Jo Dee Messina Announces Release Date for New Album

After months of anticipation, Jo Dee Messina has announced the release date for her next studio album. The project is the singer's first since parting ways with Curb in 2012. 

Simply titled 'Me,' the album is slated to drop in March via Messina's own Dreambound Records, with distribution through eOne Music. Messina crowd funded the project through a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign that surpassed her goal of $100,000, making it the largest such project ever to come out of Nashville, and the 15th largest funded music campaign in the history of Kickstarter at the time of its completion.

Messina's fans not only helped make the project happen, they also chose the title, first single ('Peace Sign'),  and even submitted ideas for the label logo.

The genesis for the album traces back to a track titled 'Not Dead Yet,' which took shape after Messina's difficult departure from Curb.

“I had been listening to the naysayers around me and thought, ‘I have so much to offer now that I'm free of the restraints I had with my label,'" she says in a press release. "I then had a conversation with my friend and co-writer saying, ‘I have so much left to do, so much left to say. Goodness! I'm not dead yet!’ And that is how the song was born. It talks about how if I listened to the small thinkers and naysayers, I might as well throw in the towel. Music is my life, it's a part of who I am. I'm not ready to give up that part of my life. Hell, I'm just getting started!”

One highlight of the project is 'A Woman's Rant,' which was inspired when Messina's youngest child would not sleep for more than two hours at a time. She wrote the song while up in the middle of the night. "It's literally a day in the life of me," she shares.

Another is 'Me,' which fans chose as the album's title track. "I think it fits because this record explores many different sides of who I am," Messina notes. "The song came about through a conversation with one of my co-writers, Kathie Baillie of Baillie & the Boys, who has a grown daughter. I was feeling the stress of trying to be everything to everyone and asked her how she did it."

She continues, "There is a part of me that thinks when I look in the mirror, I should see Wonder Woman. When I see me, it terrifies me. Can I really pull off all the things I have to be to so many? I don't know. We'll see. This song gives folks a peek at the vulnerable side of me which isn't shown that often.”

'Me' is set for release on March 18.