Jason Michael Carroll Releases New Single, Announces New Album Details

Jason Michael Carroll is getting ready to release his first studio album in four years, What Color Is Your Sky.

The project is set for release on May 5 and will be Carroll's fourth full-length album, his first since 2011's Numbers.

“This record is who I am! It's the songs I felt and wrote by myself or with friends," Carroll says in a press release. "It’s recorded by my band, people I live, travel and hang with, and it's the way I wanted it to sound. I hope it connects in a way that makes them feel like they can't wait for the next one!”

The album was partially funded by fans through a Kickstarter campaign last year. Carroll's campaign goal was to raise $40,000, but fans stepped up and raised close to $70,000 to support the project, which is being self-released via For the Lonely Records. Carroll says that making an album through this process has been the perfect fit for him business-wise, but he recognizes that it has meant that he has to work harder to get his music out to the public.

"I get to make the music I want to make without the influence of corporate parties or which label is in bed with, or close to, which publisher. My band -- who I trust enough to perform with me night after night -- is who I picked as my band for this record! It all makes sense," he says. "The challenges are not having the finances to push our music with the resources that major labels have to push their artists. Music that is shaping today's accepted norm. There is no doubt in my mind or my fans' minds that this record, my music, can stand with all of the music being pushed by major labels, but without their bank, we have to work harder. I'm okay with that.”

Carroll released the album's debut single, "God Only Knows," on March 17. The singer penned the song with two of his Nashville songwriting friends, and he says that his inspiration came from an unexpected place.

“I’m kind of a nut when it comes to certain things, and when I get something in my head, I kind of stick to it,” he tells Country Weekly. “So, do you remember the song, Bonnie Tyler’s "Holding Out for a Hero"? One of the reasons I love it is because, when I was a kid, before my parents made the switch to nothing but gospel, I’d hear that song, and it just made you want to move, and I wanted to write a song that made you want to move.

"So, I went into my writing session and said, ‘I want to do a song like this, like Bonnie Tyler’s "Holding Out for a Hero."' And they kind of laughed at me at first, but then one of them started playing the guitar," Carroll adds. "Next thing you know, I’m singing lyrics to an idea I had.”

"God Only Knows" is available for download via Amazon and iTunes. See a list of Carroll's upcoming tour stops at JasonMichaelCarroll.com.

Jason Michael Carroll, What Color Is Your Sky Track Listing:

1. "All I’m Drinking ‘Bout"
2. "God Only Knows"
3. "What Color Is Your Sky"
4. "Here’s To"
5. "Love Like July"
6. "Does He Know"
7. "‘Til the Speakers Blow"
8. "Civil War"
9. "Urgency"
10. "Blown Away"
11. "We Ride
12. "Close Enough"
13. "Here With Me"
14. "Painting Pictures"
15. "Waste Their Life"