Album Review – J.R. Carroll’s “Dark Cloud”

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#550.7 (Red Dirt) and #570 (Americana) on the Country DDS.

Behind every successful artist is often a +1, a first mate, a bandleader, a consigliere if you will. They might not even have an official name designation, but they’re a mediator, an insulator, a close council, and often, critical to that frontman’s success by being more grounded and wise to the world. For Zach Bryan, that guy has been J.R. Carroll.

Zach Bryan is the first to admit that he’s no musician. So when the whole music thing started blowing up behind Zach’s viral videos while he was still enlisted in the navy, he solicited the help of some of the musicians he knew back in Oklahoma that he could trust. J.R. Carroll was one of the first people Zach Bryan brought on board to help create his inner circle. He was one of “The Boys” as they became known.

Though Dark Cloud is officially J.R. Carroll’s first LP, he’s been releasing songs and EPs since 2020, along with playing fairly large and regular shows and festival gigs, helped along by being that guy behind the keyboard with a pony tail on the Zach Bryan tour. Though his songcraft has always been stout, just who exactly J.R. Carroll the solo artist was seemed to be up in the air. Was he Oklahoma country? More of an Americana singer/songwriter? Or was he something else entirely?

Dark Cloud concludes that in many respects, J.R. Carroll is all of these things, and sometimes one right after the other. And though initially this can challenge your music brain to shift on the fly, what patient and open-minded listening reveals is that Carroll is less of a musical jack of all trades, and more a master of most, ultimately composing a compelling collection of songs that eventually blend together into quite an enjoyable experience.


The opening song “On The Run” immediately appeals to your Oklahoma country sensibilities. The song “Hometown Hero” about being one of Tulsa’s musicians gone big is a straight country heater. But then when you get to “Too Late To Change It Now” with its more indie rock intro and count off, you have to check to see if your still listening to the same artist. But as the song unfolds, it finds its groove.

The fiddle and banjo of “How To Be Okay” set a nice country mood. But the song itself speaks more to a Jason Isbell-style singer/songwriter approach, especially in the vocal delivery. This is carried over to the next song, the intimate and sedate “In The Shadow.” And just as you feel good settling into the more somber mood, here comes a Red Dirt country rock song in the title track.

The first few listens through Dark Cloud can be a little unsettling. You don’t exactly know what to make of J.R. Carroll, and you’re not sure if he knows what to make of himself either. But as you continue to listen and the words resonate deeper and the melodies find a home in your heart, you begin to find a strong appeal for it all, and to spy an underlying cohesiveness in the album.

The voice of J.R. Carroll can take on a chameleon-like aspect to it to follow along with the various musical approaches. But like a chameleon, the color ultimately ends up being true. Instead of trying to be something to a certain demographic, J.R. Carroll instead decides just to be himself, which like many of Oklahoma’s Red Dirt performers, is an amalgam of country and roots music styles as opposed to one mono-crop of genre specific songs.

Like all great side players, J.R. Carroll seems perfectly complacent being a #2, and has little desire to become an arena act himself. There’s an unpretentiousness, a lack of caring about image or impact that is endearing to J.R. Carroll and his music. But he does have things to say and musical muscles to exercise, and he intends to take full advantage of them in the moments in-between Zach Bryan appearances. On Dark Cloud, Carroll proves to be worthy of devoted attention all on his own.

8.2/10

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