The BMI building, in the heart of Nashvilles historic Music Row, was the place to be on Weds. January 18, 2023 to honor the genre bending artist Jelly Roll, along side fellow songwriters/producers Ernest K. Smith, David Ray Stevens and Ilya Toshinsky, to celebrate their first #1 song together “Son of a Sinner”. It is the second single from his 2021 album Ballads of the Broken. The song is also Jelly Roll‘s first single release to the country music format.
Jason DeFord, known professionally as Jelly Roll, and Stevens were writing songs together at the Sound Emporium in Nashville, when Ernest stopped to visit the two. According to Ernest, he let Jelly Roll play one of his guitars, which was set to drop D tuning, at which point Jelly Roll came up with the song’s chorus. Ernest then encouraged Jelly Roll to write the verses by himself, as he thought doing so would allow the song to be more autobiographical.
The song is about Jelly Roll‘s personal life as a traveling musician, as well as his personal struggles with “right and wrong” and drug addiction. Jelly Roll told Billboard that he was intoxicated while recording the vocal track. The final recording uses a guitar track created and produced by Ernest, with additional production from session musician Ilya Toshinsky. Tom Roland of Billboard described the song as “mainstream country rock’ featuring power chords, slide guitar and a bass guitar line with “a flurry of notes uncommon in the country genre”.
In the United States, “Son of a Sinner” charted for over 20 weeks on the Hot Rock & Alternative chart. It also debuted on the Country Airplay chart dated March 12, 2022, predating its official release to country radio stations on March 31.
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