{"id":3803,"date":"2015-03-15T23:34:45","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T04:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/?page_id=3803"},"modified":"2015-05-20T11:26:03","modified_gmt":"2015-05-20T16:26:03","slug":"barefoot-blue-jean-night-2011-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/music\/barefoot-blue-jean-night-2011-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Barefoot Blue Jean Night (2011)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Samantha Godfrey. 15 March 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Jake-Owen-Barefoot-Blue-Jean-Night-Album-Cover-CountryMusicRocks_net\"<\/a>Jake Owen<\/a>, a Florida native who took up guitar while recovering from shoulder surgery following a wake boarding incident in college, is one of the top country artists at this moment in time. After quitting college just shy of graduation to make his pilgrimage to Nashville, he has been successful with all the albums that he has released, especially his album Barefoot Blue Jean Night<\/a><\/em>. This album has been said, multiple times, to be his best work yet. It includes a variety of sounds from a superbly chosen stack of songs. The songs range from country rock, acoustic ballads, and party anthems. All the songs tell a story and definitely go along with Owen\u2019s \u201ceasy does it\u201d vibe.<\/p>\n

\"JO<\/a>Jake Owen was raised in the coastal town of Vero Beach, Florida. He attended Florida State University where he was a member of their golf team. He then suffered a severe shoulder injury while wakeboarding. It was while his arm was stuck in a sling that he figured out his true purpose in life, realizing that he could still hold a guitar and write songs (CMT Artists<\/em>). After his recovery, Owen became a regular club entertainer once he decided to leave college. It was in 2005 that Owen switched from performing in Florida bars to moving to Nashville, and within months he had a Music Row song-publishing contract. Less than a year later he signed with RCA records and was on the charts with his first two singles, \u201cYee Haw\u201d and \u201cStartin\u2019 With Me.\u201d He opened shows for Kenny Chesney<\/a>, and Brad Paisley<\/a> also took him on the road where he scored his third hit, 2007\u2019s \u201cSomething About a Woman.\u201d In 2008, he opened shows for Sugarland, and was Keith Urban\u2019s<\/a> touring partner on the Get Closer 2011 World Tour (CMT Artists<\/em>).\u00a0Jake Owen has enjoyed major-league success with such performances as 2008\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Think I Can\u2019t Love You\u201d and 2009\u2019s \u201cEight Second Ride\u201d. His revival of \u201cLife in a Northern Town\u201d with Sugarland<\/a> and Little Big Town<\/a> in 2008 earned him Grammy and CMA Award nominations. Owen was named 2009\u2019s Top New Male Vocalist by the Academy of Country Music. But nothing, he says, compares to the impact Barefoot Blue Jean Night<\/em> is making (CMT Artists<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Barefoot Blue Jean Night<\/em> is Owen\u2019s third album of four total and was released on August 30, 2011. It includes eleven tracks that contain the \u201cBarefoot Blue Jean Night\u201d single, the album\u2019s title track. This was the most successful song of the album, which peaked at number one on the U.S. Country Airplay charts, twenty-one on the U.S. charts, and fifty-two on the Canadian charts. It also went double Platinum. The single is a catchy, clap-along track that highlights the goodness of summer, like beautiful women and cold beer. The chorus, in particular, holds the feeling of being young and free-spirited; it certainly was an anthem for anyone who knows the feeling of late night trouble-making and being barefoot to the cool pavement.<\/p>\n

\"Jake<\/a>In this album, the songs all seem to follow along the same guideline of embracing the laid-back attitude that follows the summer season. Each song almost represents a typical summer day, or night, that one might experience. There are songs that celebrate the party atmosphere summer provides, like the track \u201cNobody Feelin\u2019 No Pain.\u201d Throughout this particular song, you get the feeling that you are on tour with Jake Owen. He really seems to grab his audience when he chose to include spoken lyrics right in the middle of this song. During this moment, Jake Owen asks his audience what they do once the hotel bar and pool close and then follows by saying, \u201cwhat you probably did was go down to that old icemaker, down there in the hallway and start fillin up that bathtub, in your room with as much ice and as much liquid refreshments as it would possibly hold, and pretty soon you got a big ol\u2019 party goin on,\u201d leaving you with the desire of wanting to party. Having Barefoot Blue Jean Night<\/em> released right as summer finished proved to be very successful for Owen, most likely due to the fact that everyone holds on to their summer as long as they can.<\/p>\n

The year 2011 was also a year filled with financial instability, as the economy appeared to crash. With Barefoot Blue Jean Night<\/em> being released, it helped create an escape for forty minutes from the huge stress and responsibility everyone faced. The theme Owen allows his listeners to live vicariously through in his music is the topic of love, with songs like \u201cAlone With You\u201d and \u201cAnywhere With You\u201d. The upbeat guitar strums automatically put a smile on listener\u2019s faces when \u201cAnywhere With You\u201d starts playing. The track allows you to create an image in your head of a trip with your \u201ccertain somebody,\u201d traveling this great country. Owen paints a summer romance built around fun and sporadic whims.<\/p>\n

This album was very successful since the beginning, as it landed the number one spot in the US Billboard Top Country Albums<\/em> and number six on the US Billboard 200<\/em> chart in 2011. Owen only helped write one of the songs out of the eleven, which was \u201cThe One That Got Away.\u201d This signaled a different approach Owen\u2019s decided to take with this album than his previous two, which he wrote or co-wrote everything on.<\/p>\n

\"Keith<\/a>Turing into the Nashville star he is today looked to start for Jake Owen when he took the opening slot on Keith Urban\u2019s Get Closer tour<\/a>. Sony Music Nashville CEO Gary Overton said for Owen \u201cto be out in front of Keith Urban [then], [was] a perfect crowd. He [did] a phenomenal job and the reaction [was] wonderful,\u2019\u201d (Price). Gaining that exposure from Keith Urban helped Owen sell his hot single \u201cBarefoot Blue Jean Night.\u201d\u00a0Urban\u2019s world tour was set with an elaborate steel lighting shaped like roller coaster and Ferris wheel that served as his backdrop, indicating that summer would be written all over it. Throughout this tour Urban released big songs, such as \u201cPut You In a Song\u201d and \u201cWithout You.\u201d From all that exposure Owen was selling 65,000 downloads of the single every week.<\/p>\n

The big turnaround for Jake Owen, and how he was riding his biggest hit with his third album, was because of Owen\u2019s choice to remake his team. Owen\u2019s single \u201cBarefoot Blue Jean Night,\u201d written by Dylan Altman, Terry Sawchuk and Capitol Records newcomer Eric Paslay, was the starting point in his different take on this album. Barefoot Blue Jean Night<\/em> also finds Owen working with a new set of producers. Owen stated he had to go with his \u201cgut feeling\u201d and leave Jimmy Ritchey, who produced Owen\u2019s first two albums. He then let in Tony Brown, known for working with George Strait and Reba McEntire, songwriter Rodney Clawson (Strait\u2019s \u201cI Saw God Today\u201d and Jason Aldean\u2019s \u201cAmarillo Sky\u201d), and Joey Moi (Nickelback) (CMT Artists<\/em>). Because of being so suddenly thrust into the spotlight on the road, Owen never really go to know the Nashville country community, which he comments was the reason for his big change. Owen explains that he \u201c\u2018realized that [he] wasn\u2019t using the tools that this town, [Nashville], [gave him] with all these amazing songwriters. By recording all of these outside songs, people [felt] like they [had] vested [an] interest and they were pulling for [him],\u2019\u201d (Price).<\/p>\n

\"Jake-Owen\"<\/a>Owen never seemed to receive backlash from his audience fan base for switching his sound. In fact, Melodie Stickrath \u201cMeledstick\u201d and Ficwriter1966 from Amazon<\/a> rated this album and new sound a five out of five stars. They both loved his \u201cmixture of styles \u2013 some serious, some playful, all performed with that sense of \u2018let\u2019s all just hang out and have some fun\u2019 attitude.\u201d Only two people gave Barefoot Blue Jean Night<\/em> one star. R. E. Davidson says he is too commercial music. Of course, Davidson is probably biased because he then goes on to express his opinion that country music\u2019s purpose is to validate mediocrity. However, even after almost four years from the album\u2019s release date, the majority of his fans still love this album. They still are giving it a five out of five stars. Which, some say, could be attributed for Owen taking advantage of social media, especially Twitter, to develop a strong relationship with his fans (Price).<\/p>\n

\n

Tracks:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u201cAnywhere With You\u201d (B. Hayslip, D. L. Murphy, J. Yeary)<\/li>\n
  2. \u201cKeepin\u2019 It Country\u201d (R. Clawson, C. Tompkins)<\/li>\n
  3. \u201cWide Awake\u201d (B. Eldredge, D. L. Murphy, R. Rutherford)<\/li>\n
  4. \u201cBarefoot Blue Jean Night\u201d (E. Paslay, D. Altman, T. Sawchuk)<\/li>\n
  5. \u201cHeaven\u201d (C. DuBois, A. Gorley, M. Jenkins)<\/li>\n
  6. \u201cApple Pie Moonshine\u201d (R. Clawson, C. Tompkins, C. Kroeger, C. Wiseman)<\/li>\n
  7. \u201cThe Journey of Your Life\u201d (R. Bowman, T. Jones)<\/li>\n
  8. \u201cAlone With You\u201d (C. Gravitt, J. T. Harding, S. McAnally)<\/li>\n
  9. \u201cSettin\u2019 the World On Fire\u201d (D. George, C. Jones, K. Moore)<\/li>\n
  10. \u201cNobody Feelin\u2019 No Pain\u201d (B. James, \u00a0D. L. Murphy)<\/li>\n
  11. \u201cThe One That Got Away\u201d<\/a> (D. Davidson, J. Owen, J. Ritchey)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \n

    Works Cited<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u201cBarefoot Blue Jean Night.\u201d<\/a> Wikipedia<\/em>. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2015.<\/p>\n

    \u201cJake Owen Bio | Jake Owen Career.\u201d<\/a> CMT Artists<\/em>. Viacom International, Inc., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2015.<\/p>\n

    Price, Deborah E. \u201cDoin\u2019 My Thing.\u201d<\/a> Billboard<\/em>. 3 Sept. 2011: 33. Academic Search Complete<\/em>. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Written by Samantha Godfrey. 15 March 2015. Jake Owen, a Florida native who took up guitar while recovering from shoulder surgery following a wake boarding incident in college, is one of the top country artists at this moment in time. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"parent":18,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3803","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3803"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4898,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3803\/revisions\/4898"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}