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TNS Interview - Jason Michael Carroll Comes Full Circle On New Gospel Album, Rest My Soul

Nestled within the vibrant tapestry of Nashville's music scene (and beyond in his home in the Carolinas), there's a name that reverberates with a unique resonance: Jason Michael Carroll. With a career spanning nearly two decades, Carroll has solidified his position as a formidable force in country music, weaving tales of love, loss, and redemption with the deftness of a seasoned storyteller. From the release of his debut album Waitin' in the Country in 2007, which garnered critical acclaim and shot him into the limelight, to subsequent chart-topping albums like Growing Up Is Getting Old and Numbers, Carroll has left an indelible mark on the genre. Hits like "Alyssa Lies" and "Livin' Our Love Song" have not only climbed the charts but also etched themselves into the hearts of listeners worldwide, earning him a dedicated fanbase that spans generations.

However, as we sit down to discuss his latest musical venture, Rest My Soul, it's evident that Carroll is embarking on a profoundly personal chapter of his career. Beyond the glitz and glamour of commercial success, he's delving into the depths of his own soul, guided by a newfound sense of purpose and passion. With this gospel album, released on April 25th, 2024, Carroll isn't merely chasing radio hits or industry accolades; he's seeking solace and spiritual fulfillment through the power of music. It's a departure from the conventional path, a journey back to his roots, and a testament to the transformative power of faith and family in his life.

Ken Morton Jr: At this point in the stage of your career, why a gospel album?

Jason Michael Carroll: Well, as you know, with a lot of the changes that I had to make coming up on -- I'm about to have 21 months sober, if the good Lord will, in a few days.

I grew up in a very strict Christian home. My dad found Jesus when I was seven years old. Turns out he was in a trailer parking loop. I remember church immediately. My dad quit drinking, cussing, smoking, all that stuff cold turkey. The only thing he couldn't quit was his temper, and we got to later deal with that with "Alyssa Lies."

But I remember church became an integral part of my upbringing right out the gate. We were there every Sunday, Sunday night, Wednesday night service, and every revival. I mean, we didn't miss a night of revival while we were there unless one of us was sick. Even then, that was an act of God for me to convince my parents I was too sick to go.

But I remember growing up listening to music. It's not the earliest memory I've got, but it was definitely one of those ones where I remember singing those hymns in the congregation and my sister getting carried out because she was acting up in the church service and bouncing behind my dad when he pointed to her, and then moves for her to come follow him as he walked out of the church. And when they came back in, she came back with her head down looking like a cartoon. It's kind of funny, but that was just the way I was raised.

My mom has been begging me to do a gospel record for years. And when my dad died unexpectedly eight years ago this year, it was one of those things where I did not want to regret not doing that for her and kind of getting back to my roots, which is what I started in, singing gospel specials on Sunday. I ran the sound for my dad's church at his second church, Temple Baptist Church in Oxford. I ran the sound. I ran the tapes and the CDs for all the people that were singing their specials. There were times when we were very bare bones, and I would have to run and push play on the cassette player, and then go sing my special and then run back and stop it.

So it was always something that was special to me. And even though I got away from it, when my dad felt the sin in the churches, as they call it, and he quit preaching, he reached out to a lot of pastors in the area for help and needing prayer and needing support, and every one of those pastors in our area turned their back on him. I did not quit going to church. That's how I was raised. I earned the moniker PK, Preacher's Kid, fairly early, but what people don't think about when they say that is what that family saw on the inside of being the preacher's kid and the preacher's family.

So, I got out of church. When Wendy and I had the kids, she was like, "You know what? I want to take the kids to church." I supported that. I thought it was a great thing. Every Sunday that I was home from the road, which is very rare, Wendy would get them ready, and I'd tell the boys how handsome they were and the girls how pretty they were. Then I'd go back to bed.

I remember one Sunday my daughter had come in. I could tell which one it was by the way that she walked with her clogs across the floor. Savannah tapped me on the shoulder and she said, "Daddy, why don't you go to church?" And I took a deep breath, and I said, "I'm getting up." Because I couldn't let my experience be her experience. I still believe that God has some things to do for her and for eventually me with this thing turning around.

So that was the reason. We finished the record two years ago. I know I'm telling you a lot for one question, but we finished the record two years ago. It's been done for two years. I mean, the artwork I finished two years ago. Everything has been finished. And when I would go to my team and ask for help on it, I would say, "Hey, I've got this project that's finished, and it's really special to me. I'd like to put it out." And I'd get the "Well, let's come back to it" or "Let's come up with a budget for it." Unfortunately, with budgets, you've got to get shows to supplement the income that you're living off of, plus the money to build the budget for these things. So, it just never seemed to happen after two years. And I said, you know what? I don't want to regret this. My mom's birthday was the 25th of April, and she turned 70, and so I made that the release date for the gospel record.

KMJ: That's beautiful. Very meaningful. Your story is, I mean, it's kind of like a country song, pal. It's full of fun and redemption and salvation and the kind of timeliness topics that go all the way back to Jimmie Rodgers and all that kind of stuff. How does this kind of fit within the story of Jason Michael Carroll's music catalog?

JMC: Well, you know, I had a fear of singing in front of people growing up. I could sing. My parents always thought I could sing. My mom was always thinking I should do something with it. Until I actually decided to do something with it and then they wanted me to change my mind.

But I remember when I was in the Marine Corps, I sat beside my senior drill instructor. And yes, I sang in church a few times, but I sat beside my senior drill instructor in boot camp. And that night at lights out, I remember he called and said, "Carroll." And I'm thinking, "Okay, I'm in trouble now." "Sir, yes, sir." "Get ahead of my squad bay." "Yes, sir." I run up there in my skivvy. I stand there in front of the squad bay. "Carroll reporting, sir." He said, "You sat beside me in chapel today, Carroll." "Yes, sir." He said, "You sing like [0:06:20] [Indiscernible]. I said, "Thank you, sir." He said, "Sing my hymn." And the reason I knew the Marine Corps hymn at that point was because I was less than a man. I had not earned the title Marine yet. I was lower than the dirt.

The reason that I was able to sing that was because growing up the way I did in a Marine household, my dad was a Marine, and then he became a preacher, so double-whammy, I wound up when my dad would come home from work at night for a sports company. I remember these days, when my mom would have to get on us, I could tell we were in trouble when he would go up the hallway of our trailer, and then I'd hear him stomping back down the hallway of the trailer after he got home from work like 10:00 or 11:00. And if we gave my mom any trouble, we could expect that he would kick the door open and he would say, "Get up." And my brother and I knew that meant put our shorts on, put our tennis shoes on.

We lived in a trailer park in Zebulon, North Carolina. My dad would get in the family station wagon and turn the headlights on bright, and he would lean out the window and run us around the circle driveway of the trailer park, singing Marine Cadence at 10:00 or 11:00 at night until we wore ourselves out. And if we weren't loud enough, then we would do another lap. That's where I learned the Marine hymn growing up before I even thought about becoming a Marine. So doing that kind of thing really brought this whole thing to life. And then growing up and the fact that I sat beside my senior drill instructor in chapel, church service of all things, it just kept coming back around.

Here's the real kicker. I told you this project was done for two years, and I'm not blaming my managers or anybody like this, but God has got a reason. I'm not trying to get super spiritual, but I am in a program now that's helping me realize that I need help with getting through my day-to-day activities without picking up a drink or using and things like that.

So, what I've figured out is that God has a reason for everything He does and everything is in His timing. And even though I finished this record two years ago, I believe that He knew I was still doing my things. I was still living a life that was not reputable to what I'm trying to promote with this album and what the reason I recorded it would have been.

I think that He put that on hold for me to get my life together. I didn't see it coming. This wasn't my decision. When the family quit talking to me and when he left and all of that, for me, that was the beginning of my recovery was me first getting mad, thinking, how dare they leave me alone? This is not fair to me. And then realizing that my life needed to change. That was something that I would not have found on my own.

I do believe that this was all done intentionally. Again, I'm not blaming my managers for not jumping on this work that was done two years ago. If that sounds like that, I apologize. But I really do believe that it was in God's hands because He knew that His time had to happen.

KMJ: That's wild that the music came first and then the change in behavior came second.

JMC: Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, the crazy thing is and just like everything else, one thing I've learned in the program is we have atheists, we have agnostics. This is a definition that I learned. I heard agnostic growing up in church, but never really wrapped my head around what that word meant. Atheists obviously don't believe in God or a higher power.

Agnostic means that you believe in a higher power. You believe He's all powerful. You believe everything that the Bible or whatever spiritual reading that you're reading says about Him. But you're still doing the things that are contrary to what you say you believe, and that's agnostic. That was something that I definitely was, and I would not have categorized myself that way before I learned this in the program.

KMJ: Fascinating. Any favorite songs, any tunes on there that are more meaningful than any others on there?

JMC: Oh, lots of them, man. Everything on here was picked intentionally. My grandmother loved the song "Old Rugged Cross," and I sang that at my aunt's funeral. My aunt is the same lady who ran away when I was a child, I think one or two.

I think I've told this story before where I grew up in a house where we prayed for this lady every day. She ran away from an abusive husband. What I didn't understand was she left her kids with him. She disappeared. My uncle, who served three tours in Vietnam, tracked her down to Birmingham, Alabama, which is why the song "Postmarked Birmingham" means so much to me. It still brings tears to my eyes if I hear it.

But then, 16 years later, we were at my grandmother's house for Christmas. The phone rings, and it's this lady calling and asking to speak to Frances. I knew my grandmommy's name was Frances. And I gave the phone and saw my grandma's face change when she was talking to her daughter she hadn't spoken to in 16 years, which is also why we recorded the song "Hurry Home," which meant the world to me when I heard that demo. So that's "Old Rugged Cross."

The song "Rest My Soul," which is the title track, really spoke to me in our church services, even with me out there doing the life that I had and living the life I was living. I was still drinking and using. I was making bad decisions. This song hit me in so many ways.

Everything on here has a reason why I recorded it. But then the song "Spirit of God," my father used to go to church with us. When we were working on our relationship after all the turmoil and stress that we've gone through with "Alyssa Lies" and why I wrote "Alyssa Lies" was based on my relationship with him. My dad and I, we were working on our relationship, and that was all because of Wendy. Wendy, in several ways, has saved my life. She said, "You know, your dad deserves to know his grandkids." I said, "Fine, but if he messes up, I'm taking him down."

And I meant it because my dad and I faced off since I was about 13. I was 21. I knocked him out when I was 21. I thought I killed him. That was it. We had worked together in the business as far as he wanted to be my manager, and then he used that opportunity to mess around my mom, which is basically what that all turned into. So we really didn't have a strong relationship.

When I gave him that opportunity with my kids, my dad turned out to be the best granddad you'll ever see. He took them to Chuck E. Cheese, for God's sake, and I hate that place. I tell you, man, I miss him. But "Spirit of God," I felt like we were really working our way through some things. I was starting to develop this relationship with my dad that I always wanted.

I remember one time when my dad was a preacher, and I felt like he put us on the back burner a lot for the church. I asked him, I said, "Hey, can you come out and throw the ball with me and John, my brother, in the yard?" My dad said, "No, so-and-so is dying in the hospital." This was another big fight we had. I looked at him and I yelled, "Just let him die." And I got hit for it. And I meant what I said. I was so angry that he was picking these other people over our family then. This was probably when I was 15 or 16. I felt like I just lost so much time with him.

When "Spirit of God" would come on in our church services, I vividly remember looking over and seeing my dad singing that song and especially the bridge part where it says, "You are welcome here. Purify, cleanse our tongues, lose our ears." That moment in that song takes me back to standing there beside my dad at church before he passed away.

There's so many things like that on this record. I'm grateful for the opportunity to do it and for my praise and worship team at Faith Baptist Church that actually did all the recording and working with me on this project. It was such a great experience, man. I definitely think there's probably going to be another one in the future. But I mean, as I tell people all the time, in the Bible it says Paul would not eat meat in the New Testament because the Old Testament laws have changed, and people believed that that was a sin to eat meat sacrificed to the idols according to Old Testament law. But in New Testament law, that would change. And Paul said, even though the laws have changed, I will not eat the meat if it causes a brother to stumble.

Which is why I've never recorded a gospel record before because I know that I'm playing in honky-tonks every weekend. I sing country music. I am a country boy. I grew up in the sticks. I'm going to write more country songs. I'm going to put out more country albums.

It was just an experience for me to try and get this out. I wanted to do it, one, to get the message out. Glorify God with what I'm doing, again, which I think was in his time that it came out when it did. But also, I didn't want to regret not doing it with everything with my dad. My mom is still here asking me for this record.

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New Unearthed Johnny Cash Recordings Mean New Songwriter Album Out June 28

In early 1993, the legendary Johnny Cash found himself between contracts in his then nearly 40-year career and recorded an album’s worth of songwriting demos at LSI Studios in Nashville of songs he’d written over many years. LSI at the time was owned by his son-in-law Mike Daniels and daughter Rosey, and he wanted to help the family financially while also record some songs special to him. Not long after the fruitful session, Johnny met producer Rick Rubin, and the recordings were shelved as the two embarked on an important and prolific musical partnership that revitalized the Man in Black’s career that would last the rest of his life.

Some thirty years later, John Carter Cash, the son of Johnny and June Carter Cash, rediscovered the songs and stripped them back to just Johnny’s powerful, pristine vocals and acoustic guitar. Along with co-producer David “Fergie” Ferguson, the two invited a handpicked group of musicians that played with Johnny, including guitarist Marty Stuart and the late bassist Dave Roe, along with drummer Pete Abbott and several others, to the Cash Cabin, a hallowed space in Hendersonville, Tenn. where Johnny would write, record and relax, to breathe new life into the tracks, taking the sound back to the roots and heart of the songs.

Releasing June 28th via Mercury Nashville/UMe, the simply and aptly titled Songwriter, features songs written solely by Johnny Cash, one of America’s greatest songwriters and storytellers. Returning the focus to Johnny’s own songwriting, the 11-track collection showcases the breadth of his writing, one that has always represented the great expanse of the human condition: there are songs of love, family, sorrow, beauty, spiritual salvation, survival, redemption, and of course, some of the lighthearted humor Johnny was known for, all sung in his unmistakable, trademark, resonant voice.

Songwriter will be available to stream and download, as well as on CD and a variety of vinyl options, including standard black and several limited edition color variants.

Songwriter is being previewed today with the release of the first single, “Well Alright,” an upbeat and infectious tune about finding love in of all places, the laundry mat. With its humorous lyrics, galloping beat and taut acoustic upright bass “Well Alright” is prime Johnny Cash, harkening back to his ‘50s hits such as “Get Rhythm,” “Five Feet High and Rising,” “Cry! Cry! Cry!” and “Big River.”

“Dad’s advice with anything, whether it was life or making music, was always ‘follow your heart,'” said John Carter. And it is this truism of his father’s that let guide him every step of the way when making Songwriter. After stripping the original recordings back to just Johnny’s vocals and guitar, he reached out to Fergie, a longtime friend and Johnny’s go-to engineer for nearly thirty years, and the two set off to create an album that would honor and amplify Johnny’s songwriting and timeless voice, while staying true to the spirit of the recordings. Along with John Carter, Fergie is arguably one of the people that knew best what Johnny liked when it came to recording as they worked together beginning in the early 1980s when he was Cowboy Jack Clement’s in-house engineer where Johnny often liked to record. He would go on to work with him on many records, including most of his Mercury albums and the acclaimed American Recordings series with Rick Rubin, even recording his last-ever songs in his final days in 2003. “He was always my hero and I just felt like the luckiest guy in the world to get to record him,” said Fergie.

When it came time to assemble a band, two musicians were must-haves: guitarist Marty Stuart, who played with Johnny in his backing band The Tennessee Three from 1980-86, and the late, great upright bassist Dave Roe, who toured in Johnny’s band, beginning in the early ‘90s and lasting nearly a decade. For Roe, the experience was a chance for a do-over as he actually played on the original ‘93 session, but despite being a great electric bass player was so new to upright bass that his playing was lacking. In fact, after a gig around this same time, Johnny famously gave Roe money to take lessons and said he had six months to learn. Roe would go on to become one of the best slap bass players in the world and play on hundreds of albums before his death in 2023. Songwriter was likely one of his last sessions.

Drummer, Pete Abbott, of Average White Band fame, among many other bands and accolades, was brought in to complete the trio who both recorded together and separately at the Cash Cabin, the sanctuary and studio space that Johnny built on his property in 1979 and where John Carter continues to record. Several other of Nashville’s best, such as Ana Cristina Cash (background vocals), Matt Combs (acoustic guitar, mandolin, strings), Mike Rojas (B3 organ, piano), Russ Pahl (acoustic & electric guitar, bass, dobro, steel) and Sam Bacco (congas, percussion) were enlisted to round out the core band for the majority of the album, while others like session great and Grand Ole Opry guitarist, Kerry Marx, and vocalist Harry Stinson guested on select songs. “All those guys are the best, just cream of the crop,” said Fergie.

Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys provides a bluesy guitar solo on the track “Spotlight” and Vince Gill lends his dulcet vocals to “Poor Valley Girl.” Johnny’s good friend, outlaw country legend, Waylon Jennings, sang on two songs in the original session, “I Love You Tonite” and “Like A Soldier.”

“Nobody plays Cash better than Marty Stuart, and Dave Roe of course played with dad for many years,” said John Carter. “The musicians that came in were just tracking with dad, you know, recording with dad, just as, in the case of Marty and Dave, they had many times before, so they knew his energies, his movements, and they let him be the guide. It was just playing with Johnny once again, and that's what it was. That was the energy of the creation.”

While the playing of the musicians on the original 1993 recordings was strong, the sound quality left something to be desired as it placed the songs into a particular time. By recording a whole new band, John Carter and Fergie, along with engineer Trey Call, brought Johnny into the modern era and made an incredible sounding record that sounds like if Johnny recorded today.

“We just went rudimentary,” said John Carter of the approach. “We went straight to the roots, as far as the sound, and tried not to overly enhance it. We built as if dad was in the room. That's what we tried to do. Between the both of us, Fergie and I have spent thousands of hours with dad in the recording studio, so we just tried to act like he was there: WWJCD, right?”

“I think this record is the way I would have liked to have made one if I would have ever been in charge of one, before Rick Rubin or after Jack Clement,” said Fergie. “I’ve known John Carter since he was a boy, so it was great to finally work with him. He gave me a lot of leeway, especially in terms of grooves and things. We went right along the same page. There wasn’t ever a conversation or plan about an end product, it was just let's do the best we can do.”

Songwriter kicks off in a mighty way with the opening track, “Hello Out There,” a prescient song that sounds like Johnny reaching out from the beyond concerned about mankind and the state of the world as he sings with gravitas, “Hello out there/This is planet Earth/Calling Calling Calling Calling Calling," facilitating his own echoes, before continuing, “Hello out there/our net worth is/Falling Falling Falling Falling Falling.” As the song continues, it crescendos with a glorious swirling of Marty Stuart’s spacey guitar licks, strings, steel guitar, pounding drums, angelic voices, and Johnny’s message of salvation, sonically falling somewhere between cosmic country and gospel. Recorded just before Johnny was recruited by U2 for Zooropa album closer, “The Wanderer,” the songs could be celestial cousins of sorts. “I believe dad wrote it about the Voyager spaceship sometime around when it launched,” said John Carter. “I remember him sitting in Cowboy’s office and singing it for him.”

At the time of the original recording, Johnny was in a great place both mentally and vocally. The songs he chose to record were personal to him and had been written over many decades, with some dating back to the mid to late ‘70s. “I Love You Tonite” is a love letter to his beloved wife June Carter Cash while “Poor Valley Girl” is about both June and her mother, country pioneer, Maybelle Carter, likely written in the wake of her passing in 1978. “Drive On” was inspired by the chronic pain he suffered from due to a broken jaw in the early ‘90s and is about the hardships that were endured by veterans in the Vietnam War. “I think he wanted to understand in his heart, to find peace with his own physical pain, that there were others out there who had pains that were greater, who had PTSD that was more profound, to gain more humility or to gain more acceptance of his own condition,” said John Carter who along with Wesley Orbison, closes the song out with some dueling psychedelic guitars.

Meanwhile, "Like A Soldier” is about his struggle with addiction and ultimately recovery. “It's something that he wrote after his first stint in a recovery center,” said John Carter. “He felt like he was like a soldier getting over a war. The opponent that he had been fighting, his enemy had been addiction, and he was coming into a new life and had the great opportunity for healing. That's where the song came from.” Both “Drive On” and “Like A Soldier” were included with different recordings and arrangements on Johnny’s first American Recordings album in 1994, but these are the very first recordings.

Other tracks like the reverential “Have You Been to Little Rock?” sees Johnny expressing pride for his homeland over a beautiful, traditional melody, while “She Sang Sweet Baby James,” is a tender song about a young single mother singing James Taylor’s “Sweet Baby James” to comfort her baby. Johnny was a fan of Taylor’s ever since he performed on the first season of “The Johnny Cash Show” in 1971. Johnny revisits a lesser-known gem of his with “Sing It Pretty Sue,” originally released in 1962 on The Sound of Johnny Cash.

In the early ‘90s as country music was changing, Johnny found himself at a lull in his career, despite his songwriting and voice remaining strong. “My dad was probably just as clear as at any point in his life and I think that voice, which was kind of ignored at the time, needs to be heard,” said John Carter. “The man at that age, at that specific point in his life, deserves more attention and focus because he sadly didn’t get as much as he should.”

For John Carter, working on Johnny’s music is a form of catharsis and communion with his dad. “It’s not about selling Johnny Cash, he would be doing that himself,” said John Carter. “I'm grateful that this record is here, even if it was only for me, because it reminds me of who my father was, and I do believe there are people out there that knew him on somewhat of a level that I did, that will be just as touched,” said John Carter. “But I also believe that there are people out there that have never heard my father's music that will find new interest in hearing this, hearing this album and hearing my father's voice. I hope that gleans some curiosity in some people where they dig further, and they discover more because there's a lot to see within those pages.”

As for what Johnny might think about Songwriter, “I would think Johnny would say what he said about every record that I worked on with him, every record I think he ever made, when he got to the end of it, he always said, 'I think it's the best record I’ve ever made,'” said Fergie. “You could count on that. I could just hear him say that. I think he'd be really proud of it.”

Ultimately, Songwriter is all about putting the spotlight back on Johnny’s songwriting. “I wanted it to be songs that mostly people hadn't heard and that paid close attention to who he was as a songwriter and who he was as an American voice,” said John Carter. “One of my most important focuses in the past 10 years is to make sure that history, as best that I can possibly, is to give history the opportunity to notice him as the great writer he is. Bob Dylan says he's one of the greatest writers of all of American written music and I agree. I want to put that in the forefront. His writing voice specifically is a certain voice, that I think if America wants to know their history, that's a good place to look. Johnny Cash is definitely one true voice that we can listen to, specifically to his writings.”

JOHNNY CASH – SONGWRITER TRACKLISTING

Hello Out There
Spotlight
Drive On
I Love You Tonite
Have You Ever Been to Little Rock?
Well Alright
She Sang Sweet Baby James
Poor Valley Girl
Soldier Boy
Sing It Pretty Sue
Like A Soldier

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The Legacy of "Wyoming Hurricane": A Milestone in Western Cinema and Country Music

Eighty years ago, on April 20, 1944, a remarkable event in cinematic history took place with the release of "Wyoming Hurricane." This film, a Russell Hayden western, was famously produced in just one week—a testament to the ingenuity and determination prevalent in the Golden Age of Hollywood. More than just a typical western, "Wyoming Hurricane" stood out for its unique blend of action and music, particularly through the inclusion of Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys.

Creating a feature film in only seven days might sound like an impossible task today, but during the 1940s, this was not uncommon for lower-budget westerns. The efficient production schedules were a result of both financial constraints and the high demand for entertainment that could distract audiences from the hardships of World War II. "Wyoming Hurricane" was no exception, showcasing quick-draw action sequences and picturesque landscapes, all filmed at a breakneck pace.

However, what truly set "Wyoming Hurricane" apart was the inclusion of Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys. Already famous in the Southwest, their appearance in the film was pivotal, not just for their careers but also for the genre of country music itself. Wills, often referred to as the "King of Western Swing," brought a distinctive sound that was a fusion of traditional country with new, vibrant elements of jazz and blues. His music's inclusion in "Wyoming Hurricane" provided a national platform that was otherwise hard to achieve in those days.

The casting of Bob Wills and his band as singing ranch hands did more than just add a musical layer to the film; it introduced audiences across the United States to Western Swing. This exposure was crucial at a time when radio and film were the primary media forms. By featuring in a mainstream movie, Bob Wills and his band were not just performing; they were effectively embedding their sound into the broader American consciousness.

The strategic inclusion of music in "Wyoming Hurricane" played a significant role in broadening the appeal of country music. Before the widespread popularity of television, movies were one of the most effective ways for musical artists to gain nationwide exposure. Bob Wills' presence in the film helped to elevate the status of country music, making it more accessible and appealing to urban audiences who might not have been exposed to the genre otherwise.

Moreover, the success of "Wyoming Hurricane" and the popularity of Bob Wills' music helped pave the way for future musicians in the genre. It demonstrated that country music had a place in mainstream entertainment and could attract large audiences. This was pivotal for the evolution of country music and its subgenres, as it proved that these musical styles could transcend regional boundaries and become a part of the national soundtrack.

Today, "Wyoming Hurricane" is remembered not just as a quick production or a simple western but as a significant cultural artifact that contributed to the evolution of American music and cinema. The film's legacy is a testament to how cinema can influence and expand musical genres, bringing them from the margins to the center stage of national attention.

As we look back 80 years to the release of "Wyoming Hurricane," it's clear that the film was more than just entertainment. It was a catalyst that helped shape the musical landscape of America, making the rich sounds of country music a cherished part of its cultural heritage.

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