Caroline

I wrote Caroline with Ronnie Bowman in a writer’s room on Music Row in Nashville – we were in a historic publishing building surrounded by gold and platinum records hung all over the walls. Still though, even surrounded by the epic coolness of the building we were in, Ronnie and I were both feeling nostalgic for home that day. We are from the same place – he is from Mount Airy, NC and I’m from a couple of minutes away, where the NC state line smashes right into Virginia – Cana, Virginia. Like we always did when we wrote together, the first hour or more of our co-write was spent with us just chatting and laughing – and then somehow a song would flow out of us like it was meant to be – with ease. I always thought Ronnie and I wrote so well together because our accents from home make us rhyme the same! Ha! Anyway, that day in 2019 “Caroline” was born.

When I was recording “Caroline”, with Justin Moses in the producer’s chair, I was trying to sing the bridge – “sittin’ on the front porch swingin’, listening to my Grandma singin’, another verse to a good ol’ Sunday song” – and I just kept getting choked up thinking of my Grandma back home. Justin was so kind and patient and would run it back and let me try again until we finally got it. In literature they might refer to this as “foreshadowing” because the very next day, my sweet Grandma Mary Lee Jones, passed away. You can hear my voice tremble in the recording.

Ronnie and Justin had the idea to add a faint “Oh Come Angel Band” choir vibe behind that sweet bridge – it felt more than metaphorical since the Angel Band had come to take my Grandmother. Later, I decided to release Caroline as my next single – and then, a few months later, Ronnie also passed away and undoubtedly joined the Angel Band in Heaven. This song always meant something to me, but you can imagine what it means to me now. I’m grateful to have this recording, and I’m so happy to release it out into the world.

Please enjoy – Caroline.

-Laura Leigh Jones