First Published in Country Music International – December 1998

Having cut his teeth with the likes of Holly Dunn and Emmylou Harris Nash Ramblers, JON RANDALL released his critically acclaimed debut album just over three years ago, only to be shunned by country radio. Now he's back with a self-produced follow-up on Asylum. 

Five years ago Jon Randall was on top of the world. He had just signed a lucrative recording contract with RCA Records, was on the road with Emmylou Harris, playing guitar and mandolin and singing high harmonies in her Nash Ramblers and, at just 23 years old, picked up a Grammy award with the Ramblers for their 1991 live album, AT THE RYMAN.

He left the Nash Ramblers in the spring of 1995, and after months of delay, several reschedules and additional recordings, Randall's debut album, WHAT I DON'T KNOW, finally appeared that summer, more than two years after he signed his contract.

With a distinctive tenor and a rootsy, bluegrass-flavoured sound, it was a largely acoustic project similar in style to that of the Nash Ramblers. An eclectic mix of styles: bluegrass, newgrass, country balladry, bits of pop. But like all new country acts of the 1990s, Randall was at the mercy of American country radio, and apart from This Heart, which spent three weeks on the country charts, reaching Number 74 in the summer of 1994, he failed to dent the radio playlists. Even a duet, By My Side, with future wife Lorrie Morgan failed to ignite his career, and in 1996  RCA dropped him. Despite the disappointment, the soft-spoken Texan has hung in there with the firm belief that eventually his talents would be recognised. “Singing and playing music is all I've wanted to do since I was very young,” says Randall.

Asylum Records, who tried to break such musically inventive acts as the Cox Family, Royal Wade Kimes and Thrasher Shiver, picked Randall up early this year, and had planned to release a self-produced album, COLD COFFEE MORNING, in September. Unable to break the title-song single at radio, they have delayed the album until January, but are determined to give Randall all the support they can.

The son of a Dallas policeman, Randall grew up in suburbia, Duncansville, to be exact. He toured Texas and neighbouring States in a rusty Lincoln Continental as part of a bluegrass band. At home he listened to everything from Bill Monroe, Ricky Skaggs and New Grass Revival to ZZ Top, Bad Company and The Electric Light Orchestra.

Randall has been chasing country success since he arrived in Nashville in 1987, fresh from high school, clutching the obligatory guitar and full of ambition and drive. He worked as a courier and process server for a law firm, as a strolling mandolin player at the Opryland theme park, and for a message service, delivering balloons while dressed in a gorilla suit.

After a few months in Holly Dunn's band, he landed the acoustic lead guitarist role in Emmylou Harris’ new Nash Rambles band. He was just 20 years old. "I was introduced to a lot of different kinds of music, and I grew a lot as a person," Randall explains. "Going out on the road at such a young age, you're influenced by everything around you—and you develop a definite sense of what's important to you."

When he was with Harris, he was known as Jon Randall Stewart. RCA a&r president Garth Fundis offered him a record deal. Known for his production of albums by Trisha Yearwood, Don Williams, Keith Whitley and New Grass Revival during the years when Sam Bush was in the group, Fundis co-produced the album with Bush.

In July 1994, the first single, This Heart, had barely grazed the country charts, and just a month before the album was due for release it was put on hold. Major upheavals at RCA's Nashville offices resulted in a publicity, promotion and a&r team that was not familiar with his work. "They were trying to figure out how they were going to set up the roster," he reflects. "They changed everyone around”

Yet the new regime at RCA appeared to believe in his talent and he even toured Britain in the spring of 1995 opening shows for Mary Chapin Carpenter. The revamped album gained a British release several months before it saw the light of day in America, but the publicity gained by his work with Emmylou Harris had been lost by the year-long delay, and Randall was unable to regain the momentum needed to ignite both radio and the public's interest.

That first album only included one of his own songs. He knew that to make his mark he needed to develop that side of his talent. During the past few years he has spent much time co-writing with such Music Row greats as Bill Anderson, Rodney Crowell, Billy Lawson and Kevin Montgomery. Randall wrote or co-wrote five of the 11 songs on the new album, including the classic country regret of Cold Coffee Morning, the crumbling resolve of I Don't Go There Anymore and the quiet heartbreak of I Can't Drive You From My Mind.

He also includes Knowing You're There, a powerful duet with wife Lorrie Morgan. "My wife reminds me of what I love about country music and the struggle of trying to hear the good stuff among the rest of it," he says. "She never lets me forget how important the songs are."

With Cold Coffee Morning Jon Randall has been given the latitude to follow his muse. “It was so refreshing to have somebody totally get what I'm doing and recognise where I'm coming from," he says. "To me, it's an interesting concept: to put the music back in the hands of the musicians."