I’ve just heard the most enjoyable song off a debut cd I’ve listened to in a while. Maybe You’ll Love The Way I Leave is one single you really don’t want to miss. It’s off Joni Rae Jack’s self-titled new disc.

It’s not that surprising to me that her family has three generations (at least) of loving and playing country music. Joni Rae Jack already sounds like an old friend the first time you hear her.

About the time I turned 13, my dad and  legendary steel guitar player/ songwriter/ all around country music legend  Ralph Mooney became great friends and began runnin’ the road  goin’ to steel guitar conventions and other  music shows. I grew up listening to the stories of a bunch of retired musicians  and bus drivers that were there when Waylon and Willie made country music  history.

She learned early that it takes a group of folks to make a song work, even if there’s only one standing out front getting the credit. I’m very thankful that I grew up in a house where we  learned that it took more than 1 person to create a signature sound and that  behind every star there was a multitude of people that contributed to their  success. Maybe that’s why her own sound is so instantly appealing.

One of her daughters is a musician as well. My daughter Jade is an award winning fiddle player/ vocalist who regularly  performs with Leona Williams. Jade is making quite a name for herself and I’m  so darn proud of her not only because of her talent but because of the  beautiful woman she is turning into. She’s full of spirit and feisty as hell  and I couldn’t be happier about that.

In Maybe You’ll Love The Way I Leave, Joni Rae Jack is trying to get the point across to her boyfriend that his free ride is over with. She’s not trying to hop a freight train or a growling Greyhound bus, but she’s gonna leave just the same if he can’t change his ways.

I get home from work about 10 each night./Gotta get back up at 4./Do you have to keep reminding me/there’s no passion anymore?/I’ve been working like a dog so you can live in luxury./If you don’t like the way I love/Maybe you’ll love the way I leave.

If you’re single right now, you may wanna find somebody new (that you don’t like all that much) just so you can be singing along with this song next weekend. I get the feeling a lot of hard work went into Maybe You’ll Love The Way I Leave, even though it sounds completely effortless. The best songs do.

She says…In the midst of the fire and ashes, I’ve completed this debut cd  at Rosewood Studios produced by Greg Hunt and Shayne Morrison, with some  amazing players and I’m excited to tell you that I could not be happier with  it. The songs are real. They have meaning and stories behind them. Not only that, they have movement.

If this is the single, what’s the rest of the album like?!

Goes Good With: Bonnie Raitt, Gretchen Wilson

Rating: 9/10

Buy “Maybe You’ll Love The Way I Leave” at Amazon

Buy “Maybe You’ll Love The Way I Leave” at CD Universe