Artist Guide

"Black Horse"

Jeter Jones: New 5-Star Album Review!

January 4, 2025:

MY FANS ONLY: See Daddy B. Nice's New 5-Star Album Review!

Go to Daddy B. Nice's Album Reviews. Click here! (Or scroll down to the "About The Artist" Section on this page, where the review is printed in its entirety.)



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To automatically link to Jeter Jones' charted radio singles, awards, CD's and other citations on the website, go to "Jeter Jones" in Daddy B. Nice's Comprehensive Index.
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Note: Jeter Jones also appears on Daddy B. Nice's Top 100 21st Century Southern Soul (2000-2020). (His previous Artist Guide.)
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Jeter Jones #9 The New Generation: See the chart.

Listen to Jeter Jones singing "Black Horse" on YouTube.

April 19, 2021:

Daddy B. Nice's Profile

Jeter Jones is the best success story in contemporary southern soul music, and I hope saying so doesn't jinx him. Following Wendell B, another rags-to-riches entertainer who rose from #45 on Daddy B. Nice's last chart ten years ago to his current lofty position at #7, Jeter Jones makes the even mightier leap from #63 on the former chart to #8 of the New Generation. And that, southern soul fans, is how much times have changed. With the possible exceptions of Pokey Bear and Tucka, no contemporary southern soul artist has accomplished such a dramatic career trajectory, an arc that has only grown more pronounced in recent years as Jeter has showered the southern soul fan base with an unprecedented bounty of music---more than any indie label, not to mention any artist.

A sweet-as-cognac-voiced singer whose range shuttles effortlessly from tenor to baritone, Jeter Jones has ascended the chart by fusing his vocal gift with accessibility and heart. What has served him even more is his work ethic. During the "lost" year of the Covid pandemic, for example, when many artists shut down due to restrictions and a sense of general creative malaise, Jeter Jones not only continued recording at his usual, furious pace but beat the bushes of the obscure bayous and woods of Louisiana, performing at masked trail rides around bonfires, hay bales, ATV's and--last but not least--- horses, Jeter's unswerving brand and theme.

His beginnings were humble. He wasn't a typical, coddled, young "genius" when he started his musical career but a mid-aged, career military veteran (U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, including tours in Iraq and Afghanistan), just another one of hundreds of aspiring southern soul wanna-be's. And yet, in less than a decade Jeter Jones has climbed from the fringes of the genre to its upper echelon.

Appearing on the scene a dozen years after Sir Charles Jones did with a couple of unschooled albums utilizing over-used rhythm tracks, Jeter has morphed into the most dominant southern-soul writer/performer/artist-enabler of the last three years. Local artists, young and old, flock to him for the opportunity to make southern soul recordings, and if they're deserving Jeter obliges, recommending his most consistent producer "Slack" and lending guidance and verses, and along with it invaluable name recognition.

The jacket of The Jones Boyz: 2 Kings, features both Jones boys, Sir Charles Jones and Jeter Jones (no relation: the former grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, the latter in Mansfield, Louisiana, near Shreveport), with World Wrestling Entertainment-style "belts" slung over their shoulders signifying their "royalty" and achievements, one the "king of southern soul," the other---Jeter---the "king" or "kang" (as the case may be) of "trailride blues". Charles has collaborated with hundreds of artists on singles over his many years, but it wasn't until Jeter came along that he joined up for an entire album.

All you can ask of a practitioner of any art form is that he or she keeps getting better: honing craft, living in a way that facilitates inspiration, surrounding oneself with the best professional fellowship, forging ahead through adversity and disappointments.

Jeter Jones' debut album, Sweet Jones Live @ Leroy's Chicken Shack, with its impressive debut single "Da Boot Scoot," was nevertheless flawed by its author's unfamiliarity with the southern soul canon. Jeter's second album, Da GQ Country Boy, with its equally deserving single, "Cold Pepsi And A Hot Man," steered clear of such outside influences, posing a handful of new singles tied together with voice-over interludes by a gritty-voiced "master of ceremonies" named Da Big Dawg.

But the album that indicated Jeter Jones was a candidate for posterity was 2016's Trailride Certified. Songs---fourteen original tracks in all, most in the three-minute range---rolled out of the speakers in an unfurling carpet of tempo and melody. Southern soul blended with zydeco and dashes of rock, country, funk and New Orleans swing in a sound as sophisticated and unique as that of far-more-acclaimed, fellow Gulf-Coast performers Pokey Bear and Tucka.

The song that really turned heads was “Single Footin’” featuring DJ Big Tony. Actually more of a chant utilizing only two or three chords repeated over six minutes, "Single Footin'" had the force of a hurricane. The song broke all the rules. It was too long. It lacked melody. It took a lot of guts to record, and yet, as Jeter must have known, it was too rousing to deny.

Powered by the incredible MC-ing of Big Tony and the marvelous zydeco-accordion fills of Lil' Jabb, the percussive "Single Footin'" basically roll-called all the horse clubs at a horse event. Few people had any idea what "single-footin' stallion" and "single-footin' mare" meant, but the subliminal message was clear. Jeter Jones was unafraid of putting out something that completely surprised you, something you had to play loud.

And another song from the album, the ballad "My Country Girl," sealed the deal. "Country Girl" was as simple, traditional and modest as "Single Footin'" was hyperbolic, and yet it was the equal of "Single Footin' in emotional power: an anthem to love and domesticity sung with fervor.

Of course, the culmination of all that promise soon came in 2018, and its name was "Black Horse".

Listen to Jeter Jones singing "Black Horse" on YouTube.

Here's the initial write-up from Daddy B. Nice's Corner, when "Black Horse" was still so fresh its only link was to SoundCloud:

Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles Preview For. . .

-------APRIL 2018-------

1. "Black Horse"------Jeter Jones

From the minute I received this single, there was never any doubt it would be #1. "Black Horse" is one of those rare songs that arrives perfect in every way, like a text from God. Beat Flippa mans the smoky and subtle keyboard hook driving "Black Horse's" instrumental track. From Jeter Jones upcoming CD Dhis Him.

And later (September 2018) in my review of Dhis Him, I referred to it as...

"that astonishing single, "Black Horse," a meshing of a subtle Beat Flippa keyboard hook and an incredible Jeter Jones vocal, a song as perfect and natural as a cage-free egg".

The lyrics are well-known to the southern soul faithful:

"One day at the trailride,
You know how we do...
This lady approached me.
I said, 'How do you do?'
She was looking for a cowboy.
I said, 'Well come on through.'

She had them nags for quite awhile,
She'd been riding them nags,
But that just ain't her style.
She want a stallion,
One with a pretty good stride.
I said 'Saddle up,
And let me take you for a ride.'

She want to ride,
She want to ride that black horse.
She want to ride,
She want to ride that black horse..."

"Black Horse" sounds as good today as it sounded the first time. Great tempo, mid-tempo, the "sweet spot of southern soul". Beat Flippa's organ riff on the instrumenal track is so original because it recalls the low tones of vintage daytime soap operas your granny used to listen to, and because that sound is so rare nowadays, it sounds unique and even more beguiling.

At year's end, "Black Horse" won Daddy B. Nice's most prestigious category, BEST MID-TEMPO SONG, in the 2018 (12th Annual) Southern Soul Music Awards. Since then Jeter Jones has been riding a wave of creativity that is the envy of his southern soul peers. The albums---Dhis Him, Mufassa, The Jones Boys: 2 Kings, Fish Grease Friday---certify Jeter Jones' entrance into the top rank of performers, and each CD milestone has been chronicled here, along with dozens of collaborative projects. (Scroll down this page.)

--Daddy B. Nice

About Jeter Jones: New 5-Star Album Review!

Gary C. Jones, aka Jeter Jones, aka the "King Of Trailride Blues," was born in Mansfield, Louisiana. Although no one in his family sang professionally, his father and uncles sang in gospel quartets. Jones went into the military and became a "lifer," including stints overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq, logging twenty years in the Army and later the Marine Corps. In later years, he dabbled in R&B and writing and producing records, and in 2013, with his twenty years "in," he retired and turned to the full-time pursuit of music, publishing two albums. Jones did not promote the first, R.E.A.L (Raw Encouraging Amazing Love), in the southern soul market, and it was soon forgotten, but in 2014 Jones sent the second, more southern-soul-oriented collection, "Sweet Jones Live @ Leroy's Chicken Shack" (Billionaire) to Daddy B. Nice at Southern Soul RnB, who introduced him to the southern soul audience in a review of the CD in March of that year.

Since then Jeter Jones has submitted, and Daddy B. Nice has reviewed, each album Jeter Jones has recorded on his path to becoming the "King Of Trailride Blues". For reasons of space, all of the reviews of Jeter Jones albums up to and including DHIS HIM (the album that introduced "Black Horse") are available in the 21st Century Southern Soul Artist Guide to Jeter Jones. Click here. The albums since then are all reviewed and stored in the "Tidbits" section of this page (Scroll down).

January 5, 2025: Reprinted from Daddy B. Nice's Album Reviews.

JETER JONES: My Fans Only
Five Stars ***** Can't miss. Pure Southern Soul heaven.

Buy Jeter Jones' new MY FANS ONLY album at Apple.

MY FANS ONLY Track List:

1. My Fans Only
2. Can't Run From Love (feat. Maia B. Music)
3. Lean Back And Stroke It (feat. FPJ)
4. Another Round
5. Hit My Line (feat. Kandy Janai)
6. Nail In The Middle
7. Dirt Road Remix (feat. Cecily Wilborn)
8. Boss (feat. JaLi The Gentleman)
9. Where I Belong
10. Second Chance At Love (feat. LaShonda Ford)
11. We Getting Ready Ready (feat. DJ Jubilee)
12. Let's Ride (feat. Hd4president)
13. Popping Tags (feat. Dioaka)
14. If You Say So (feat. Squirt Kelly)
15. Heart Of A Cowboy (feat. JaLi The Gentleman)

I think even those of us who admire Jeter Jones---and there are legions of us---underestimate what a unique treasure he truly is. In an era when even the top-grossing southern soul performers muster at best a few new songs per year, and the great majority of recording artists struggle to produce two or three songs, much less an EP, much less a full album, Jeter Jones is "jaw-droppingly prolific". I wrote that only a little more than a week ago in Southern Soul 2024: The Year In Review, before I realized Jeter had dropped yet another new album a couple of days before Christmas to go along with the Trailride Kang disc he released in August. Jeter Jones not only produces and networks harder than anyone else in the genre; his creativity keeps pace with and justifies his volume. Oh, and he sings like an archangel.

My Fans Only includes two newly-released songs that are slated for this month's Top 10 singles, "Another Round," a hefty, bluesy, mid-tempo gem in the vein of M. Cally's December-charting "She Say I Make Her Cheat," and "A Nail In The Middle (Of A Block of Wood)," a laid-back, more melodically supple, mid-tempo tune with an unusual but fascinating lyric. "A Nail In The Middle is currently ahead of "Another Round" by a nose.

The album also features at least two more previously-released and well-received singles, "Lean Back And Stroke It," accompanied by popular, younger-generation star FPJ, and a remix of TRAILRIDE KANG's "Dirt Road," which made Daddy B. Nice's Top 25 Singles of 2024, also just published a little over a week ago, at #14.

The only problem with "Dirt Road Remix" is that Cecily Wilborn, the talented young diva whose country-western-influenced material has taken southern soul by storm, opens the tune with a verse in which her vocal is double-tracked like an echo, distracting not only from the simplicity at the heart of the song but from the lucid and direct vocal style that has made her famous. (The duet does get better as it goes on.) There's no problem in that regard, however, with another fantastic new track, "Can't Run From Love". Here another newcomer with a set of gorgeous, deep pipes, Myia B ("Stand On Business"), justifies and adds to her burgeoning reputation.

These examples just scratch the surface of My Fans Only, a fifteen-track cornucopia of ballads, mid-tempo musings, hiphop-trailride hybrids and assorted experiments, not to mention a a Rose Bowl-like parade of guest artists (see track list above). You could do worse than sample the beginning and ending tracks: the aptly-titled and exquisitely-executed "My Fans Only" and "Heart Of A Cowboy" featuring JaLi The Gentleman.

---Daddy B. Nice

Listen to all the tracks from MY FANS ONLY on YouTube.

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Scroll down to Tidbits #2 to continue reading reviews.

Tidbits

1. Jeter Jones on YouTube

Listen to Jeter Jones singing "Mind Playing Tricks On Me" on YouTube.

Listen to Jeter Jone singing "Watch My Boots" on YouTube.

Listen to R.T. Taylor, Tasha Mac & Jeter Jones singing "Back It Up" on YouTube.

Listen to Tasha Mac & Jeter Jones singing "Get It My Way" on YouTube.

Listen to Arthur Young & Jeter Jones singing "Flashlight" on YouTube.

Listen to Jeter Jones, Sir Charles Jones & RnB Pooh singing "Moonshine" on YouTube.

Listen to Volton Wright & Jeter Jones singing "Circles" on YouTube.

Listen to Jeter Jones singing "Plain Ole Country Boy" on YouTube.

Listen to Sir Charles Jones & Jeter Jones singing "Trail Ride" on YouTube.

Listen to JD & Jeter Jones singing "Love You Down" on YouTube.

Listen to Jeter Jones & L.J. Echols singing "Lovin' Me On Borrowed Time" on YouTube.

Listen to Jeter Jones singing "Dat Country Boy Loving" on YouTube.

Listen to Jeter Jones singing "Zydeco With Me" on YouTube.

Listen to Jeter Jones singing "Somebody Get This Fool" on YouTube.

Listen to Jeter Jones singing "We Come To Party" on YouTube.

Listen to Jeter Jones & Friends live onstage in Dallas singing "It's About To Go Down" on YouTube.

Listen to Jeter Jones singing "Cowboy Up" on YouTube.

Listen to Jeter Jones singing "Don't Leave" on YouTube.

Listen to Jeter Jones singing "Thank You" (the Official Video) on YouTube.

Listen to Jeter Jones singing "Roommate" on YouTube.

Listen to Jeter Jones singing "My Country Girl" on YouTube.

Listen to Jeter Jones singing "Cowboy Slide" while the family does the line dance on YouTube.

Listen to Jeter Jones singing "She's Ratchet" on YouTube.

Listen to Jeter Jones singing "Boot Scoot" on YouTube.

2. Trailride Certified 2: 5-Star Review & New Album Alert

July 1, 2021: Re-posted from Daddy B. Nice's New CD Reviews

JETER JONES: Trailride Certified Part 2 (Jones Boys Ent.) Five Stars ***** Can't Miss. Pure Southern Soul Heaven.

Jeter Jones is in the midst of one of the most productive runs by a southern soul artist in recent memory. Consider that since last summer (the Covid summer of 2020) Jones has released the following albums of all-new material: The Jones Boyz: 2 Kings with Sir Charles Jones, the solo project Mufassa, a Jones-inspired and Jones-dominated, multi-artist compilation titled Fish Grease Friday and now Trailride Certified 2, a 21-track, various artists compilation featuring Jeter Jones on practically every track. The long and short of it is that it's hard to imagine the last year in southern soul music WITHOUT Jeter Jones.

I previewed the new album last month in a "New Album Alert," recounting the shock of watching Jeter sucker-punch-shoot a Jeter Jones imposter in the YouTube-video, outdoor-prelude to the otherwise carefree, booty-twerking club jam "Back That Thang Up". And for the same reason many years ago I was horrified by Bigg Robb's remix of Mel Waiters' "Hole In The Wall," I explained why I didn't like Jeter's remix of his signature song "Black Horse". In short, if you've discovered enough magic to hit the sweet spot of southern soul i.e. "Black Horse," don't funkadelic it up!

But after the better part of a month spent listening to the surprising outpouring of music in TRAILRIDE CERTIFIED 2, I don't have another reservation to dispense. This is a set of music you can live with. Of how many albums, seriously, can you say that?

There may not be a song on this album as blissfully buoyant as Jeter & JL's "Love You Down" from "Fish Grease Friday," nor a song as captivating and guitar-inspired as "Mind Playing Tricks On Me" from "Mufassa," but TRAILRIDE CERTIFIED dwarves them and the preceding albums. In fact, given the excessive amount of material to be covered in TRAILRIDE CERTIFIED 2, I think the best way to approach it is simply to bullet-comment (pun intended, of course) on the songs I've been listening to most frequently this month.

"Boots Knockin'"

"Slow-motion sensuality slathered over a bed of heavenly instrumental sweetness." From Top 10 Single charts May 2021 #2. Jeter's seems inspired and "stretches out" with an eye-opening vocal. Urban Mystic joins him.

"(Something About The) Rain (Remix)"

This soulful slow jam featuring Jeter, Volton Wright, R&B Pooh, and David Jones is reminiscent of Wendell B and the Soul Music Representative's "Still Learning 'Bout Love". In other words, a quartet of street-corner serenaders blowing your mind.

"Plain Ole Country Boy"

This was the first pre-release single from the album (charting at #4 in April), and it's held up well. With lyrics like, "I go to church on Sunday/Work on Monday," it portrays the kind of humble man just about any woman would find huggable.

"My House"

This emotive ballad features Volton Wright, whom I gave four stars for his distinguished southern soul debut (reviewed on this page). And I notice his presence, writing and/or singing, in other spots of Trailride Certified 2.

"On My Way Home"

I've actually been listening to this tune the most, and today (as I'm writing) is Father's Day, so I was delighted to hear my daughter, who is not a southern soul lover, and who deployed twice to Iraq, and to whom I'd sent the song, say, "I liked the song you sent me." That was a first.

"Trailride Party"

You'll remember this one as the guy who sounds like Cupid. A young guy named Just-K joins Jeter on a rousing melody.

"Lady In These Streets"

The lyrics are over the top, and I haven't even "caught" half of them yet, but the instrumental track pulls me in like an outgoing tide. The vocal tracks are enhanced by female rappers Mizzbehave and KyaraBoo.

"Dirt Road Loving"

This tune's getting the most YouTube views. People love the lyrics, which revisit the territory described so well by Mr. (Chris) Ivy in "Turn Road".

That's ten songs discussed, and only half the album covered. Other songs that have caught my attention are "What You See" feat. DeShay, "I Shoulda Done Better" (from a con's perspective), "Put It In My Face" feat. Terry Rogers, the chant-like "Get My Shine On" and "Somebody Won't Make It" (about Covid 19). You begin to see the scope of this project. This album takes up the better part of an hour, and you can listen to its endless variety as you would have listened to top-forty radio back in the day.

One final note. In my "Album Alert" I promised to speak to the issue of production. I noticed a lot of the tracks on Trailride Certified Part 2 had new and/or unknown producers, and I noticed the absence of Ronald "Slack" Jefferson. And I said that might be a "good thing".

Well, no worries. These guys, Jeter and Slack, had this thing well in hand the whole time. Ronald "Slack" Jefferson is the executive producer of this album. Like a Joycean hero, Slack is unseen and everywhere (with a couple of exceptions) while a raft of new and mostly unknown producers---Carl Sanders, Daejuan Braxton, Bishop Burrell, Brandon O. Williams, Christopher Washington, Marcus Bell, Kevin Nelson, Eric "Smidi" Smith, Ronald Johnson---take over on the front lines. The result is a refreshing diversity of producing approaches becoming such a massive project. From song to song you don't know what to expect, just as it was in the aforementioned heyday of radio, and maybe still is in a few choice locations, namely southern soul's Stations of the Deep South.

My lasting impression of Trailride Certified Part 2 will be of its remarkable many-sidedness. Yet despite its panoramic scope, this is Jeter Jones' most personal album. A touching sense of familial intimacy and easy-going vulnerability permeates every track.

Digital customers will see, in the album cover work of a storm-threatening, horse-filled, western scene, a second cowboy-hatted man standing behind Jeter. And on the hard copy of the jewel case and the artwork of the actual CD disc, the name Troy Ford is given equal billing with Jeter Jones. When I asked Jeter who Troy Ford is, and what he contributed to the album, he replied that Troy Ford is his older brother, a black cowboy who has been rodeoing (specialty: steer wrestling) for twenty-five years.

"He is the one that motivated me to go back to my roots of Trailride Certified. Most of the songs, like 'Hold It In The Road' and 'Dirt Road Loving,' talk about our adventures. His nick name is Crow. When I say (on the album), 'Crow said take her to the watering hole.' That’s him."

---Daddy B. Nice

Buy Trailride Certified Part 2 at Apple.

Listen to all the tracks from Jeter Jones' new Trailride Certified Part 2 on YouTube.

Scroll down to read more about this album in Daddy B. Nice's New Album Alert!"

3.

June 1, 2021:

NEW ALBUM ALERT!:

Buy Jeter Jones' new TRAILRIDE CERTIFIED (PART 2) at Apple.

TRAILRIDE CERTIFIED (PART 2) TRACK LIST:

1. Holding These Gators Down

2. Plain Ole Country Boy

3. Dirt Road Loving

4. Back That Thang Up

5. Black Horse (Remix)

6. My House (feat. Volton Wright)

7. Breaktime: Country Gurl

8. Get My Shine On

9. Boots Knockin (feat. Urban Mystic)

10. Rain (Remix feat. Volton Wright, RnB Pooh, David Jones

11. Put It In My Face (feat. Terry Rogers)

12. I Shoulda Done Better

13. Hold It In The Road

14. Trailride Party (feat. Just-K)

15. On My Way Home

16. Lady In These Streets (feat Mizzbehave, KyaraBoo)

17. Trailride Blues

18. Somebody Won't Make It

19. What U See (feat. DeShay)

20. Old School Lovin' (feat. Monroe Brown)

TC2 (Outro feat. Julius Walton)

Daddy B. Nice notes:

As most everyone conversant with southern soul music knows by now, Sir Charles Jones and Jeter Jones (no relation) got together in 2020 to produce The Jones Boyz: Two Kings". The collaborative album was successful, not to mention a validation for Jeter Jones, who had written and sung his way from obscurity to the top rank of southern soul artists, a moment further memorialized at the onset of the Sir Charles "Still In Love" video, when Charles welcomes an exhausted, road-tripping Jeter Jones into his studio with, "I know you're tired, man." The two performers brought out the best in one another, but who knew at the time that the partnership would also stimulate their future, individual work?

Only a week ago I was raving about the new Sir Charles Jones album, The Chosen One, with enough choice material to populate an entire Top 10 Singles. At the same time, I was leery of opening Jeter Jones' new album for some reason, TRAILRIDE CERTIFIED (PART 2) due to the pre-release hype and high expectations. Was Jeter due for a fall? I liked one of the pre-album-release singles, "Plain Ole Country Boy," but I did not like another, the "Black Horse (Remix)".

Jeter uses the instrumental hook from the Euro group Laid Back's "Ride The White Horse," a huge dance hit when I was clubbing in New York City in the 80's. ("Ride the white horse" was heroin and "Ride the white pony" cocaine; deejays also played with the alternate choruses "ride" and "don't ride") This Danish-written funk hook has been cropping up in more than a couple of recent southern soul tunes, most prominently Carolyn Staten's mesmerizing "Nukie Pie," which was your Daddy B Nice's Best Club song of 2020.

But Jeter mixing "White Horse" into "Black Horse" left me uncomfortable (I just don't think it works), as did the video to another of the tracks from the album. "Back That Thang Up," which begins with a segment in which Jeter unholsters a pistol and shoots a guy point-blank in the chest for pirating the Jeter Jones name. I'm a crime/action movie fan, but I found it shocking (even more so just having experienced a grocery-store massacre in my hometown) and went back and re-watched it (it happens pretty fast). To be fair, it's a video, it's a fantasy.

But that's the sum of my negatives. When I found the leisure to listen to all of TRAILRIDE CERTIFIED PART 2, one inspired song after another, I was thinking: "Oh, that wasn't hype. Jeter knew what he had." This prolific collection bears comparison to last year's P.O.T.Y. (Various Artists) by Beat Flippa, too immense and richly-textured to grasp in a few short outings. Songs will be mushrooming onto the charts for months.

For example, the video to "Back That Thang Up" (mentioned above), pivots from murder-mayhem to an extended, live-in-the-club, booty-shaking fun fest. Who would have thought anyone could come up with anything new---musically or lyrically---on this subject? "Back That Thang Up" also contains the most memorable couplet of the set:

"You ain't no pork chop,
Baby, you'se a steak."

Propelled by the club video, the song is sure to be popular. And yet, everywhere you turn, there are potential hit singles. Intensive, small-club touring has made Jones an expert at what pleases the audience: mindless dance jams like "Back That Thang Up" but also haunting ballads like "My House" with Volton Wright, or the slow jam "Boots Knockin'" with Urban Mystic, which fuses an exquisite melody and estimable vocals with effective thematic links to Jeter's past work.

The album has a piquancy, like Dhis Him with an "edge," in some part attributable to the Ric Flair (of the WWE) intro (which will blow the cobwebs out of your brain) and interludes like "Country Girl". But it's also a byproduct of the dazzling variety of vocal phrasings, tones and styles Jeter brings to straightforward-sounding exercises like "Back That Thang Up" or "Get My Shine On". This collection is the best showcase to date of Jeter Jones, Singer.

It's also worth noting the surprising absence of "Slack" Jefferson in the production credits for this album, although he's in fine form on DeShay's "What You See (Is What You Get)". I'll get into why I think that's a positive thing and examine more of the many songs from TRAILRIDE CERTIFIED PART 2 in the upcoming CD review.


Listen to all the tracks from TRAILRIDE CERTIFIED PART 2 on YouTube.

Listen to Jeter Jones new TRAILRIDE CERTIFIED PART 2 album on Spotify.

Stream Jeter Jones' new TRAILRIDE CERTIFIED PART 2 on Tidal.

Buy Jeter Jones' new TRAILRIDE CERTIFIED (PART 2) at Apple.

4.

Originally Posted July 30 / Updated August 20, 2022:

Jeter Jones New Album Alert!

Buy Jeter Jones' new DA LEGEND OF SWEET JETER JONES at Apple.

DA LEGEND OF SWEET JETER JONES Track List:

1. Kang Intro

2. No Worries

3. Bit By a Cougar

4. Good For the Gander

5. Saddle Up (feat. Volton Wright & R&B Pooh)

6. Saddle Up (Remix) (feat. Volton Wright & R&B Pooh)

7. Flashlight (feat. Arthur Young)

8. Trailride Certified (Remix) (feat. Cupid & DJ Big Tony)

9. Ain't No Stopping Us (feat. Volton Wright & R&B Pooh)

10. Ride (feat. Bizzy Bone)

11. Good Inside (feat. Terry Rodgers)

12. Simple Kinda Lady

13. Don't Stop (feat. Volton Wright & R&B Pooh)

14. My Ghetto Woman (feat. Ghetto Twiinz & Volton Wright)

15. Don't Put Your Dress Back On

16. Ratchet Trailride (feat. Boosie Bad Azz, Poppa Hussein, Deshay & Dj Scootermanpro)

Daddy B. Nice notes:

This is Jeter Jones' most diversified album yet: a grab-bag of styles and approaches. Jones Boyz Entertainment (Jeter, Ronald "Slack" Jefferson, et.al.) cranks out music at a dizzying rate, and this collection gathers together many of the best singles released late last year through the first half of 2022. Jeter, Slack and various other composers contribute music and lyrics, including shameless forays into cliches like "flashlight in the daylight" and "what's good for the goose is good for the gander". The former ("Flashlight") has reaped something like a million and a half views on YouTube, thanks to the high-powered collaboration between Jones and Arthur Young. Slacktraxx alumni Volton Wright and R&B Pooh contribute vocals on many of the tracks, Wright adding his trademark tenor grit and Pooh his vulnerable falsetto. As a matter of fact, on tracks like "Saddle Up" and "Saddle Up (Remix)" I felt like I was really "getting" R&B Pooh's voice for the first time. Singers Cupid, DeShay, Terry Rodgers and various male and female rappers also perform. DJ Big Tony, the high-energy MC from TRAILRIDE CERTIFIED, also makes an appearance. "No Worries" is the boss track and tone-setter for the set:

Listen to Jeter Jones singing "No Worries" on YouTube.

The biggest "hoot" is the song/video for the Staples Singers-derived "Bit By A Cougar," in which the old cougar in her muuumuu removes her false teeth and makes Jeter "feel good". Other tunes not to be overlooked from this generous set---although not previously or widely circulated---include "Ride," "What's Good For the Gander," "Ain't No Stopping Us Now" and "Saddle Up (Remix)".

Listen to all the tracks from Jeter Jones' DA LEGEND OF SWEET JETER JONES on YouTube.

Listen to Jeter Jones' DA LEGEND OF SWEET JETER JONES on Spotify.

Buy Jeter Jones' new DA LEGEND OF SWEET JETER JONES at Apple.

MORE ON YOUTUBE....

"No Worries"

"Bit By A Cougar"
(Staples Singers "Do It Again" instrumentl track) (has the hard-to-dwell-on lyric: "Then she took her teeth out of her mouth/And said 'I got a special treat'...)


"Good For The Gander"


"Saddle Up"
(w/ Volton Wright, R&B Pooh

"Saddle Up (Remix)"


"Flashlight" (w/ Arthur Young) (1,384,265 views)

"Trailride Certified (Remix)" (w/ New Cupid, DJ Tony) (first released in 2017)


"Ain't No Stopping Us Now" (w/ Volton Wright, R&B Pooh)


"I Ride"


"Good Inside" (w/ Terry Rogers)


"Don't Stop" (w/ Volton Wright, R&B Pooh)


"My Ghetto Woman" (w/ Ghetto Twiinz & Volton Wright)
(The Ghetto Twiinz is an American hip hop duo from New Orleans, Louisiana, composed of twin sisters Tonya and Tremethia Jupiter. From 1995 to 2001, the women released four albums, all of which made it to the Billboard Charts.)


"Ratchet Trailride" (w/ Boosie bad Azz, Poppa Hussein, Deshay, & Dj Scootermanpro. Big B on da Track)


Listen to all the tracks from Jeter Jones' new DA LEGEND OF SWEET JETER JONES on YouTube.

Buy Jeter Jones' new DA LEGEND OF SWEET JETER JONES CD at Apple.

5.

Breaking News 1/29/22: BEST MALE VOCALIST OF 2021: Jeter Jones "Plain Ole Country Boy" CLICK HERE.

Breaking News 1/29/22: BEST COVER SONG OF 2021: Jeter Jones feat. JD "Love You Down" CLICK HERE.

6.

December 17, 2022:

Jeter Jones New Album Alert!

Buy Jeter Jones' new SUGAR HILL HIGHWAY 84 at Apple.

SUGAR HILL HIGHWAY 84 Track List:

1. Sugar Hill Intro

2. Put It On Me

3. Gone

4. Come To The Trailride

5. Free

6. Trailride Certified 3 (Radio Edit) feat. Level

7. Old School (feat. Chalie Boy)

8. Old School Remix (feat. Dirty)

9. I Found My Love

10. I Ain't Leaving My Lady

11. Ooh Wee Baby (feat. Volton Wright)

12. Lady Your Body (feat. Chavonna Adams)

13. Church Candy

14. To The Trailride

15. She Ready (feat. C-Loc)

16. We Be Acting Up

Daddy B. Nice notes:

I may have done Jeter Jones a disservice in not being completely transparent about my reaction to his last album, Da Legend of Sweet Jeter Jones. (Scroll down to Tidbits #4 for my analysis.) I did nothing but praise it, and it deserved praise, being on a level only a handful of other southern soul artists have achieved. There was much to like, and since my own reactions were mixed it seemed best to accentuate the positive and see how it played out. The album did well, as albums often do when an artist has finally established himself and developed a sizable audience, but I myself never played it. Many of the tunes had already experienced extended time as previously-released singles, but that wasn't the only reason. I never warmed to the cliches both lyrical and musical embodied in songs like "Bit By A Cougar," "Flashlight" and "Good For The Gander".

No worries, though. Jeter has somehow intuited my response and released another sixteen-song album, and this one---Sugar Hill Highway 84---does exactly what I was hoping Jeter would do. It strikes out in new and exciting ways. Two of the tracks have already been released as singles. Released four months ago, with 86K YouTube views to date, "Come To The Trailride" is humble and melodic in the tradition of Jeter's best ballads, like Da Legend's "No Worries" (punned above). "Put It On Me," a dance jam released a month ago, is more cliche'd and generic---in fact could be an out-take from Da Legend Of Sweet Jeter Jones. Gospel-style harmonies, however, add zest, and it's already racked up 92K YouTube views.

One of the most impressive songs on Sugar Hill Highway 84 is the very last track of the set. "We Be Acting Up" is a short but brutal blues rocker, its minimal melody fueled by stark piano chords and a fiery lead vocal. It's hard to say why it succeeds, but it carries the power of a knock-out blow.

"Free" also flaunts southern soul and Jeter Jones convention. A fierce, hiphop-ish instrumental track with a spooky, female blues background evokes the fevered scene: a divorce. Jeter punches out the details with an uncommon savagery. He could care less if he pays alimony---he doesn't subscribe o Johnnie Taylor's theory it's "cheaper to keep her"---as long as he's "free". This isn't typical, easy-listening fare. These songs grab you by the neck, command your attention and force you to listen.

"Church Candy" accosts you in a totally different fashion. Dominated by an organ that begins like a carnival merry-go-round but quickly transforms into a full-piped church organ, this easy-going, mid-tempo tune relates the story of a man whose new lover is an entrenched churchgoer with a personality so "sweet" he calls her "church candy". When she comes home from service, she "takes care of him". Soon he's attending service with her and thinking of becoming a deacon. Sunny and cheerful, "Church Candy" flies on the wings of its novel, church-organ instrumental track.

"Trailride Certified 3," featuring the rapper Level, doesn't plow new ground in the way the previous three songs do, but it's a reminder of how exciting the "Trailride Certified" era was for Jones. And it signals Jeter's willingness to incorporate more rapping into his oeuvre, and specifically into Highway 84.

These tracks are just a sample of the material on the album, in effect a double album succeeding a double album---thirty-two new Jeter Jones songs from the prolific performer in 2022. Other tracks of interest with hit song potential include "She Ready" featuring rapper C-Loc, "I Ain't Leaving My Lady," "Old School" featuring Chalie Boy and "Gone".

Listen to all the tracks from Jeter Jones' SUGAR HILL HIGHWAY 84 on YouTube.

Listen to Jeter Jones' SUGAR HILL HIGHWAY 84 on Spotify.

Buy Jeter Jones' new SUGAR HILL HIGHWAY 84 at Apple.

7.

March 1, 2023:

JETER JONES: Sugar Hill Highway 84 (Jones Boyz Entertainment Worldwide) Five Stars ***** Can't Miss. Pure Southern Soul Heaven.

The only song I don't like on this album is the song everyone else likes (according to social media), the first one, "Put It On Me". It's funny, because Tucka also just released a song called, "Put It On Me," and I don't like it either. In Tucka's case, he goes to extraordinary lengths to dress up the pig, which makes it even worse. The "pig" is the melody. So many of the Ecko Records albums of the last decade started out with pigs for melodies. I call them "trying-to-please-everyone" songs. Middle-of-the-road stuff, more irritating to a fanatic like your Daddy B. Nice than out-and-out failures.

But I digress...The rest of the album is all one could ask for from the Kang of Trailride Blues, a sprawling cornucopia of musical delights, whether you're listening to it "like a hawk" or merely in the background. I wrote about many of the songs already in my "New Album Alert" December 17th (see the Jeter Jones Artist Guide, or if there already scroll down), so enthused was I by the seamless execution, the daring variety, the sun-and-shadows contemplativeness brought to a vast range of experience.

Jeter gets into divorce, for example, with the wistful but underlyingly-romantic "Gone" and the wonderfully nightmarish "Free," and as a close Jeter Jones watcher I can say that's a first. But those songs are contrasted with the anthem-like "I Ain't Leaving My Lady" and obliterated (at least for its three-minute duration) by the charming and witty "Church Candy".

All have solid musical structures, as does the marvelously-produced and affectingly-sung "Come To The Trailride," the #10-ranked single of 2022. Speaking of trailrides, "Trailride Certified 3" may surprise at first with its rapping verse but grows exponentially in allure as one listens again and again. One can say the same for the remix of "Old School," more of a chant-and-rap with the melody assigned to the background, meeting current, increasingly melody-driven hiphop in the happy center of popular music.

"I Found Love," exquisitely sung by Jeter, captured the #1 single spot in Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 Singles for February '23. "Ooh Wee Baby," with the head-turning vocalist Volton Wright, is a bedroom ballad for the ages, and "We Be Acting Up" is a rousing, simultaneously minimalistic and futuristic blues hybrid unlike anything you've ever heard.

The abundance and bounty in this album is off the charts, and of the recent Jeter Jones collections (since the "Trailride Certifieds" era), I'd put Sugar Hill Highway 84 near the top, way above the "Jones Boyz: 2 Kings" and "Da Legend Of Sweet Jeter Jones" and right up there if not above "Mufassa," "Fish Grease Friday" and "Dhis Him". Enjoy!

---Daddy B. Nice

Read more commentary on SUGAR HILL HIGHWAY 84 in Daddy B. Nice's New Album Alert!

Listen to all the tracks from SUGAR HILL HIGHWAY 84 on YouTube.

Buy Jeter Jones new SUGAR HILL HIGHWAY 84 at Blues Critic.

************

Send product to:
SouthernSoulRnB.com
P.O. Box 19574
Boulder, Colorado 80308
Or e-Mail:
daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
*************

8.

January 28, 2023:

DADDY B. NICE'S 16th Annual SOUTHERN SOUL MUSIC AWARDS

Best Out-Of-Left-Field Song:
A superhuman baritone, an in-your-face rapper and the Kang of Trailride Blues in a lollapalooza of a production...

Chu'Zu, Vince Tucker & Jeter Jones ----- “Country Boy Remix”

Listen to Vince Tucker, Chu'Zu & Jeter Jones singing "Country Boy (Remix)" on YouTube.

See Daddy B. Nice's BEST OF 2022.

9.

January 1, 2023:

Country was the theme dominating the music in 2022......

...One person more than any other made the theme of country ("no service on my phone") trendy and buzz-worthy in 2022: Jeter Jones. In song after song and video after video the Kang of Trailride Blues pounded home the blessings and vicissitudes of rural life and small-town culture, a message that reverberated throughout the genre by virtue of the sheer number of songs and accompanying music videos produced by Jeter, producer Slack and their team of supporting musicians/videographers (2 double-albums, four total, in back-to-back years). And in a year that marked the lowest traditional-record-label publishing on record, Jones Boy Entertainment put out the most music in the southern soul demographic...

Read more in Daddy B. Nice's "The Year In Southern Soul". (Click here.)

10.

July 13, 2023: (Originally posted in Daddy B Nice's Corner March 13, 2023)

Daddy B. Nice's News & Notes

News came this month that Jeter Jones is retiring. The bombshell came less than a month after I had written in The Year In Review:

"Country" has always been a southern soul touchstone, and your Daddy B. Nice has frequently described southern soul music itself as "country soul," but one person more than any other made the theme of country ("no service on my phone") trendy and buzz-worthy in 2022: Jeter Jones. In song after song and video after video the Kang of Trailride Blues pounded home the blessings and vicissitudes of rural life and small-town culture, a message that reverberated throughout the genre by virtue of the sheer number of songs and accompanying music videos produced by Jeter, producer Slack and their team of supporting musicians and videographers (2 double-albums, four total, in back-to-back years). And in a year that marked the lowest traditional-record-label publishing on record, Jones Boy Entertainment put out the most music in the southern soul demographic.

That's right. The most music in southern soul. Now here's Jeter's incendiary message.

Don’t know (Jeter wrote on Facebook) how much longer I’m gonna have these jood knees, but as of today I think 2024 will be my last year as an Southern Soul Artists. It’s been a good run and I have enjoyed being the Peoples Champ of Southern Soul. Thanks everyone that listens to my music and that follows me. Please enjoy these last concerts and the new music. I’ve done enough to make the hall of fame for Southern Soul music. I will retire the crown Trailride Kang with me as well. Thanks so much for the jood times. Him No tour just me sanging and cutting up. Come Come

Your Daddy B. Nice's reaction? Noooo. I can't see it. The way this guy drops songs like a horse drops chips? I can't conceive he'd be able to wean himself from recording. Jeter taking off from touring? Now that's a different matter. A grind---exhaustion---in spite of the exhilaration. Notice he mentions his knees. Like Pokey Bear's lower back (from doing all that onstage poking), Jeter's carrying a hefty, middle-aged man's weight on those prancing and springing knees. (Not to mention the high heels of cowboy boots.)

Finally, he says 2024, not this year (2023), will be his final year. Now that's hedging bets a bit on his part, is it not? Jeter qualifies it further when he says he's thinking about retiring, the implication being he's not entirely sure. He might change his mind. And on top of those demurrals there's this to consider. How are we (southern soul fandom) going to get along without Jeter Jones product? Wouldn't that necessitate some withdrawal symptoms, and wouldn't that weigh on Jeter? And how is Jeter Jones going to be able to quell the competitiveness in his nature (satisfied by making music) that propelled him to such success in the first place?

So I'm in denial on the subject of Jeter Jones leaving southern soul music. Ironic, too, that this announcement should come in the same month I'm doing a retrospective---"Squandered Talent?"---on Luther Lackey. A dozen years ago, Lackey was one of southern soul's most highly-regarded singer/ songwriter/ producers. Then he made the decision to quit and it hasn't been the same since---for him or for southern soul.

11.

August 1, 2023:

JETER JONES: Mufassa II (Jonez Boy Entertainment Worldwide) 5 Stars ***** Can't Miss. Pure Southern Soul Heaven.

Little more than six months after the release of his five-star, acclaimed SUGAR HILL HIGHWAY 84 album (scroll down this page to Tidbits #7), Jeter Jones's back with a new set called Mufassa II, his twelfth studio album. This new CD drops almost six months to the day after its predecessor, maintaining Jeter's hectic, two-albums-per-year recording pace even as Jones himself continues to drop hints that he may not be able to keep his boot to the metal much longer. (See Daddy B. Nice's back-up story on JETER'S EXIT from "News & Notes" in the Jeter Jones Artist Guide posted July 13, 2023.)

"I don't know how many more Cd's I got left in me," Jeter notes in introducing the 14-track Mufassa II, "but I do know that this has been a fun and exciting journey in music with you all."

My first impressions of the album were similarly doubtful. The selections seemed wildly experimental, the songwriting sketchy, and the guest artists (with a couple of exceptions) not as deserving as in the past. But by my second or third listen many of those same songs---a few of them familiar to Jones enthusiasts as recent promotional radio singles---were busting out and overflowing with personality.

”Her Sneaky Link” is a perfect example. It may seem unsuccessful at first, and it is a bit odd, but true to its title it sneaks up on you and ultimately captivates with both its musical and lyrical hook:

"If you don't treat her right," Jeter sings, "She's gonna find herself a sneaky link / And that sneaky link / Just might be me."

The same goes for "Trailride Anthem," which initially seems suspect due to its minimal soundtrack but with familiarity becomes an irresistable rhythmic treat enlivened by DJ Tony, the shouter/toaster who lent so much excitement to such mid-career, Jeter Jones tunes as "Single Footin'". He's also featured on "Trailride Train".

"Meet Me (In The Back Of My Truck)" is a country-flavored song complete with banjo accompaniment celebrating truckers and the amenities of their big rigs. You either bask in the genre-bending soundtrack or you do not, but after preliminary waffling I've decided that trysting in a semi sounds like fun.

"Quarter In The Jukebox" may or may not have been inspired by Tucka's 2022 smash single "Jukebox Lover". The video features Jeter juking in front of a brick wall covered from floor to ceiling with gold records. The song is written by Squirt Kelly, who also collaborates as writer and singer on "Ball In High Grass".

"Good Ole Boyz," with the couplet, "I've been wearing this hat and boots / Since the day I was born," ambles along on the most recognizable of chord progressions, yet the set picks up a notch when it queues.

Another song with originality and considerable depth features Jake Carter. "Most Wanted" has a chorus that runs, "I'm a cowboy / On this horse I ride / I'm wanted / Dead or alive." Carter and Jones take turns filling in the theme with seemingly autobiographical details, and the result is surprisingly resonant.

Other interesting tracks are "Come Home With Me" featuring LaMorris Williams and Volton Wright, "My Turn," "Da Jook Joint" and "Your Style" featuring Shannon "Scoop" Jones."Your Style" pre-dates Jeter's southern soul career, its original YouTube posting dated 2012.

One person you do not hear on Mufassa II is Jeter Jone's longtime producer and collaborator, Ronald "Slack" Jefferson. Slack's absence was also noted at times in SUGAR HILL HIGHWAY 84. "I want to hear a song from Slack," Jeter sings in "Da Jook Joint," and one wonders if a parting between these two creative geniuses, however amicable, took place recently. That would certainly account for some of Jeter's trepidation about the future. But no worries, as Jeter would say. He keeps turning musical experiments into southern soul etouffee.

---Daddy B. Nice

MUFASSA II Track List:

1
Intro
2
Trailride Anthem (feat. DJ Big Tony)
3
Meet Me
4
Quarter In The Jukebox
5
Her Sneaky Link
6
Let Her Geaux
7
Ball In High Grass (feat. Squirt Kelly)
8
It's Your Style (feat. Shannon "Scoop" Jones)
9
Good Ole Boyz
10
Most Wanted (feat. Jake Carter)
11
Da Juke Joint
12
Come Home With Me (feat. LaMorris Williams and Volton Wright)
13
Trailride Train (feat. DJ Big Tony)
14
My Turn

Buy Jeter Jones' new Mufassa II album at Apple.

Listen to all the tracks from Jeter Jones' new MUFASSA II album on YouTube.

12.

Originally published in Daddy B. Nice's Southern Soul Awards (Best of 2023).

March 1, 2024

Best Southern Soul Albums:

"I don't know how many more CD's I got left in me," said Jeter after backing up the bounteous 16-track SUGAR HILL HIGHWAY 84 with the fourteen-track MUFASSA II.

Jeter Jones ----- Sugar Hill Highway 84 / Mufassa II

Buy Jeter Jones' Sugar Hill Highway 84 and
Mufassa II at Apple.

See Daddy B. Nice's 17th Annual Southern Soul Awards (2023).

If You Liked. . . You'll Love

Tidbits (continued)

13.

July 20, 2020:

JETER JONES: Mufassa (Music Access) Five Stars ***** Can't Miss. Pure Southern Soul Heaven.

It's easy to forget, but one of the defining characteristics of southern soul music is its modesty. This goes all the way back to Johnnie Taylor and Tyrone Davis, whose hits didn't bowl anyone over technically. (Taylor's "Good Love" is an exception and also borderline southern soul, although nowadays, the way the music has changed, "Good Love" would be considered mainstream southern soul.)

Today's audiences are so used to show-boating, be it by the vocalist or the producer, that they often are bewildered by the casualness, the ordinariness, of southern soul. Southern soul may sound gentle, for lack of a better term. Often, a song or two doesn't do the job.

Accustomed to the hyperbole and technical wizardry of contemporary hiphop and urban R&B, strangers to southern soul expect to be "blown away" by spectacular productions and over-wrought (listen-to-me-I'm-technically-the-best) vocals. What these tentative newcomers to the genre often fail to understand is the volume---the sheer numbers---of southern soul songs, which as a totality reflect and refract off one another like a school of myriad fish in the ocean. So what the newcomer assumes are isolated instances (as they might be in the North) are actually songs throbbing with meaning from within a multitude of musical kin.

And in this southern soul perfectly mirrors the rock and roll and Motown-through-Stax, rhythm and blues classics of the sixties and early seventies (and also early rap and hiphop of the late eighties and nineties, which sampled those tunes). Take any two or three songs from today's Top 10 Southern Soul and they have more in common with a typical line-up from those earlier genres than they do with contemporary hiphop/R&B. So---for example---Little Eva's "Locomotion," The Teddy Bears' (Phil Spector's first group) "To Know Him Is To Love Him", and Puff Daddy's & Faith Evans' "I'll Be Missing You"---all from diverse genres and time frames---are the kinds of songs southern soul emulates: the "golden mean," or what your Daddy B Nice often calls "the sweet spot of southern soul".

Jeter Jones understands all this well. Like his predecessors in southern soul, he doesn't sing to draw attention to himself but to get the song across. His new album Mufassa is a smorgasbord of low-key and self-contained tunes with no other object than to fascinate and pleasure, and in this he succeeds. Great cover art, by the way---Jones in a gold-plated, chain-link, Game of Thrones-style helmet.

"Mufassa" is very like Jeter's last album, "Dhis Him," in that there's a lot of variety. That, by the way, is a by-product of Jeter's blossoming, mid-life career. He has no fear of going anywhere musically (thus the variety), even as he remains "Jeter," i.e. accessible, hook-driven and radio-friendly. And although "Dhis Him" remains the permanent showcase for "Black Horse," a song as primal as Sir Charles Jones' "It's Friday," Mufassa as a whole may actually be better.

Many of the tracks on this album are familiar to fans who've witnessed them charting over the past year in Daddy B Nice's Top 10 Singles: "Mind Playing Tricks On Me" being only the latest at #2 in June.

"Everybody should give "Mind Playing Tricks On Me" to their rap and hiphop-loving friends," said the capsule review. "It'll blow their minds while giving them an instant vision of what southern soul is."

Based on the Geto Boy's classic of the same name, this song is fascinating on a number of counts. It's very like--and to some extent an extension of--a track from Dhis Him with similar tempo, chord changes and vocal: "Ain't Gone Cheat No More."

"Mind Playing Tricks On Me" also marks the debut of a new producer on a Jeter Jones project, Chris “Bubba” Washington, although Ronald "Slack" Jefferson gets credit for most of the songs on the set. The leader of The Perfect Blend Band, Jeter's back-up band, does a magnificent job, referring back to the rap original's melodic hook but softening it with an entirely different---almost bluegrassy---acoustic arrangement.

Finally, "Mind Playing Tricks On Me" fares far better than "Candy," another cover of a vintage classic that Jeter sings with Sir Charles Jones on yet another summer-of-2020 Jones release, "The Jones Boyz: 2 Kings."

"(Can You) Back It Up," the duet with Best Male Vocalist of 2019 winner R.T. Taylor, sounds even better than it did when it charted. The track seemed a little thin then, and that went for Taylor's vocal too, unfamiliar as he was at the time. But but after listening to R.T.'s great new full-length album "The Mule Man" for a couple of months, Taylor's vocal also sounds fuller. Tasha Mac contributes.

"We Come To Party," with a just-published YouTube video, sounds like a venerable classic, its come-hither, low-key vocal and gut-bucket percussion made more irresistible encased in an album format (not to mention a great video). Jones' voice-over patter, delivered in a low whisper, adds zest. A wonderfully-realistic stream-of-consciousness takes effect.

Listen to Jeter Jones singing "We Come To Party" on YouTube.

Jeter also provides scintillating reworkings of Sir Charles Jones' exceptional single "Soul Brothers Moonshine" and Itz Karma's "I Like Da Way," originally written for her by Jeter. "Soul Brothers Moonshine," in which Charles assists, is one of the finest cuts on the album. The mysterious third voice on the track is R&B Pooh, a recent Jeter Jones discovery.

And these songs only touch the surface. "Mufassa" includes three other tunes that have already charted here and gained notice across the country: ."Clockwise," with Gary Jenkins, "Package" and "Old Back Road," with Addison Jones & Chalie Boy (and also a great video) all of which sound far better than they did on their original releases months ago.

Of a handful of new, never-before-heard tracks, I recommend "You Know I Miss You," a Peter Gabriel-like ballad although I hesitate to compare it to Gabriel or "Solsbury Hill" (even though it's an accurate description) because the tune owes even more to Jeter's humble (here's that modesty again) but powerful "Country Girl," a breakthrough single from the "Trail Ride Certified" album.

--Daddy B. Nice

Buy Jeter Jones' Mufassa album (mp3 or audio) at Amazon.

Listen to all the tracks from Jeter Jones' new MUFASSA album on YouTube.

Buy Jeter Jone's new MUFASSA album at Apple.

Find Jeter Jones' charted singles in Daddy B Nice's Comprehensive Index.

14.

February 1, 2021:

Jeter Jones & Various Artists: Da Fish Grease Friday (Music Matters Entertainment / SRG/ILS Group): Four Stars **** Distinguished effort. Should please old fans and gain new.

I grew up in an overwhelmingly Catholic parish where we ate fish sticks or tomato soup on Fridays. One Friday noon hour one of the strongest boys in the class ran into school from the playground and pushed his hand right through the glass of a swinging door, cutting his main artery. Blood geysered up, hitting the ceiling of the corridor outside the lunch room and bathing the floor tiles in red. We didn't have fish that day; we had tomato soup.

I don't know what Jeter Jones' "fish grease" story is, and his new sampler, FISH GREASE FRIDAY doesn't offer any hints, although the flex pipe pouring fish oil into a big vat on the CD cover promises something really "greasy," which could mean funky or trashy, although the album is anything but.

Originally scheduled for a 2020 publication in a crowded release calendar along with Jeter Jones' new solo album MUFASSA and Jeter's collaboration with Sir Charles Jones, JONEZ BOYS: TWO KINGS, Jeter subsequently held back FISH GREASE FRIDAY to kick off 2021.

The set is a sampler of all new material showcasing Jeter and the group of young performers---King South, R&B Pooh and Volton Wright primarily---whom he and producer Ronald "Slack" Jefferson have mentored since the appearance of SLACK: MY MUSIC, MY FRIENDS in 2019. (Many other producers and writers contributed to the project, a fact I learned more from YouTube than my hard copy, and that may have also caused delay.)

Joining them is an eclectic mix of guest artists including Karen Wolfe, Crystal Thomas, JD (not to be confused with new artist JL), Dawg, DJ Big Tony, DeShay, Jack Gaspard, Rhomey Rhone, Stan Butler, Mr. Smoke, Nadia Price and H-Town alumnus Billy Cook. None of them are household names in southern souldom outside of Karen Wolfe and Crystal Thomas, but that's the way Jeter (thankfully) thinks. He's after talent and new sounds, not hype.

The lead-off track "It's About To Go Down," a Jeter Jones duet featuring Billy Cook, is one of the best songs on the set. Jones lays down a superb vocal reminiscent of the mellow yet swinging mid-tempo atmosphere of "Black Horse".

"Love You Down," a duet with new artist JD, is another surefire winner, combining an irresistable melody with an uptempo
pace and an arrangement (by Ronald "Slack" Jefferson) that combines modesty and enchantment.

In fact, the set as a whole is an exercise in enchantment. Previously-released tunes like the beguililng "Southern Soul Garden" and the lively "Southern Soul Cowboy" are tailored for tender sensibilities and listening. Like the Platters from the early days of rock and roll, or the Stylistics from the early seventies, the voices-in-unison approach (Jones, RnB Pooh, Volton Wright and JD on "Cowboy," King South and Jones on "Garden") produces a chorale-like serenity, a good-vibes feeling that weaves its way through many of the CD's songs.

The gentle harmonies give FISH GREASE FRIDAY a throwback feel. Sometimes it's obvious, as in Volton Wright's nostalgic "My Baby". At other times it's overpowering, as in "Jood Wood," where Jeter, Rhomey, Stan Butler, Mr. Smoke and King South take turns on verses while even more background vocalists (including female) croon together on a vintage-styled chorus.

"Hot Body" (which seems inappropriate on this otherwise un-rowdy set), "It's Time To Leave" (which seems a little "down" on this otherwise airy set) and "Trust Issues" disappoint, whether because they clash with the aforementioned theme or are simply lower-caliber songs, but overall FISH GREASE FRIDAY maintains Jeter Jones' amazing run of recording excellence.

By the way, I don't follow mainstream R&B closely, but isn't DeShay in the DeShay/Volton Wright duet, "Lay With Me Tonight," Beyonce reincarnated?

--Daddy B. Nice

Buy Jeter Jones' new DA FISH GREASE FRIDAY album at Apple.

Listen to all the tracks from Jeter Jones' new DA FISH GREASE FRIDAY album on YouTube.

Listen to Jeter Jones' new DA FISH GREASE FRIDAY album on Spotify.

15.

September 1, 2020: Originally posted in Daddy B. Nice's CD Reviews.

August 10, 2020:

The Jones Boyz: 2 Kings. Four Stars **** Distinguished effort. Should please old fans and gain new.

To state the obvious for the majority of fans reading this review: The Jones Boys are not related. Sir Charles Jones ("The King of Southern Soul") is from Birmingham, Alabama. Rejected by Malaco Records, the renowned, old-school label of southern soul's past greats like Johnny Taylor, Bobby "Blue" Bland and Little Milton, Charles (aided by Jackson, Mississippi's Senator Jones, no relation) more or less kicked off the contemporary southern soul era with the publication of his first two albums.

Jeter Jones ("The Kang of Trailride Blues") is from the Shreveport, Louisiana area. Appearing on the scene a dozen years after Sir Charles with a couple of unschooled albums utilizing over-used rhythm tracks, Jeter has morphed into one of the most creative, innovative and prolific artists of the last decade, and arguably the most dominant southern-soul writer/performer/artist-enabler of the last three years.

The jacket of the new CD features both Jones boys, Charles and Jeter, with World Wrestling Entertainment-style "belts" slung over their shoulders signifying their "royalty" and achievements.

I was mistrustful of this album at first. I knew a number of the tracks were not only "reruns" of past singles but duplicates (or near-duplicates) of songs simultaneously released by Jeter Jones on his new solo album Mufassa. (See Daddy B. Nice's five-star review elsewhere on this page.) So my initial reaction was: What's the point? But as I actually started listening to 2 Kings, my skepticism turned to appreciation and, gradually, pleasure and delight.

The set kicks off with a cover of the eighties' classic, Cameo's "Candy". In my review of "Mufassa" I compare it unfavorably to "Mind Playing Tricks On Me," the Jeter Jones' cover of the old hiphop standard included in "Mufassa". In the latter Jeter re-imagines the Geto Boys' rap as an almost bluegrassy (although not "acoustic," as I mistakenly described in my review) southern soul vehicle, while in "Candy" The Jones Boyz simply present a glorified, cover-band treatment of the original, epitomized at the moment Jeter sings (Cameo-style), "You give me a heart attack," at which point your head snaps back like you're traveling through a time machine.

Listen to Jeter and Sir Charles singing "Candy" on YouTube.

A funny thing happened, though, as I listened to the album as a whole. The tunes held up so well that I actually enjoyed "Candy" a little more each time I heard it. Jeter's winsome, unforgettable tenor. The novelty of hearing Sir Charles singing background. Even the snappy, throw-back rap by Storm.

"Candy" segues into a batch of songs far more varied and realized (including anger and hurt, but more about that later) than anything on Charles' own simultaneously-released album, Intimacy.

See Daddy B. Nice's "New Album Alert: Intimacy."

True, some of the tracks are versions of tunes also heard on "Mufassa". Trail Ride Version 2.0 duplicates "Old Back Road" from "Mufassa". Prior to that, the Jones Boyz (although not yet known by that name) put out a single and "official video". The title was "Trail Ride," incidentally the very collaboration that first signaled Charles' and Jeter's mutual simpatico.

The Slack-produced "Soul Brothers Moonshine" was first published in P2K's 2018 debut album, "Welcome To The Boom Boom Room," featuring Sir Charles Jones. Sir Charles even sang the first verse (typically the host artist does). "Soul Brothers Moonshine" was also released on "Mufassa," with Jeter taking P2K's place.

"Moonshine," as it's called in this iteration, has become so ubiquitous on YouTube and internet radio that it almost rivals "Friday" as Sir Charles' current signature tune. Now, with this third official publication, "Soul Brothers Moonshine" becomes a top-shelf, southern soul standard and one to be permanently associated with Sir Charles Jones. (R&B Pooh, another Jeter Jones discovery, contributes a verse.)

However, it's the new tunes---at first so easy to overlook---that really "seal the deal". Dedicated to zydeco star Brian Jack, the effervescent "Zydeco With Me" percolates on the froth of its cajun button-accordion accompaniment, with Charles engaging the uptempo vocal with enthusiasm.

"Like Voodoo," with a soothing refrain---"This southern soul / Will take control of you"--- marks a dazzling collaborative effort. Both Jones boys (aided by guest artist King South) give superb vocals, spiced with lyrics marking each singer's coming-of-age moments, and once again, Sir Charles is turned-on.

Not that Jeter Jones is in any way unequal to the task. The set's finale, "Can't Do It No More" is a solemn ballad sung from Jeter's heart, and the evocative ballad "Can I Get Some" is a stellar solo outing, meshing perfectly with the quality of the set as a whole. Jeter more than holds his own as a vocalist of the first order and an "equal" of Sir Charles. And, to look at the reverse side, Sir Charles seems to be in his true element around Jeter. He's seldom appeared as relaxed and in tune with his unique mojo.

There are only ten tunes on The Jones Boyz: 2 Kings---nine if you don't count the thirty-second intro---and little filler. To be picky, there's not much of interest in recycling Parliament-Funkadelic in "Party, which simply reminds me of coke-crystal-meth zombies clubbing to George Clinton at hours when working people are just getting up to go to work. (Mr. Smoke, Daddy B. Nice's "Best Debut Artist" of 2019, guests a verse on this one.)

But I have saved the best, including the aforementioned anger and hurt, for the last. It is sheer ecstasy to report I was knocked over like a Mack truck by the spectacular ballad, "I Don't Understand".

Listen to Sir Charles Jones singing "I Don't Understand" on YouTube.

Here Sir Charles gives us his all. Emotions---very real, very frightening emotions---pulse like strobes in Charles' vocal, and Charles' amazing vocal enhancements take the aural beauty to a celestial level. The production is off the charts in the way only a super-producer like Sir Charles can manage. All of the trademark techniques are there---only totally, brilliantly fresh.

This, for me, is the true Sir Charles Jones. The emotional tone is perfect. Why? Because love---I'm talking about real love--shines through the hurt propelling the tune's vehement power. And all the while the instrumental wealth just keeps raining down like coin poured from giant kettles. This is a song comparable to "Is Anybody Lonely?" and "The Letter". It's the kind of song we've waited years to hear from the King.

The Jones Boyz should make this a series.

--Daddy B. Nice

Listen to all the tracks from The Jones Boyz: 2 Kings album on YouTube.

Buy The Jones Boyz: 2 Kings album at Apple.

Buy the Jones Boyz: 2 Kings album at Amazon.

Read Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide to Sir Charles Jones.

Read Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide to Jeter Jones.

16.

August 18, 2024:

New Album Alert!

Buy Jeter Jones' new TRAILRIDE KANG album at Apple.

TRAILRIDE KANG Track List:

1. Intro

2. No Poking

3. You Hear Dhis (feat CLOC)

4. Drama Girl (feat. Drama Boy Ace & J3)

5. I'll Take You There

6. Interlude Zydeco Freestyle

7. Leave (feat. David Jones & Tiffany Rachal)

8. Dirt Road

9. Smashing Someone Else

10. Complacent (feat. Shi Jones & Ty Jones)

11. She Ready

12. My Paper (J L)

13. CB Lover (feat. Volton Wright)

14. Find Me A Country Girl

Daddy B. Nice notes:

.See Daddy B. Nice's new five-star review of TRAILRIDE KANG.

Listen to all the tracks from Jeter Jones' new TRAILRIDE KANG on YouTube.



Originally published in Daddy B. Nice' New CD Reviews.

August 23, 2024:

JETER JONES: Trailride Kang
Five Stars ***** Can't miss. Pure Southern Soul heaven.

Before I delve into TRAILRIDE KANG I want to give some props to Jeter Jones' Big Boss EP released in January of this year. BIG BOSS is (or was) Jeter's experiment in country, and it is so labeled (as country) on Apple's retail/buy page. The only single to appear on Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 Singles was "Yo Truck (Ain't Better Than Mine)" (#8 February) with a note of caution that Jones was "stretching some boundaries, blending southern soul with hard-hitting rap and hardcore country-western". The title track with T. Howell, which made the Top 40, was particularly "hard-hitting," and "Country Girl was "hardcore country western" and then some, so wild it sounded like a parody.

The EP failed to connect with many fans, but in a roundabout way it led to your Daddy B. Nice discovering the unknown recording artist Curt The Country Man and his subsequently #1 country-crossover, southern soul single, "Back Roads". A few months later Curt did a remix of "Back Roads" with Marcellus The Singer. And over the same period Cecily Wilborn and Ciddy Boi P, among others, charted with compelling and soulful country-style projects. I don't know if Jeter regretted not scoring a number-one single like "Back Roads" in his own personal quest into country, but I want to give him his due. Without trailride music, which he single-handedly pioneered, championed and made popular, southern soul would never have been receptive to a recording artist singing in a style so honest and authentic it transcended the boundary between country and southern soul.

Jeter Jones seemingly hadn't been as dominating on the singles charts since the Sugar Hill and Mufassa II albums, which jointly garnered "Best Southern Soul Album" honors in 2023. I remember thinking that neither "No Poking" or "Smashing Someone Else" was particularly effective or worthy of "Top 10 Singles" status when they were released earlier this year, but on TRAILRIDE KANG they jump off the set. They have aged---"matured" might be more apt--- with incredible grace. Then there is the irony of Jeter admitting last year that he didn't know "how much music he had left in him". TRAILRIDE KANG makes that comment appear to be nothing but teasing, a self-deprecating joke to make his fans worry. It is so full of melodic material of the first order that one can only listen to it again and again marveling at the depth of the man's inspiration.

Trailride Kang isn't about picking out a couple of digital club-bangers to buy, although "My Paper" and "Zydeco Freestyle" certainly qualify. It's a true album in the traditional sense, one you want to buy in totality, take home and play on a loop while it diffuses good vibes constantly like central air conditioning. And the one constant, beyond the never-let-you-down melodies, is the voice we take for granted because it has grown so familiar---the soothing pipes of Jeter Jones.

I was enamored with the irresistible tempo and percussive distinctiveness of "I'll Take You There" from the moment I heard it, and the recently released "Leave," with David Jones and Tiffany Rachal singing the background part Volton Wright would typically fill in a Jeter project, is an outstanding ballad. Even more enthralling is
"Dirt Road," surely one of the most tender and memorable slow jams of the year, sung with Jeter's typical modesty and poignancy.

And yet, Trailride Kang offers even more. "Complacent," "CB Lover," "Find Me A Country Girl" and "Drama Girl"---all tracks so new the paint has barely dried on them---are nearly as compelling. And if I had to sum up this album in one word, it would be a "serenade". Wikipedia defines "serenade" as derived from the Italian "serenata," which itself is derived from the Latin "serenus". In a word, serene. "Serenades," Wikipedia continues, "are typically calm, light pieces of music." Yes, exactly. And of all of Jeter's illustrious albums, Trailride Kang is balm for the fans of southern soul, a bountiful, multi-tracked serenade.

---Daddy B. Nice

Buy Jeter Jones' TRAILRIDE KANG album at Apple.

Honorary "B" Side

"My Country Girl"