Q&A with Country Artist Carson Jeffrey

BY KRYSTA PAFFRATH

It’s always a pleasure getting to discover new music talent. It’s extra special when that talent hails from Texas and is a cowboy before anything else. Carson Jeffrey is the epitome of a homegrown, Texas music artist. At a very early age, Carson was already enjoying early Texas artists such as Cross Canadian Ragweed and Ryan Bingham. Growing up in the ranching and western way of life, he was sure that his future was roping, but his journey led him to music.

It was exciting being able to sit down and learn more about Carson’s philosophy on his overall personal branding and music style. During the interview, he mentions several times that he’s just a cowboy who happens to write and play songs. His first album, Muchos Sonidos means “Many Sounds” in Spanish, and that’s just what this cowboy delivers. Check out the full interview below and give this guy a listen!

Krysta: Can you give our audience a brief introduction to yourself and your background within the western industry/ rodeo, and how you got started in music?

Carson: I was born and raised in Cat Spring, Texas which is about an hour west of Houston down here. I grew up rodeoing, my dad roped and that’s all I’ve ever done since I was itty bitty. That was the plan, I quit sports in junior high and that’s all we did, every day, I would come home and we would rope. We went to junior rodeos every weekend and I stuck to the plan that I was going to be a roper. Then I got into college and did college rodeo throughout my time at Texas A&M University in College Station. I’d always played guitar since junior high and then I started writing songs in high school. When I was in college, I started doing some open mics and taking some small gigs, mainly for fun. I started writing more songs and all of my friends started saying that I needed to record them. So the summer before my last semester of college, I made an album for fun, and one of the songs, “Ranch Girl Dream” really took off. All of a sudden I have this following and I figured, I better try to make something out of it, and the next thing I knew, we were booking shows.

Krysta: How has your lifestyle helped shape your career in music?

Carson: Really, the music world and the rodeo world are identical besides the fact that you are doing two different things. For rodeo, you load your horse up, you’re out there all night competing, then the next morning you’re rolling out or even the same night. The music world is just the same, the traveling, the late nights, the long hauls, and the waiting around, it’s basically a hurry-up-to-wait game. We set up, then we wait around for hours for the show to kick off. It is the same with rodeo, you show up and you wait for your event, spend 8 seconds in the arena then roll out. Rodeo has taught me some key responsibilities early on that have helped me as well in the music industry.

Krysta: What does your process look like for creating new music?

Carson: My writing style has changed in the last several years. I used to get the tune first on the guitar, and let my voice match whatever melody I came up with. Here lately, I have tried writing without the guitar and letting my vocals do other things and then bringing the guitar in after the fact. That’s gotten me out of the hole of repetitive vocals and it’s allowed me to get to new levels vocally.

Krysta: What is your favorite thing about what you do?

Carson: For me, I’m just a really normal guy from Cat Spring, Texas who just so happens to sing. When I go to Tulsa, Oklahoma to play a show, and I don’t know a soul in the crowd, then I see people out in the audience singing every single one of my songs, that’s just a really cool thing. If I could do this without getting the recognition and the fame, it would be great, that just comes second for me. I’m just a really simple guy that likes to rope and just happens to sing.

Krysta: Who are some artists that have influenced your music style?

Carson: When I was little, my uncle gave me every single Cross Canadian Ragweed CD that they had put out up till that point. I remember we had a brand new truck that had a new six-disk CD player and you could plug your headphones into the backseat. I would sit in the backseat when we would go to town every day, and I would listen to those CDs over and over again. In the early days, it was Cross Canadian Ragweed, then I found Ryan Bingham in junior high so those two were the biggest influences for me until I got a bit older and found Casey Donahew, Josh Abbott, Randy Rogers, and William Clark Green.

AT A VERY EARLY age, Carson discovered artists such as Cross Canadian Ragweed, Ryan Bingham, and Chris Knight. He grew up in the ranching and western way of life, spending a lot of time at his family’s ranch in Dryden, Texas, as well as his hometown of Cat Spring, Texas. Most every weekend was spent going down the highway to another rodeo to another town. With the highway as his guide, he picked up a guitar and started writing songs in his high school years. It wasn’t until college that he began to play acoustic shows and realized that people actually listened to his songs. In the summer of ’19, Carson recorded his debut album “Muchos Sonidos”, and formed a band to start trying to make his mark in the Texas Music Scene.