acclaimed producer Ric Wake, who’s credits include working with artists such as Mariah Carey and Celine Dion. One of the first fruits of their collaboration was "Tough Guys", a song about female empowerment in a male-dominated world; it was released as a single in October 2016, and quickly turned Jones into one of country music's rising stars. She built on this momentum through touring as an opening act for the Zac Brown Band.
Her appearance at a hurricane benefit concert put her in contact with the late Jimmy Buffett, who liked her style and signed her to his label Mailboat Records. Mailboat released her album, “Bare Feet”, in March 2018; The effort was her first to chart on Billboard, landing in the Top 20 on the Heatseekers, Independent, and Country Sales lists. Buffett, notorious for having no openers, brought Caroline out as an opening act and special guest in 2018 and 2019. Then following the pandemic, another major break came in 2022 when she was asked to join the Zac Brown Band as a permanent member.
Here she chats with Stuart Banford as she prepares to release new solo material.