Jake Owen Is Back in His Wheelhouse With New Music
Jake Owen is back in his sweet spot with his new music. "American Country Love Song" is the first single off his upcoming record, and he says he feels like it's where he’s supposed to be musically.
"I’m excited about the song," he says in a press release. "'American Country Love Song’ is the first song I’ve released, I even see it on Twitter, people saying, ‘aw man it feels good to have Jake back singing songs like we’re expecting from him,’ you know, or people like, ‘ah, I can’t wait til summer, ‘cause Jake’s always got a summer song.’ That’s what this song feels like to me. It’s just a good-feelin’ tune, and it’s doing really really well."
Owen says after a run of chart-toppers, some songs that followed didn’t really perform as well as he’d hoped.
“After my Barefoot Blue Jean Night album, I had four No. 1s in a row. The first song off the Days of Gold album was ‘Days of Gold,’ which out at my shows and everywhere else it goes really well, but chart-wise it only went about 14 or 15,” he recalls. It made him think about whether he needed to make some adjustments.
“I kind of relate it to — I was a golfer growing up and I’ve got buddies out there on the PGA tour. When you’re used to winning, you wanna finish first place all the time. When you're coming in at like 12th place, 13th place a couple times in a row, you're like, ‘okay, what’s going on here? Maybe I need to reroute my swing, maybe I need to get back to what was working,’" Owen shares with a laugh.
Whatever he did, it definitely is working. "American Country Love Song" has proven a Top 20 hit, and Owen recently released the music video for the song, which features the artist and some friends hopping in what he dubbed the Love Bus, a sea foam green Volkswagen, and driving from Nashville to Key West. The laid-back, no-frills video is a testament to the kind of authentic, feel-good aesthetic with which tries to live his life and create music.
Owen is slated to headline the Taste of Country Music Festival on June 12. He says he hopes his daughter Pearl will be able to join him for the day.
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