Caroline Jones‘ new song is a sassy declaration of independence. The singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist released a new song titled “Come In (But Don’t Make Yourself Comfortable)” on Friday (March 12).
Jones is “independent and stubborn … sometimes to a fault,” she admits with a laugh, and that’s something she drew on for the song, in which a female narrator tells a potential love interest, “Come in / But don’t make yourself comfortable / ‘Cause I don’t know if I’m gonna like you for long / Come in / But park your truck facing out / ‘Cause I wouldn’t wanna be you when I want you gone.”
The song began as a joke between Jones and a member of her team when he showed up to a session and she quipped, “Come in … but don’t make yourself comfortable.” She wrote two verses and shared the song in progress on Instagram, where fan reactions convinced her she was onto something. She calls the resulting track a “really fun, rockabilly stomper,” adding that she “can’t wait to play it live.”
Though the song offers up a fiercely independent view of romantic entanglements, Jones’ personal life has changed considerably over the course of the last year in response to a real-life love relationship. She’s ridden out the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand, where she’s been working on her second full-length album, slated for release later in 2021.
“When all of my tours got canceled last year, it coincided with me falling in love with a man who was about to move to New Zealand,” she explains. “My boyfriend’s a sailor on the America’s Cup team, so when my tours got canceled, I had the opportunity to come here and do a partnership visa with their team.”
New Zealand has not been subject to the ravages of the coronavirus to anywhere near the same degree as many countries and is currently virtually virus-free. Jones calls the entire experience of living there “such an unexpected chapter of my life … I wouldn’t have believed any of it.”
Jones is once again co-producing the new music with Ric Wake, and they cut most of the tracks at Zac Brown‘s Southern Ground studio in Nashville in 2020 before she departed for New Zealand; it was the last full project ever recorded at the complex before it went up for sale. She’s been working remotely with some Music City musicians, as well as in person with some native New Zealand players to complete the tracks.
“Come In” is the first new single Jones has offered fans from her second album, which is due out later in 2021. Jones says she’s “eager” to get new music out “sooner rather than later,” and she feels confident that she’ll be able to return to the road in the latter part of the year to promote it.
Jones has played on very large stages over the course of the past few years as an opening acts for artists including Zac Brown Band, Kenny Chesney, Jimmy Buffett and more, but she says headlining a smaller tour of clubs could be “a good first step” toward getting back onstage in a post-pandemic live environment. But she’s still looking forward to going back out in front of larger audiences opening for more established headliners when things return to normal.
“I know that’s not everybody’s gig, but it’s definitely mine,” she enthuses. “I love getting in front of big crowds that aren’t my own, trying to win them over and being a part of a culture … it’s just priceless, that kind of experience and those kinds of memories.”
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