When it comes to the genre of country music, there is no star rising higher and faster today than the Antioch, Tennessee-born singer and songwriter Jelly Roll (aka Jason DeFord). In just a few short years, he’s delivered such emotional songs with such powerful, dynamic poise that he’s quickly become a favorite for music listeners in and out of the country realm.
Here below, we wanted to dive into some award-winning songs from the former rapper-turned-crooner that have become instant classics. While they are only a few years old, sometimes you just know when a song is going to last a lifetime or two. Indeed, these are three Jelly Roll songs that will be heard forever.
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“Save Me” from Self Medicated (2020)
This song released in 2020 on Jelly Roll’s LP Self Medicated was one of his early breakout singles in the country music genre. A longtime rapper in the Nashville-area, the artist traded in his rhymes for a cowboy hat and started to deliver passionate, heart-on-his-sleeve songs that tell stories about his failures and mistakes. He’s unafraid to bare his soul and this tune is one of the first examples of that in the genre he’s since thrived in. On the track, Jelly Roll sings over a plucked acoustic guitar,
Somebody save me, me from myself
I’ve spent so long living in Hell
They say my lifestyle is bad for my health
It’s the only thing that seems to help
All of this drinkin’ and smokin’ is hopeless
But feel like it’s all that I need
Somethin’ inside of me’s broken
I hold on to anything that sets me free
“Son of a Sinner” from Ballads of the Broken (2022)
The first song Jelly Roll released as a country artist, this was his breakout in the new genre. It tells the story of someone addicted to release, which often means drinking and drugs. Someone who is closer to the devil than a family. Someone who wants the highway more than he wants salvation. It’s a song of remorse and one that indicates the singer is one in a long line who have done the same. Since this song helped break him into mainstream country, it will assuredly live long. On it, he sings,
I never get lonely
I get these ghosts to keep me company
I took the rearview off of this old Ford
So I only see in front of me
Now the past is out of sight and out of mind
Swore I changed, now I’m back chasing these white lines
I’m just a long-haired son of a sinner
Searching for new ways I can get gone
I’m a pedal to the highway
If you ever wonder why we write these songs
“Need a Favor” from Whitsitt Chapel (2023)
Perhaps Jelly Roll’s most powerful and direct song to date, this track opens with the iconc line: I only talk to God when I need a favor. It’s a line so many of us can relate to. We don’t go to church but when the plane goes through turbulence, our hands are clasped. If “Son of a Sinner” was Jelly Roll’s breakout single, then the 2023 LP Whitsitt Chapel solidified him as a star in country music. And on this honest track, he sings,
I only talk to God when I need a favor
And I only pray when I ain’t got a prayer
So, who the hell am I, who the hell am I
To expect a Savior, oh
If I only talk to God when I need a favor?
But God, I need a favor
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Photo by Paul A Hebert/Shutterstock
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