MusicRowPics: CJ Solar Pens A Barn Burner With “Just Another Day In The Country”

CJ Solar. Photo: Haley Crow

For singer-songwriter CJ Solar, accepting an internship at publishing and recording company Sea Gayle was likely one of the best decisions he made while studying at Nashville’s Belmont University.

“My neighbor was working at Sea Gayle and helped me get an internship,” Solar says. “Marc [Driskill] listens to the interns’ music and was like, ‘Hey, if you’ve got any music let me know.’ I had just demoed some songs I was going to try to get a publishing deal with, so I brought them to him, and he played them for some of the other staff. A week later they wanted to sign me.”

Now, Solar has released his latest single for Sea Gayle Records, the harmonica-soaked, rock guitar-fueled “Just Another Day In The Country,” a musical ode to hunting, fishing, beer drinking and other leisurely pastimes.

The track is included on Solar’s latest EP Hard One To Turn Down. During his visit to the MusicRow office, the Louisiana native also offered a rendition of “Blue Bandana,” a track fellow Sea Gayle artist Jerrod Niemann released as a single in 2015. Solar wrote the track with Ben Goldsmith and Andrew Scott Wills

MusicRow Owner/Publisher Sherod Robertson and CJ Solar. Photo: Haley Crow

Solar recently shot the video for “Just Another Day In The Country” at a friend’s property in Mississippi.

“It was a ‘party in a field’ kind of thing,” Solar says. “It was like, ‘Let’s do as much stuff as we can in one day.’ We set up in front of a barn and did a performance and just fished, hung out, and shot some empty beer cans. It was fun.”

Solar will bring his live show to Nashville during Country Radio Seminar, with shows at the Omni Hotel on Feb. 23 (5 p.m.) and Feb. 24 (9 a.m.).

CJ Solar with MusicRow staffers.