Album Review – Ben Jarrell’s “A Country Song”

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#500 (Country) on the Country DDS.

Country music.

No qualifiers, no hyphenated terms, no squinting to make an “Americana” act appear to be country just because they have a steel guitar in the band. If you looked up the textbook definition of country, you shouldn’t be surprised to see Ben Jarrell’s mug staring back at you. Sure, this album is a bit more vintage country with perhaps some Outlaw influence as opposed to the starched jeans crowd of modern traditional country. But it’s stone cold country nonetheless.

Ben Jarrell got the attention of the folks who like to dig for the best in country music with his wild country tune “Black Helicopter” from 2019, and his crazy diorama album covers on his early releases. He’s always been country, but Ben was also just a little bit off-center in a cool way that made him unique and grabbed your attention.

With A Country Song, there are no hijinks, and no crazy tangents. Even the cover is more conventional, though an excellent pencil rendering of Jarrell by Isaac Denton nonetheless. This is the album where Ben Jarrell establishes what “country music” is both in word and deed, including with the title track that underscores how country music can work like an emotional panacea for everyone.

Don’t take that assessment to mean that this album has no adventure though. As a touring musician, Ben Jarrell has plenty of stories to tell and inspiration to pull from, and he takes full advantage of it like on the song “End Of The Road Woman” that feels like it’s taken straight from Jarrell’s tour itinerary.


As the Dothan, Alabama-native sings in the opening track after a great, folksy acoustic guitar opening indicative of early Merle Haggard, “I grew up way down in Alabama, where you hardly ever see you a home that weren’t on wheels. I never learned to think about tomorrow. I never got to know how stayin’ feels.”

Judging how Ben Jarrell albums seem to just “appear” and you have to be in-the-know to stumble upon them, the idea that he never thinks about tomorrow isn’t just a poetic notion. This is the life of Ben Jarrell. Professionally, Jarrell is kind of his own worst enemy as he sings about it on the track “The Wall Always Wins.” But it tends to be that the country artists that are the worst businessmen also tend to write and record some of the best songs.

Multiple tracks of A Country Song are about leaving, trying to stay, wanting to settle down, but knowing its against your nature. It’s not surprising that Jarrell finds a kinship with truck drivers, which comes into focus on the track “Tucumcari Tonight” about the cool little Route 66 town in New Mexico. A song not to overlook is “Shadow of a Shade Tree.” If you want to find the perfect example of hitting a groove and mood, laying down in it, and painting a picture with a song, this one fits the bill.

You’re not going to see Ben Jarrell headlining the big festivals or showing up on the Billboard charts. He’s too country, too authentic, too in-it-for-the-music-only to be a party to any of that, even if he should be. He just wants to release great country songs and scrabble together enough fans across the country to keep it all going. This album definitely has some great country songs, and definitely deserves fans all across the country listening to it.

1 3/4 Guns Up (8.1/10)

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