Caroline Jones - Superpower (2023)

Caroline Jones returns with a 5-track EP that draws on her love for bluegrass, country, & pop influences. Months after officially becoming the first female member of the Zac Brown Band and touring with the group while also embarking on her solo tour, Caroline Jones has dropped new music and revealed her forthcoming third studio album. On Friday, May 19th, the New York native released her 5-track EP Superpower, which features a Vince Gill collab and a upbeat new female anthem titled “Normal Person.” The EP is a taste of the full-length project to come this fall, but Caroline admitted her “main goal is just to get music out now,” and these five tracks were ready to go! “They are a microcosm for the album in that it’s pretty sonically and stylistically diverse as all my records are,”

She continued, “‘Superpower’ is kind of Nora Jones-y, while ‘Normal Person’ is super country, and ‘Lawless’ is kind of pop country. ‘By Way Of Sorrows’ is real bluegrass, and then the Alyssa Bonagura collaboration is very ’90s country. So for me, the through line is that I write everything and co-produce everything and play on everything.”

Caroline told HL that the “real theme” for the forthcoming record is “perseverance and grit,” which is certainly prevalent in the EP’s title track “Superpower.” Then, there’s “Normal Person,” which will stand among its fellow sassy lady anthems by Caroline, “Tough Guys,” “Come In (But Don’t Make Yourself Comfortable)” and “Don’t Talk To Me.” “I always say that it wouldn’t be a Caroline Jones project without a real sassy tongue in cheek song like that!” she gushed. “‘Normal Person’ is just a funny song that I wrote to my husband about how sometimes…sometimes I feel guilty for being kind of difficult or I don’t know…a colorful character! But, then I remember that he wanted to marry me!”

She laughed, “It’s just a really fun way of saying that, and I think every couple can relate, especially married couples, and it’s just a really fun song. It always makes people chuckle!”

Then, nearly four years after opening for Vince Gill, Caroline asked him if he’d be interested in recording the Julie Miller original “By Way Of Sorrow” as a duet. “The lyrics and the melody are just so moving and so deep to me. Those kind of songs are why I fell in love with country music and with Nashville, like Buddy and Julie Miller, Patty Griffin, and Emmy Lou Harris,” she recalled to HL. “It’s indescribable, because Vince is on my short list of all-time favorite heroes in music, and even just for how to navigate this industry.”

Caroline admitted that she “wasn’t sure if [Vince] remembered who I was,” since she opened some of his shows in 2019, but he came back quickly and excited to record the track with her. “The fact that he wanted to sing on this record and told Brandon [Ratcliff] (producer) that this is his favorite thing he’s ever heard from me — it really was just an honor.”

Tracklist
01. Caroline Jones - Lawless
02. Caroline Jones - Normal Person
03. Caroline Jones - Superpower
04. Caroline Jones - Keep It Safe
05. Caroline Jones - By Way of Sorrow