Caroline Jones stopped by The Bobby Bones Show for the first time to talk about her new EP, how she joined the Zac Brown Band, and perform!
Jones is an extremely talented singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who can play guitar, piano, dobro, banjo and harmonica. Her last three years have had an interesting journey. She lived in New Zealand for a while, got married, and she joined one of the biggest country bands, Zac Brown Band, as their first female member.
She first met her husband, American Cup sailor Nick Dana, at the start of the pandemic in 2020, just as he was about to move to New Zealand for a year to train for America’s Cup. She found herself in a position like many other musicians during that time with all her shows cancelled. So, she took a risk and moved to New Zealand with a man she’d only known for six weeks at that time. It was especially surreal because while everyone else was in quarantine, New Zealand was the one place that was not affected. When she first arrived there, she did have to quarantine for two weeks in a hotel room alone. That’s when she started to research country and bluegrass bands in the area, of which there weren’t many, and found one that she connected with and was able to play shows with. America did lose first in the cup race, so she and her husband stayed over there and traveled.
Jones new EP, Superpower, is out now and features five new tracks. It serves as the first half of her next album which will be out by next fall. She is trying to release as much music incrementally as possible in this new music market, she explained. Superpower, is about resilience and grit, what she said she’s been going through a lot these past few years. The title track is about the triumphant moments and the trials of the music industry. She shared how there can be a lot of heartbreak in this industry, and she’s had many times when she felt great, just to be torn down and has had to reset her focus on her dream and why she started.
Jones is the first female member of Zac Brown Band, which is made up of nine guys. Thankfully she has her own tour bus, which she said she’s not sure if she had joined their bus if it would’ve worked because they have their routine, and adding a girl to the mix would’ve been hard. She is a utility player for them, which is a Nashville term that means she plays whichever instrument needs to be filled that night. She mostly plays acoustic guitar with them and B3 organ. She did not know how to play B3 when Brown called asking her to join the band. He asked if she’d be able to learn by the time they went on tour, to which she replied yes and got to work.
In the next six months, Jones will play over 100 shows. She will be playing with Zac Brown Band all summer long, as well as doing her own headlining tour. She loves it because she goes from playing stadiums with the band, to doing bars and clubs on her first headlining tour.
While in studio, she played her song “Lawless” that you can watch below!