Waitin' in the Country  (Audio CD) 
by Jason Michael Carroll

Jason Michael Carroll's debut, already distinguished by the single "Alyssa Lies," an affecting ballad about child abuse, is a take-no-chances, radio-ready smorgasbord aimed mostly at the testosterone-fueled, truck-revvin' set. Carroll, a 28-year-old father of four and the son of a North Carolina fundamentalist preacher, hits those Piedmont consonants hard, and looks like a cross between a contemporary Christian singer and a devotee of Trace Adkins, whose speaker-rattling baritone is an obvious inspiration. With producer Don Gehman (John Mellencamp) mixing Carroll's sensitive originals with hearty commercial songs from proven Nashville hitmeisters (Craig Wiseman, Casey Beathard, Jeffrey Steele), it's hard to get a good fix on Carroll's persona, and he lives and dies by the material. One schizophrenic moment: "No Good in Goodbye," his duet with Nashville convert Jewel, who co-wrote the song with Carroll and Shaye Smith. The fading pop icon has no idea how to phrase a song like this, and the singers' interaction never sounds believable. To quote a line from another tune here, "Something like this just don't exist/Between a backwoods boy and a fairytale princess." Carroll's ability to balance the realism of "Alyssa Lies" with such obviously calculated fare (check out the Toby Keith-ish "Honky Tonk Friends") may ultimately set his fate. --Alanna Nash