There is just something about a musician that speaks about the more brutal truths of life, the down and the despair.
There is just something about a musician that speaks about the more brutal truths of life, the down and the despair.
You really should check out Jelly Roll's new music...
There is just something about a musician that speaks about the more brutal truths of life, the down and the despair. Someone that you can take one look at them as they perform and know that they are drawing from the well-font of real unpolished life. Speaking to the reality of broken homes, hard drugs, and drinking. Of people that are enslaved by poverty, addiction, and abuse.
They hit so much harder, especially when they combine those shadows of day-to-day life with the breaking sunlight of hope for a better life.
I was surprised this morning when I read a profile piece on the musical artist Jelly Roll. Yes, I know…I had preconceptions that were wrong too.
The article by Alan Light and published in the New York Times laid out this year’s Country Music Awards; the first few paragraphs hooked me.
At this month's CMT, the least likely nominee turned into the night’s biggest story.
At the 2023 CMT Music Awards, Jelly Roll won for Male Video of the Year, Male Breakthrough Video of the Year, and Digital-First Performance of the Year, all for the song "."
In a room full of country music royalty, the artist Jelly Roll — a 38-year-old face-tattooed former addict and drug dealer who got his start selling his hip-hop mixtapes out of his car — took home the most trophies, beating superstars including Morgan Wallen, Kane Brown, and Luke Combs. The crowd was on its feet as he performed his new single, “Need a Favor,” in a studded leather jacket, his gravelly voice backed by a full gospel choir.
“It was an absolute dream come true, the best-case scenario, and I’ve had a worst-case scenario life up to this point,” Jelly Roll said in a telephone interview the following week, excitedly recounting his interactions backstage with Shania Twain and Slash. “I spent my entire childhood feeling like I didn’t belong — in every situation, I felt like the uncomfortable fat kid. So that was like my high school prom and the graduation I never had on national television.”
I immediately checked out his videos first and then his catalog on Apple Music. It could be seeing another creative artist with facial tattoos speaking to some of the hard truths I have lived that touched me so deeply. But I think there is more to it than that. America always loves a modern-day redemption story.
I don’t usually go for country music or country rap hybrids. But as Jelly is quoted as saying in the article, he makes “real music for real people with real problems.” I strive to write with the same naked honesty.
If you are one of those real people with real problems, I suggest you check out Jelly Roll’s real music.
Jelly Roll will release his new album Whitsitt Chapel featuring the single "Need A Favor" on June 2nd, 2023.
