NORWICH – The Firefighters Field Days celebration will culminate Sunday evening with a performance by national recording artist and country singer/songwriter Jason Michael Carroll, who said he’s excited to spend his Fourth of July with local residents at the Chenango County Fairgrounds.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” said Carroll, whose band has been touring steadily for the last several months. “It’s always amazing to see the response we get and I’m very blessed for that to be the situation.”
Carroll’s music has been gaining in popularity ever since Arista Nashville released his debut album in 2006, “Waitin’ in the Country,” which produced three Billboard Hot Country Top 40 hits, “Alyssa Lies,” “Livin’ Our Love Song,” and “I Can Sleep When I’m Dead.”
The singer, who recently turned 32, said his earliest musical memories involved “walking around listening to my dad” as he tried to learn the guitar and listening to classic 80s rock-n-roll on the radio, until the day his parents decided to “take away all forms of music except gospel,” a musical genre he’s since learned to enjoy.
“I wasn’t allowed to listen to anything else at the time or I’d get in trouble,” stated Carroll, who added he now enjoys listening to just about anything, from Aerosmith to Tupac to Michael Jackson.
Everything changed in 2004 when Carroll’s mother secretly entered him into a local, American Idol-inspired vocal contest, which he went on to win. Unbeknownst to the country singer was the fact the New York City auditions he was awarded were for a group of rap labels.
“I got to see the Statue of Liberty at least,” laughed Carroll, who said the auditions did, however, open doors for him in the form of producer Don Gehman.
