Mariah Crom
Country music fans are swooning over newcomer Jordan Rowe and his traditional “true country” roots mixed with the perfect amount of youthful modern fun.
Forever inspired by the likes of Alan Jackson, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, and Kenny Chesney, the small town South Georgia native made his way to Music City right after college in 2019 and has since toured with some of the industry’s hottest names like Luke Combs, Jon Pardi, Cole Swindell to name a few.
Today (July 29), the star-in-the-making dropped his new song “5:00 In The Country,” which puts a countryfied twist on the common cocktail phrase blending it with traditional country, rock and gospel elements.
Paying homage to Jimmy Buffett and Alan Jackson’s “It’s 5 O’ Clock Somewhere,” the song makes you want to kick off your work boots after putting in the blue-collar forty and switch gears to a down-home weekend in a small town. It puts a Countryfied twist on the common cocktail hour phrase blending it with traditional Country, Rock, and Gospel elements.
Of the track, Rowe tells Celeb Secrets Country, “The idea came from Hunter Phelps, one of the guys I wrote it with, and Driver Williams who plays lead guitar for Eric Church. We were writing ’10-4,’ which is another song I have out, and during that session, I think it was Hunter who told me he had this idea called ‘5:00 In The Country’ and we just never wrote it but it was always in the back of my mind. One day I was thinking on it and I was like, “I’m gonna try to write a verse to it.” So I just wrote this verse and told Hunter, ‘Hey, this is what I’ve got so far!’ And he loved it and was like, ‘Let’s do it!’ So he, and I, and Driver got together and we wrote the thing. You can really hear Driver’s influence on it too. It’s got some guitars, but it’s a great mix of country rock and even blue grass on some of the melodies. So it was super cool.”
“5:00 In The Country” is the first taste of new music since releasing his debut album Bad Case Of The Good Ole Boys last August. The full-length project, which has over 7M streams to date, showcases Rowe‘s ability to mix in progressive production while staying true to his traditional roots.
“It was a great process. I learned a lot cuz it was my first one ever. So everything was kind of new for me and I got to see how it all works,” Rowe tells CS Country about the creative process behind making his debut album.
Collaborating with artists like Lainey Wilson, Ashland Craft, Tracy Lawrence, Rhett Akins, and Eddie Montgomery from Montgomery Gentry, Rowe says that the songs that speak to him the most are “Mama Ain’t Jesus” — the one he wrote with Lainey — and “The Good Ones Do.”
“I’d say the most personal [song] is ‘Mama Ain’t Jesus.’ [Lainey] and I wrote it and it was just as honest as we could be about both of our moms. We both grew up in a small farm in town and had awesome moms, so that one’s definitely the most personal,” he shares.
“And I would say if there’s another favorite — obviously it’s hard to pick — but I think if I had to pick one song that represents me and who I am as an artist, it would be ‘The Good Ones Do.’ It’s got everything in a song I look for. The lyrics have a ‘hit’ feeling, and the melody just makes you connect to so many different pieces of the verses and stuff like that.”
He also learned so much from working with Rhett Akins.
“I think [Rhett’s] poise and confidence in the studio was my biggest takeaway,” Jordan says. “Confidence is something that you can hear come across on a vocal on a song and the more confident you sing it and just be yourself on it, even if it’s just a little ad-lib moment or something, gives personality to the song.”
Take a listen to “5:00 In The Country” below and let us know if you’re loving it by either leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post or by sending us a tweet at @CS_Country.
For more interviews from CMA Fest, click here.
