Caroline Jones Reflects on the Personal Bliss She Found in 2021

It may be 2022, but Caroline Jones still can’t get over 2021.

In the month of November alone, the singer-songwriter found herself experiencing dream after dream come true, from performing on the CMA Awards stage alongside Zac Brown Band, to opening for The Rolling Stones, to stepping on the stage of the iconic Grand Ole Opry.

“Oh, and I also released my sophomore album Antipodes on November 12th,” Jones chuckles during an interview with The Boot. “We also did a bunch of album release shows too, and of course we were on tour with Zac Brown Band. So yeah, it was a crazy month…a crazy year really.”

That’s quite the understatement from the tenacious 31-year-old Florida native, who is the first to admit that she didn’t grow up listening to country music. She didn’t discover the genre until her first trip to Nashville at the age of seventeen.

“I went to a show at The Bluebird Cafe, and I fell in love,” she recalls. Fourteen years later, Jones’ own career is on the rise, thanks to the success of her current single “Come In (But Don’t Make Yourself Comfortable.)”

“I was completely in awe of these songwriters who could capture a room with just their guitar and their voice and their stories,” she continues.

Soon, Jones found herself increasingly enamored by the likes of legends forever found in the lineage of country music, such as Hank Williams and the Carter Family.

“All of these heroes of mine either got their start on the Opry or played the Opry,” says Jones, who has made multiple visits thus far to the famous stage. “So you can imagine just what it means to someone who wants to make a name for themselves in country music to play there. It’s extremely validating.”

Antipodes is Jones’ sixth studio record, and includes “So Many Skies,” a co-write with  and Mac McAnally featuring Old Dominion‘s Matthew Ramsey, along with her take on Fleetwood Mac’s “Big Love” and a collaboration with accomplished guitarist Joe Bonamassa.

The success and support of the album has been especially gratifying for Jones after infusing two years of hard work into its creation.

“This album is really reflective of my past year and a half, along with falling in love and getting engaged,” she notes. ”So it is so gratifying to have people love it and connect with it and love certain songs.”

For Jones, the love songs contained on the album hit close at the moment, as she recently tied the knot with Nick Dana.

“I said I would never get married and I don’t like skiing…which tells you everything you need to know about what a genuine inspiration Nick Dana is,” she said in an Instagram post on December 31. “God gathered every attribute I could ever want and need in a partner and alchemized them perfectly into this man who deserves everything good in this world. And I get to be the steward of his soul. What an honor.”