Caroline Jones Radiates 'Strength, Empathy' In First Era Since Motherhood

Caroline Jones embraces “a deeper well of strength and empathy” in her first album since becoming a mother.

Jones, 35, debuted Good Omen on Friday (February 13). The 12-track project is her first in just over two years (since October 2023’s Homesite), and her first since welcoming her son in November 2023. Good Omen continues Jones' widely-influenced musical style. She “honed in more” on her craft, digging deeper into her sharp-witted lyrics with an “emotional richness” and evolved perspective on life since becoming a mother. Jones described a “rootsiness” in the album's style, with influence from Appalachian, folk, bluegrass, rock, country and pop. Lyrically, “I think being a mom has made me stronger and more able to tackle some harder subjects and some darker shades of life that are on this record. And I think that just comes from the empathy that comes with motherhood. There's definitely more emotional richness on this record.

“You just grow so much,” the solo artist and Zac Brown Band member continued in a recent conversation with iHeartCountry. “In this chapter, there's just been real jet fuel on the personal growth. And I think that shows in the lyrics of this album, and hopefully connects to people and makes them feel less alone in some of those emotions.” Jones added that she aims to be “as honest as possible in my writing,” including in her projects moving forward, “and I feel like that's a theme that we've been seeing a lot more in country. I mean, obviously there have been some extremely honest and vulnerable writers in the history of country music. That's what is one of the hallmarks of country music. But I feel like in recent years we've been seeing that a lot more, especially from the females, and it's so refreshing. It's just so beautiful to see. So, that's inspired me, too.”

The singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist spotlighted Kelsea Ballerini’s “I Sit in Parks” as an example of a vulnerable, raw ballad that instantly resonated with her. Jones said she “was blown away,” when she heard it the first time. “It’s a great time for music, and I’m inspired by music from all different genres. …We [Zac Brown Band] literally cover, but we also just cover so much ground musically. Zac is so fearless and genreless. That really inspires me, too. I take a little bit of inspiration from all of those places. And then being a musician, trying to push myself and challenge myself harmonically and musically, in addition to digging deep lyrically and emotionally, all of those things. I mean, I'm always wanting to get better at all of those things and learn more.”

Jones laid the groundwork for her Good Omen chapter with a few previously-released songs, including the title track, “No Tellin’,” “All The Things” (and its acoustic version), “You’re It For Me, Honey” and “Divorce In A Small Town.”

Good Omen Track Listing:

No Tellin’ (Written by Caroline Jones, Lauren McLamb, and Clara Park)
All The Things (Written by Caroline Jones, Brandon Hood, Liz Rose, and Emily Weisband)
You’re It For Me, Honey (Written by Caroline Jones, Rob Grimaldi, Lauren McLamb, and Brandon Ratcliff)
The Bridge (Written by Caroline Jones, Sarah Buxton, and Lauren McLamb)
Forever Love (Written by Caroline Jones, Brandon Hood, and Eric Paslay)
Storm Chaser (Written by Caroline Jones, Jamie Kenney, Lauren McLamb, and Brandon Ratcliff)
Cutting It Close (Written by Caroline Jones, Gabe Faust, and Lauren McClamb)
Good Omen (Written by Caroline Jones, Sarah Buxton, and Joy Williams)
Family (Written by Caroline Jones and Bobby Hamrick)
Divorce in a Small Town (Written by Caroline Jones, Sarah Buxton, and Eric Paslay)
Becca (Written by Caroline Jones, Lauren McLamb, and Brandon Ratcliff)
All The Things (Acoustic) (Written by Caroline Jones, Brandon Hood, Liz Rose, and Emily Weisband)

Jones is in “full tour mode” now. Her headlining “Good Omen Tour” kicks off on Tuesday (February 17) in Nashville, Tennessee, with stops in New York, Georgia, Colorado, California and other destinations before wrapping up on May 1 in Chicago, Illinois. The “Good Omen Tour,” her first headlining run since her pregnancy, arrives shortly after Jones and the rest of Zac Brown Band took the stage at Sphere Las Vegas. She beamed as she looked ahead to the performances with her “amazing band,” playing stripped-back renditions of her songs, and the “awesome” three-part harmonies. “I think meeting people who listen to my music and who are touched by my music is a privilege, and honestly, just playing live is a joy. ...Mac McAnally says, 'they pay us to travel, we would play for free.' So that's kind of how I feel, too. Just playing live shows in front of people is such a privilege. It's such a joy.

“I'm so proud,” Jones said when asked how she feels reflecting on the full Good Omen project. “I’m so proud of this record….It's just so fun to make albums. I can't believe it's my job. It's so fun. We had so much fun making this one, and everyone is so proud of the music, so I can't wait to go out and tour it and make the next one.”

Jones took iHeartCountry through her album track by track, sharing her inspiration behind each one. Find those stories below, and keep scrolling to see her list of “Good Omen Tour” destinations.

“No Tellin’”

“‘No Tellin’’ is a song about an abusive relationship that I was in when I was younger, and it took me a really long time to be able to process through the relationship and the manipulation and confusion that I had endured. (It) really stuck with me for a long time, and it took a lot of work and a lot of therapy for me to even process through the situation, let alone be able to write about it and share it. So, I feel like this was a song that was being written in my heart for a really long time before I had the courage to put it in a song. And it's a really powerful, empowering song that I know a lot of people need to hear, because I’m not alone in having encountered a situation like that. And I really hope it goes out in the world and touches the people who need to hear it.”

“All The Things”

“‘All The Things’ is...a rally cry for women and moms, no matter what kind of mom you are. It's an empowering song. We all do all the things, whether you're a working mom, a stay-at-home mom, (or a) mom on a tour bus like I am. And it's also a love letter to my husband, who, his support and partnership really allows me to stand up on stage and go on tour and also be a mom and have a family and moms do all the things, but we definitely don't do them by ourselves. So, it's a celebration of the village and it's also a really honest, vulnerable song about the fears that I had about starting a family with this career.”

“You’re It For Me, Honey”

“‘You're It For Me, Honey’ is a really fun, flirty, sassy song. It's heavily influenced by...Shania Twain and Mutt Lange's production of the early 2000s, and it's just like sunshine in a track to me. It's really fun, and that's the kind of production that I've co-produced or produced all of my albums, and that's the kind of production that's my favorite to create because it's the most challenging to fuse pop elements with country elements, and so I'm really proud of that one.”

“The Bridge”

“‘The Bridge’ is about a unique heartbreak of recognizing that when you love someone deeply who's either in addiction or has other self-destructive tendencies, that there can come a point in that relationship where you are actually participating in that destruction by being there. And it's such a heartbreaking realization to come to, that you actually have to leave that relationship for not only your own health and survival, but for that person's, too, on some level because in the end, you can't save another person. And so, the song uses the metaphor of a bridge, basically saying ...I see this bridge out. I see this bridge to healing, and I'm going to take it. And I wish you could come with me, and I hope you come with me, but I can't make you. But I won't burn the bridge. The idea is you can come, too, if you can develop the courage or you develop the desire, but that you can't make someone cross the bridge. You can only cross it yourself. So, it's a really powerful song.”

“Forever Love”

“‘Forever Love.’ Wow. That song I wrote with Eric Paslay and Brandon Hood. ...It's also a very powerful exploration of romantic love and the romanticization of romantic love that we have in this culture. The idea of 'Forever Love' and the picture-perfect idea you have...and just asking really deep questions about it of, 'are we holding out for that? Are we settling? Are we searching for that? What does it mean? How much of ourselves do we give away in the process?' It's a really cool, I think, twist on it that's not just pure romance.

“And actually, I had some people say, ‘if you just change a few lyrics, this could be a wedding song.’ And I was like, ‘we have enough wedding songs.’ I was like, ‘we have enough wedding songs. That's not always real life.’ It's nice to talk about 'Forever Love,' but there's so many other shades to it that's real life and human, and so I really love that this song has both.”

“Storm Chaser”

“‘Storm Chaser’ is just this really cool Appalachian, bluegrass, dark, bluesy, up-tempo barnburner of a song. I love the lyric. I'd been wanting to write a song called ‘Storm Chaser,’ and I'd had some of these lyrics locked away for years before I finished it with Lauren McLamb and Brandon Ratcliffe. And I had that riff for a while, that guitar riff, and it's just going to be so fun to play live. It's a little bit Laney Wilson-ish actually, and a little bit bluegrass and a little bit rock.”

“Cutting It Close”

“‘Cutting It Close’ is just a really sweet, light love song about kind of the beginning stages of love, and it's just really clever word play that I love that kind of lyric writing.”

“Good Omen”

“‘Good Omen’ is the title track to this record because it embodies a lot of both lyrical but also musical themes on the album, that dark, bluegrassy, kind of rock, kind of country, kind of Appalachian bed of music that we created. And the sound on this album, it has strings, it has a rock section, it has an instrumental section, it has that 12-string sound, Appalachian bouzouki riff, and then lyrically, it's just a really deep, powerful lyric that I wrote with Joy Williams and Sarah Buxton, and I'm really proud of it. I had to encapsulate the album, that would be the song.”

“Family”

“‘Family’ is so fun. It reminds me of a Fleetwood Mac song, like ‘Never Going Back Again.’ I love that guitar riff and ‘Family’ is a song about the beauty of the dysfunction and all the shades of humor and pain and joy that especially as you grow up and have your own family, you have so much more compassion for your family of origin and your parents, and that's what that song is about.”

“Divorce in a Small Town”

“That's a real heartbreaking song that I wanted to write, a song that I knew a lot of people could relate to who live in small towns all over America. It's a unique situation to be in getting divorced in a small town where you have to keep living in that town because you have kids with that person, and you have to process through your biggest heartbreak with this wound that never closes. It stays fresh, it stays open because every day. You're dropping your kids off to the same school that you did when you were married, and you're seeing your ex-mother-in-law at the grocery store and people are gossiping about you in church. And I think about having to navigate not only your own biggest heartbreak, but then everybody else's opinion about it and how painful and how much harder that makes it to heal. And that's what that song is about.”

“Becca”

“‘Becca’ is my best friend and she's this extraordinary woman. She's a farmer and a mother of four out in California, and she homeschools her four children on this organic farm that her husband's family runs. And I wanted to write a song celebrating stay-at-home moms who, I think, do our culture's most important work, but don't get their flowers for it. ...And that's not really something that I understood when I was younger. I'm a very ambitious career person, and we're raised in a time as women where ambition is prized over maybe a life Becca's in the media and stuff. And I just think it's, as I've gotten older, I've really taken a really good hard look at some of that programming. ...It's really about what is going to make you happy in life? What does happiness look like for you? Because I look at her life and the happiness of her children and it's taught me a lot.

“Oh my God. Just like water works [when Becca heard the song for the first time]. I only just stopped, started being able to talk about it without crying, especially the last verse of that song about the fact that she had a hard childhood and was able to turn it around and create the family that she never had. Oh my God, I got teary-eyed just saying it out loud now. It was very moving when she heard it and very vulnerable for both of us, obviously for the song to be out in the world. But I hope it touches people and I hope people can relate with their own friendships.”

“All The Things (Acoustic)”

“It was really important because all the things has so many colors to the lyric, and we produced this really fun, up-tempo version, really infectious and such a jam. But I missed the vulnerability and the heart of the demo so much so that I was like, I can't have this album without that. And so, I really hope people listen to both versions very, they both have a lot to offer, I think, in terms of the story of the song, but that song is really a cornerstone of the record.”

GOOD OMEN Tour Dates:

February 17 - Nashville, TN - The Basement East

February 19 - Gainesville, FL - Heartwood Soundstage - Indoor Stage

February 20 - Tampa, FL - Crowbar

February 21 - Jacksonville, FL - Jack Rabbits

March 5 - New York, NY - The Mercury Lounge

March 6 - Wayne, PA - 118 North

March 7 - Cambridge, MA - The Middle East - Sonia

March 19 - Charlotte, NC - The Evening Muse

March 20 - Atlanta, GA - Smith’s Olde Bar

March 21 - Raleigh, NC - The Pour House

April 3 - Denver, CO - Lost Lake

April 4 - Salt Lake City, UT - The State Room

April 8 - West Hollywood, CA - Troubadour

April 9 - Anaheim, CA - House of Blues Anaheim - The Parish

April 11 - San Francisco, CA - Cafe Du Nord

April 30 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry

May 1 - Chicago, IL - Joe’s on Weed Street