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Jason McCoy is one of Canada's top country stars
of all time! A multiple award winning singer/songwriter, his
music has been a fan favorite for over a decade!
Since he's a performer at heart, it's only natural
that Jason McCoy's career would go through a number of stages.
Yeah, there are literal ones,
especially since he's delivered his fair share of concerts
since his wet-behind-the-ears emergence from the wilds of
Minesing, Ontario as a Canadian country star 10 years ago.
But there are also the phases of evolution as documented by
Jason McCoy's Greatest Hits 1995-2005, the chronicle of a
recording artist who has not only matured before his adoring
public but also paved his personal boulevard of dreams with
the foundation of realization.
"It's a benchmark," allows McCoy,
a man who long ago converted cockiness to humility. "And
it's a relief not to be working on your first or second record.
You get a little bit of breathing room."
McCoy concedes that it's the early tracks on
his 16-song greatest hits package, cuts from 1995's Jason
McCoy and 1997's gold Playin' For Keeps that built the momentum
for his songwriting-ripened Honky Tonk Sonatas (2000) and
Sins, Lies & Angels (2003). With songs such as the chart-topping
hometown anthem "This Used To Be Our Town" and the
sympathetic single-mother ode "Candle" confirming
him as a potent interpreter of universally-shared emotions
and tunes such as the rousing 1998 SOCAN Song Of The Year
"Born Again In Dixieland" establishing his gravity
as a songwriter of unlimited potential, Jason McCoy has been
able to concentrate on his overall artistic vision.
"The first albums were fragmented,"
notes McCoy. "It was Odie Blackmon, who co-produced Honky
Tonk Sonatas, that made that album my first cohesive effort.
He was very good at showing me how to make a complete package."
And although Honky Tonk Sonatas yielded McCoy
another coveted SOCAN Song of The Year award for "Ten
Million Teardrops" and other memorable hits such as the
earnest "Bury My Heart," its most valuable lesson
was consistency. This lesson was confidently implemented in
2003's Sins, Lies & Angels, ably represented here by the
hammer-to-the-pedal intensity of "I Feel A Sin' Comin'
On" and the brutal honesty of "I Lie."
"I think I'm settling into a groove,"
declares McCoy, born in Barrie and raised for a time in Camrose,
Alberta before his family re-settled in the small Barrie satellite
town of Minesing.
It was both the traditional country of Merle
Haggard, Buck Owens and Charlie Rich, as well as the Urban
Cowboy country of Mickey Gilley and Johnny Lee that set McCoy
on his artistic quest, "Country music speaks to me,"
says McCoy. "That whole Mars-Venus connection - what
men want, what women want -- just seems to be dealt with better
in country music. What I really like about country is the
classic period of the '70s, that dealt with drinking, cheating
and other things on a level of emotional honesty whether it's
better or worse. That's who we are as people."
Jason McCoy promises that -- whether it's as
a solo artist or at the helm of his much-lauded Road Hammers;
whether it's dominating the CMT Canada Video Charts or taking
his message to Australia; whether it's his involvement in
such charitable causes as Dreams Take Flight or Season's Centre
For Grieving And Traumatized Children or playing the hallowed
Grand Ole Opry -- the honesty will continue throughout each
approaching stage of his career.
"It's who I am," says McCoy, who has
added new smash "I'm Not Running Anymore" to the
package to hold fans over until he completes his next album.
"I feel like this album is my high school
period, and now I'm ready to enroll in university," he
reasons. "I'm pretty pumped about my future."
Visit JASON MCCOY's official web site: http://jasonmccoy.com/
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