Jack Ingram Delays Album Release

Jack Ingram fans will have to wait just a little bit longer than anticipated for his next project, 'Big Dreams and High Hopes.' The country star's inner-perfectionist decided he needed to go back into the studio to cut some songs with a little more of a rock edge.

"This is the document of where I'm at as a person and as an artist," Jack explains to GAC. "If this is the last record I'm ever going to make -- which, until I make another one, this is the last record I'm going to make, just like they say, live everyday like it's your last. It's the same thing with making records, and so I knew that I wasn't finished. In my heart and in my soul I had to go [back in the studio]. Sorry. I know it's going to cost a little more money and take a little more time, but I got to make it right or else it's not worth it for me."

Jack brought in famed rock producer Jay Joyce, whose long list of credits include Joe Cocker, Iggy Pop, Macy Gray, and the Dixie Chicks. Jack says Jay helped evoke the sound he was looking to add.

"I come out of the clubs, the bars and the roadhouses -- from a place where you rock a little harder; you make those guitars sting a bit," Jack tells American Country Countdown. "The more I looked at what we're doing, what we've done, the more I realized that maybe that piece of me wasn't on this album yet ... and I really wanted to give my fans a full representation of who I am. This is a piece of me that is very much something Jay really understands."

Jack is less concerned about the delay and more concerned about giving his faithful fans music that represents who he really is. "It's taken me my whole life to get here, and I want to make sure that what I give the fans is a complete picture of who I am. Good or bad, however you take it, this is me ... and it's a lot of different pieces, but that's a lot of how I got here."

Jack's first single off the new album, 'Barefoot and Crazy,' is already in the Top 20 -- his fastest-rising single to date. 'Big Dreams and High Hopes' has a new release date of August 25.