Karen Jonas, ‘Country Songs’ [Exclusive Premiere]

Singer-songwriter Karen Jonas is less than a month away from releasing her fourth studio album, and she's sharing one of its songs exclusively with The Boot's readers. Press play above for an early listen of "Country Songs."

Written by Jonas solo, "Country Songs" finds Jonas reeling after a breakup -- but, because of it, finding the meaning in country songs. She was never one for country music, she sings, but heartbreak changed that: "Honey, since you’ve gone, now I realized I’m wrong / Gotta get your heart good and broken before you sing along."

A conversation with a radio DJ gave Jonas the idea for "Country Songs." When she put out her debut album, 2014's Oklahoma Lottery, she hadn't intended to make a country record, and had only recently begun listening to country music. "He said, 'Well, that makes sense, because you’ve really gotta get your heart broken a few times before you appreciate good country music.'"

"I laughed, but I thought maybe he was right," Jonas continues. "So I wrote "Country Songs" to describe that experience."

"Country Songs" is one of 11 tracks on Jonas' new album, Lucky, Revisited. It was originally the title track of Jonas' 2016 record, but for this new project, she and longtime guitarist Tim Bray went back and recorded sparser, acoustic versions of it and eight more of her previously released songs. The record, which was produced by EP Jackson, also features two covers.

"Though we’ve already recorded the songs on our previous records, the goal here wasn’t to reinvent them for this new record," Jonas explains. "We just wanted to capture the current state of the songs, because they’ve grown over the years, and we’ve grown as artists and collaborators, too. We worked ... to try to capture the energy we create at live performances."

Lucky, Revisited is due out on July 19. Visit KarenJonasMusic.com for more.

50 Country Songs Everyone Must Hear Before They Die