Jaryd Lane & The Parish

Critics pretty much agree that Jaryd Lane writes moving songs that tell stories. But listeners aren’t always sure which genre best fits him.
Your Life in Song, a website that highlights country music from a British perspective, mentions Bob Seger and Will Hoge when they say Lane “…has a fine voice, write great songs and plays a mean guitar.”
Before Lane performed at the 2014 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, AXS Music said Lane performs “… southern soul, blues and country that really resonated with ordinary working class people.”
Lane tends to agree with all of the above. But the title of his latest CD may best describe his genre: “American Country Southern Rock N’ Roll.”
“We’re definitely not straight-up country,” said Lane. “We’re definitely not straight-up rock.
“That’s how the title came out. Hopefully you dig it.
“It’s definitely Southern, country rock. Whatever Bob Seger would be today. Whatever the Eagles would be today. That’s the stuff I really did the most. I try to incorporate that into my own stuff.”
“Pretty Little Rebel,” a rocker about a free-spirited girlfriend who got away, is enjoying airplay on nearly 20 radio stations in several states. A hard-drinking man promises his latest sins will be his last on “When I Get On a Roll.”
Confessions of a father watching the march of time stir “That Scares Me.” Callie Guidry of Sweet Cecilia shines with harmonies on the acoustic, love ballad, “Nothing Fancy.”
Lane said the CD, done at the legendary Dockside Studio in Maurice, was almost done as a live recording with few edits and retakes.
“We basically just played it like we were rehearsing,” said Lane. “We did a couple of takes and took the best one.
“There was no going back over and building layers. I’ve done it like that before.
“Sometimes you lose track of what you’re doing and you lose that whole vibe, the energy of it. That was the first one we’ve done like this.”
The CD becomes Lane’s eighth independent release since launching his band, The Parish, in 2005. The group has opened for Bad Company, Darius Rucker, Travis Tritt and other stars.
Lane flirted with Nashville success in 2008, when country legend Tracy Lawrence signed him to his record label. But the company went out of business before any songs were released.
Lane just plans to keep writing and singing.
“We’re not a variety band. That’s not our thing. We’re trying to be an artist. You go to certain areas and they’re used to a certain thing.
“Around here, they’re used to dancing. That’s part of the Cajun culture. I think we’re as fortunate to do as well as we’ve done.” - Herman Fuselier

Thank you, Jaryd, for taking the time to do this and on short notice. Wishing you great success with the new release.

1. One of the things I admire in your music is the raw intensity with an undercurrent of smooth soul. I know your music comes from the heart but style is something you build over time. Would you share something about how you found and developed your style?

At the end of the day we as artists are just a product of our influences. For me, that list is pretty long, but some of the artists that come to mind are the ones that I can say I own the entire album collection. (Bob Seger, Hank Jr, Eagles, Tom Petty, Lynyrd Skynyrd). It’s like listening to their bio. That’s what I admired the most. Songs with meaning. Our style has definitely developed over time. I don’t think we found our true sound until we were around 3 albums in and it grew from there. Playing live a lot has been a huge part of our sound also. You find ways to play and record songs that you would never create stuck in a studio on the clock.

2. American Country Southern Rock n Roll released on the 27th. What makes this album different from the previous five?

For one, this is the 1st album that I’ve recorded entirely with my live band, The Parish, and not session players. So we cut it just like that, live. We hung out, cooked, recorded, drank and made music. The process as a whole was real loose, but organized at the same time. We’ve also touched on topics that we never have on this one.

3. How do you keep that Jaryd Lane your fans expect while bringing something new to the stage from one performance to another, year after year?

I’ve always said, even as an artist, I’m still a fan of music. I’m always looking and listening to things that inspire me so I’m constantly learning and picking up tricks from other artists that I can incorporate into our own shows. We always try to ­­add something to the songs we’ve recorded. We never want the fans to say we could have stayed home and just listened to the album.

4. Your music has an almost transparency into Jaryd Lane. Do you ever regret being that open?

I think the great thing about songwriting is that I can write the songs from a personal view but the listener can take it and put his own perspective on it. I’m actually a pretty private guy but of course there are some songs that are quite obvious where they come from. We as artists grow and evolve just like everyone else and I think the listener wants to feel the same and feel that connection.

5. You’ve opened for some of the artists who inspired you growing up. Who was the first one you opened up for and how did you feel?

The 1st artist was Edwin McCain. I’m a huge fan of what he does. He was probably one of the 1st other than James Taylor that inspired me to pick up an acoustic guitar and write songs. The music is really acoustic rootsy based and that’s what I’ve always loved and still love the most to this day, acoustic stuff. I kinda wish I wouldn’t have been so nervous at the time I met him because I would have loved to chat more and pick his brain on the business. But I was real green at the time, so all I could do was say hi and thanks for letting me do the show lol. Hopefully we can do it again sometime.

6. A lot of artists come into the business thinking they know how things work. What was one of the misconceptions you had about the business early on and how did you turn that around to work for you?

I think the moment you think you actually know it all in this business your ego has taken over for the bad. It’s a constant learning process. There’s nothing in this business that says if you do A you can achieve B or C and so on. I think the biggest misconception I had when starting is that you had to be a huge superstar to have a music career. Well I learned quick that everyone has their own interpretation of what a Star is. It’s for some and not for others for sure, so we’ve used the tools out there these days for Indie artists and have been continuing to grow that to control what we do and not be a puppet on a string so to speak.

7. You’ve had some things that didn’t quite work out over the course of your career. You are an indie artist. What do you feel is your greatest asset or strength as an indie?

We’ve definitely had some downfalls but I have to say with each one it was a learning process and there were some good things that came out of it. I’ve made some great connections and relations with folks in this business and some of the best ones are thru situations that didn’t work out but it has helped in being an indie artist in some shape or form. I’d have to say the greatest asset of being indie is being in control. We take what we do very seriously and want to make sure what we put out represents us in the best way possible. As indie artist we are able to do just that.

8. What’s the one thing you want people to know about you… the one thing that differs from the perception we (they) have of you?


I think the biggest thing and the thing I see even myself from the folks I look up to in this business is that we are real. We have the same problems and struggles as everyone else. We just share it differently with everyone and hopefully that helps others to deal with things, good or bad. Other than that I’m actually a pretty shy and private guy who likes staying home on weekends when not on stage and hanging with the family, cooking out and drinking a few cold ones. - Country Angel

Jaryd Lane channels Bob Seger and his inner modern cowboy on 78.'


It's fitting that when Jaryd Lane played the Bayou Country Super Fest, it was only in the parking lot. Lane doesn't fit into the pre-cut slot of a country megastar. Sure, he's got the look, the voice, a great sound. But Lane has something they don't: deep, rich lived-in songs that he actually wrote. True, they have the millions - of fans, of dollars, of records sold - and he doesn't yet.

But that's alright with Lane, who released 78, his fifth full-length album, on Dec. 17. "I really have no desire to be a famous superstar.

I sort of like being the underground underdog," says Lane.

His aversion to fame wasn't always the case. In fact, Lane - actually Kaplan native Jaryd Lane Hargrave - was so anxious to head to Nashville he switched to general studies to graduate faster. It worked. Almost.

In 2008, Lane cut four songs with Tracy Lawrence's Rocky Comfort Records. But his backers parted with the label before anything materialized.

"Through the process, I got to write with a lot of great writers and meet some wonderful folks," says Lane. "Just being able to be around Tracy and [his] musical peers was like Music 101. Just to see how national artists run things was a great experience."

For a local, he's doing well. A full-time musician, Lane is constantly gigging and will appear on the Travel Channel's coverage of Colfax's Trucks Gone Wild. The spring also sees him making his first Jazz Fest appearance. In 2011, Service Chevrolet featured him and his "Silverado" in a commercial. Two of his CDs, Country Boy Sessions and Riding for the Brand, were top local sellers at Barnes & Noble. "I think the biggest achievement is just being able to do it. To provide for my family and actually make a living at this is a great feeling."
Lane labels himself a country Bob Seger, and it goes further than his link with Chevy (Seger's "Like a Rock" is a Chevy advertising icon). In the homage heavy "Seger Song," Seger's greatest hits provide allusions for Lane's love story. Lane croons, "We'll make the night moves/I will be your beautiful loser if you want me to/That fire will be burning down below/Baby we can do no wrong, living a Seger song."

Even in songs without his name, Seger's influence is clear: This is earnest country amped up with a classic rock edge. Lane is down home, yet raw and real minus the twang, having instead soulful, smooth backing vocals. Lane pours out his heart and the hearts of the cowboy heroes who inspire him. And Lane tells these stories well with his rugged and room-filling voice. His songs have a lived-in 'till worn out feel, without the flash, pop polish and ridiculousness of today's country. In other words, there are no songs about pontoon boats, no Auto-Tune and no guest appearances by rappers. "I wasn't worried about getting a deal or what's the fad at the time," says Lane. "Just making music."

Though they will haunt you, Lane's songs don't rely on infectious catchy jingle-like hooks and choruses. Instead they are crammed with authenticity. At the same time, he perfectly captures the restless tramp's desire to ramble and the homesick family man hitting the road to provide a better life. In the world of watery Michelob Ultra country pop, 78 is aged whiskey. "I think the songs these days come from a lot of personal experiences," Lane says. "You can't fake it if you're gonna make it. You gotta live it!"

Lane gives his most personal performance on the title track. He reflects on a life gone by: an adult young enough to remember the good times but old enough to be saddled with responsibilities and hard times of someone who "calloused these hands in the dusty fields of granddad's land." You can't wear boots, a Stetson and cut a record (Seger influence or not) without dirt roads, hard times, good times, love and heartbreak, and Lane meets this requirement handily. In "Living Proof," he sings, "The harder the life, the sweeter the song."

Though he shakes off a quest for stardom, it's not hard to peg Lane as a viable contender to stand behind an award show podium. Still, he's happy where he is even if labels don't quite get him.

"I think the biggest struggle over the years is for people/industry to get what we do," he says. "We aren't you're straight up country or your pop country, so we've always sort of been the outcasts."

For now, Lane is Acadiana's premier cowboy troubadour, scuffing the stages of local venues instead of the red carpet, award shows or sold out headliner spots of his own. For now, he doesn't have a record burning up the charts and resetting the tone of country music.

For now, he's playing parking lots and mud truck events. For now. - The Independent

Now that we are all fully recovered from the madness that is Mardi Gras, it’s about time to get ready for the stress of homework and exams. I didn’t notice much new music over the break. I may of missed something, but what can I say, I took a break for Mardi Gras too. A great way to relax in between cramming is to check out a local artist by the name of Jaryd Lane. Lane is a Louisiana native who plays at many bars and clubs around the Southern Louisiana area, and his popularity is growing to a national level. He is the best known local country artist in Acadiana, and is popular for a reason: This man has a vast amount of talent. When I first sampled his albums it sounded nothing like a local artist; it sounded more like a country veteran. The music is enjoyable to listen to even for a die-hard indie rocker like me. I personally think Jaryd is going to hit it big withing the next year or so. His first album, “Country Boy Sessions” has been steadily selling out in local music stores throughout Louisiana and his biggest selling LP to date. His powerful vocals and pleasing guitar work are most likely to blame. His voice is articulate and clear and his lyrics are very genuine. Jaryd has his own website, www.jarydlane.com which is very polished, professional and easy to navigate. In the biography page, he has a description that perfectly describes his music. “In a style that varies from Skynyrd grit and a Segers drift to acoustic country and blues, Jaryd touches hard working fun loving people with songs about love, sin, God, and family – with lyrics that speak to everyday people about everyday life.” He is a very down-to-earth guy and he has a personality that tells you he grew up in the South. Hospitality and humility are words that came to mind when I met him. I was present for the performance at Barnes N’ Noble, and it was spectacular, but the audience was a bit different than what Jaryd was used to. The crowd at this performance was either too young to get into his usual venues or too old to go to a bar. Nonetheless, he played his heart out to a very excited and grateful crowd. Songs like God Bless The Country Girl; pay tribute to all the country girls out there and how they drive guys like Jaryd crazy. It’s a very catchy song, and if I didn’t know he was a local artist I would automatically assume it was a national hit. A song that was released on his previous album, “Country Boy Blues” is on this release as well. The recording is very polished and true to life. It tells of a cowboy’s blues. I catch myself humming the chorus to myself while at work: “Hey, cowboy tell me what ya trying to prove. Ya don’t need no fame and fortune to make this woman love you.” He has may other powerful and heartfelt songs on this album. Jaryd’s music is simply amazing. It makes me want to trade in my plastic black rimmed glasses and sweater for cowboy hat and boots. – Michael Mouton - The Vermilion

Jaryd Lane describes his music as country/blues/acoustic The line could simply say storyteller . The title cut of Lane’s new CD, Riding For The Brand, is the touching story of a hard-working cowboy, who is taken out by cancer but still lives on in spirit over the land he once worked. A hopeless couple argues over money, groceries, rent and more until they count their blessings in What are We Fighting For? After one too many sleepless nights, a girl packs her bags as she chooses between her whiskey-filled boyfriend and San Antone.
For Lane, music is a means of telling good stories.
I'm a story guy, songs that hit home for people. I just really love music. I like everything from writing to composing, entertaining, singing. I'm not just here to say, Look at me. I got a guitar and can sing.
I'd be very happy without a person knowing what I look like. That's not why I'm doing it. I enjoy making music and giving it to people.
You always get feedback and everybody likes something different"
Lane braces for more feedback on his new 12-song, all original CD, Riding for the Brand.
Riding for the Brand is the follow-up to Lane's 2005 debut, Country Boy Sessions. That all original CD made him the top selling local artist at the Lafayette Barnes Noble store.
Country Boy Blues, a song from that CD, became a No. 1 request on Lafayette country station KXKC. It finished No. 8 in the station Top 100 songs for 2006.
Country Boy Blues and What are We Fighting For return with a full band on the new CD. Other songs include a salute to cowboy-chasing, boot-cut wearing babes in God Bless the Country Girl and joys of Deuce, Deuce Red Man Chew after a hard day in the field.
A visit back to a home shared with an ex- inspires I Use to Love There.
Lane says his stories come from everyday life, listening to conversations and other styles of music. He counts Bob Seger, James Taylor, Skynyrd and Hank Jr. among his diverse influences.
Lane feels the CD will appeal to country music fans and beyond.
It's not straight-up country. But the things we touch on, it's got real country flavor to it.
"Some of the songs have a bluesy flavor. We have two acoustic songs. It's not an overproduced project by any means. I like that it has a real raw sound. Hopefully it doesn't sound like anything out there. I wouldn't say I'm the best singer in the world. But the kind of songs I sing, it works for me".
Lane's music has allowed him to open for Aaron Lewis, Darius Rucker, Bad Company, Edwin McCain and Kenny Wayne Shepherd.
- Herman Feuselier - The Advertiser

Jaryd Lane
One of Southern Louisiana's next Big Stars
Our Jaryd Lane Gallery

Jaryd Lane – Riding for the Brand

While traveling through Southern Louisiana, we stopped at a local County Fair to see Platinum Country Star, Billy Currington. The Cajun Hot Sauce Festival had all sorts of things for the locals to see and taste. Fantastic local favorites like Fried Catfish, Pulled Pork dripping with locally made BBQ sauce that made your mouth water just smelling it.

Southern Beauties wandering around in their cut-off Daisy Dukes and those real Cowboys, not the type you see at the yearly Hank Williams Jr. concert. No, these boys looked liked they lived on a horse and actually made Boot Cut Wranglers look good.

Local Fairs are always fun people watching, but what surprised me most, was the opening band. We had never heard of him and hadn’t even planned on watching him; we had come to see the headliner.

That was till he took the stage and we started hearing his mesmerizing voice. We fought our way through the crowd of screaming girls and went behind the stage where we could really see him work the whipped up crowd.

I asked a security guard who he was and why the women were going so crazy? Cindy slapped me on the back of my bald head saying “Have you looked at him, He’s Smoking Hot!!” The security guard said he was a local boy, and has a few number one songs on the local country stations.

The local girls naturally love him for his good looks and deep southern drawl. It was at that time when he sang one of his songs off his newest album that Cindy and I looked at each other and said “This is that song!” We had heard a song on the radio a few days earlier and had wrote down the artist saying, “We have to get this CD.”

For the next hour, we sat there listening to one of the best performances we’ve ever heard. Being in the entertainment business, we’ve seen a lot of shows, and this young country star knows how to play the crowd.

Jaryd Lane introduced his band, let them take a break mid-way through the show, and sat on a stool singing a few songs acoustic for the first 10 rows of screaming girls. Jaryd brought the band back on stage and brought the house down all the time making it look like he’s been doing this for years.

After the show, he came backstage and gave Cindy and I a few minutes of his time. He sat talking to us like we were old friends. Even though he had hundreds of girls screaming for an autograph and a chance to get a picture with him, he sat talking to us and even gave us both of his CD’s to listen to.

It wasn’t till a few days later that I realized how talented this young guy is. Jaryd Lane’s new album, Riding For The Brand is amazing!! From the first song to the last, it blends sounds of the southern rock from Lynyrd Skynyrd, a little Stone Temple Pilots acoustic, a young George Strait and his own addictive sounds to make one of the best albums I’ve heard in years.

If you’d like to hear some fantastic music, check out his website to see where you can buy his CD. www.jarydlane.com

Back to the Cajun Hot Sauce Festival in Louisiana where after we heard the opening band, we sort of forgot about the headliner. It’s rare to see a show, and walk out more impressed with the little guy who was supposed to get you hyped up for the main event. Maybe it’s time to move Jaryd Lane up to the Headliner.

PS. On a side note, a few days later we were driving through Arkansas on our way to another event; flipping through the channels, and who do we hear but Mr. Jaryd Lane on NPR’s Prairie Home Companion, singing one of his acoustic melodies. Maybe this local boy is bigger than we thought! - Every Miles A Memory

With his million-dollar voice and solid songs, it’s a shame that Jaryd Lane hasn’t been snapped up by Nashville. If the country music record labels had any sense, they’d offer him a deal solely on the strength of “San Antone,” a song that pulls off openhearted honesty, great lyrics (“What she said cut me like glass”) and a catchy radio-ready hook. The well-written narrative perfectly complements his voice, getting tons of mileage just by the way he sings the hook of “take the whiskey and I’ll take San Antone.” Lane’s deep pipes have a sight twang rounded out with the robustness of a Southern rock star or a George Strait. – Nick Pittman - The Independent

“COLORADOAN”

Hard Work and Hard Partying: Music from Cattle Country

By Pat Feeley

Back when Fort Collins was as much a cow town as a college town, when most people still called CSU “A&M,” country-western music and country dancing were a staple of local clubs and local radio. While it remains a great music town, it is bigger and more diverse, and seems to believe that country music is either out of date or too massaged by the producers of look-alike, sound-alike artists. At the same time, the West of ranching has shrunk as developers have thrown up McMansions and condos, med centers and retail space, on bare pastures between the feedlots and the gravel pits. I myself haven’t been a fan in years.

But one evening in late April, getting ready to go to the symphony, I heard a country singer/songwriter on Prairie Home Companion.

The song was, “What Are We Fighting For,” about a young man in the middle of one of those no-reason-for-it wrangles that bubble over from a combination of not much money, a couple of kids, an aging truck, a fritzy television, and too much work. It sounded so real, and so loving, that you could imagine he’d written it after she’d stomped out in tears, and gone down to her mother’s. It was rivetting.

I wrote down the name, Jaryd Lane, and later looked up his website, (http://jarydlane.com/),, listened to the generous group of songs streamed on the site, and bought his CD, Riding for the Brand, on a tiny Nashville label, Treehouse Music Group. It arrived in a few days, in an envelope with a hand-written address and a Kaplan, Louisiana postmark.

The music business generally hasn’t caught on that CD sales are dropping because so many feature only a couple of good tunes worth downloading, instead of enough to make full purchase worthwhile. This was different: ten good to outstanding songs, two lesser ones. Nearly all of them are celebrations of country life, even its hard times, and especially its hard partying when the work is done.

Right out front comes an anthem, Thank God for Country Girls, to the charm of blue-jeaned and booted, honky-tonking girls from coast to coast. There are some great dance tunes: Bonafide Countryfied, a salute to the good luck of people who get to stay home and farm, rather than go off to college. It features a quotable refrain that made me laugh, “If we go off the deep end on the weekend, that’s all right…” Then a rollicking un-PC hymn to 22 ounce bottles of beer and chewing tobacco (Deuce, Deuce, Red Man Chew); and Working Man’s Paradise, about the pleasures of a tall cool one at the end of a tough day. Besides What Are We Fighting For, there’s a second great ballad (San Antone) about the loss of a woman whose parting line is—before she spins out of the driveway and his life-- “…as long as you keep that bottle I’ll be gone…”

Song after song, Lane seemed to be relishing high times, lost love and the sustaining power of love, missed connections, and fond memories, including the title song, an elegy to a cowboy who asked nothing that he didn’t demand of himself. It all had the ring of truth, not a slick effects-powered synthesis of country, but the real deal, in a smooth Southern baritone integrated with a small, close, practiced ensemble.

On a cold October day, I was with a group of friends, driving back across the Plains, and passed the CD forward to the driver. The group was blown away by it. On the dance tunes, we tapped toes to two-step rhythms—blue-jeaned and booted, though two of us were grey-haired, and all of us a long way from being girls. A couple of us teared up on San Antone, remembering our own departures from men who drank. “Who is this guy? Why haven’t I heard him on the radio? He’s terrific. Why not at Avo’s, or the Aggie?”

Beats me, except that he isn’t local in the geographical sense, though he may be in the spirit of the town it once was. Anyway, I thought I’d ask.

Lane turns out to be 29, and, like so many young musicians, struggling. He calls me from home in Kaplan, Louisiana, the state’s premier cattle country along the Vermilion River. The place is geographically, as well as musically, about halfway between New Orleans and Houston. His family has lived there for generations, and he makes his home there with wife Tracy and baby son Cole. The town has produced several well-known musicians (the Kershaws, Cedric Benoit), and, because it’s known as the gateway to Cajun country, he’s jokes that a singer from there is expected to turn up with an accordion.

He fell in love with music in his teens, sneaking through the back doors of local bars to play with what tended to be barn bands, rather than garage bands--first with drums, then adding guitar. His influences were many, including Jim Croce, James Taylor, and George Strait. He went off to Louisiana State to study architecture, switched to music, and absorbed new influences, as he moved further toward songwriting and arra - Coloradoan