Music

New acoustic disc brings Eady to LR

Texas-based country singer Jason Eady performs at the White Water Tavern tonight.
Texas-based country singer Jason Eady performs at the White Water Tavern tonight.

Forgive singer-songwriter Jason Eady if he's a little groggy on this April afternoon. He has just returned from a tour of Ireland and is fighting off the inevitable jet lag.

"It was really good," he says of his first visit to the land of U2 and Van Morrison. "We did five shows and it's just an unbelievable place to play. We didn't get to do a ton of sightseeing, but the people were great and they love music over there."

Jason Eady

9 p.m. today, White Water Tavern, 2500 W. Seventh St., Little Rock

Admission: $10

(501) 375-8400

whitewatertavern.com

Eady was regrouping for a U.S. tour that brings him to the White Water Tavern in Little Rock tonight. He's on the road in advance of his latest album, a self-titled batch of infectious, thoughtful, stripped-down country.

"We're really trying to focus on the acoustic thing right now," he says, but don't think it's a navel-gazing mopefest.

"When people talk about acoustic albums, a lot of times, they think it's going to be a mellow, singer-songwriter album with just one guy and a guitar," he says. "But we wanted to do an acoustic album that didn't sound like that kind of record, that still had some energy and drive."

Mixing a touch of bluegrass with folk and country and Eady's warm, native-Mississippian twang, the album, which will be released Friday, embraces a world-weary tone that somehow still sounds hopeful. If you're a fan of Don Williams' best stuff, then you would appreciate this record.

"It's something I do a lot, getting together with friends and jamming [with acoustic instruments]. I'd just never put it on an album before," Eady says of the inspiration behind the acoustic approach on this, his sixth album.

The album opens with "Barabbas," co-written by Eady's friend Larry Hooper and told from the perspective of the biblical figure who was freed when Jesus was sentenced to die.

"I helped [Hooper] finish it up and I just love the idea," says Eady, who lives in Stephenville, Texas, with his wife, singer-songwriter Courtney Patton. "It talks about so much in that one story."

Another new track, "Rain," has become a favorite to perform, he says, especially when his four-piece band is with him, as they will be tonight. "It's tough for me to pull off by myself, but when I've got the guys, we can really do some things with that song."

Eady, 42, grew up in Jackson, Miss., listening mostly to country and bluegrass.

"My family was into what was going on in country music at the time," he says, "Waylon [Jennings], Merle [Haggard], so that was always playing. My parents' friends were big bluegrass guys so they would always have bluegrass jams at the house and we'd go to bluegrass festivals."

Blues and Southern gospel were also around and it wasn't long before Eady decided it was time to make music himself.

"I started when I was 13," he says. "My stepdad had a little bluegrass jam every Tuesday night at the house and I'd sit around and watch them play. When they left, I'd sneak to the living room and grab his Martin guitar off the wall. I just wanted to do what they did."

Style on 04/18/2017

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