Jefferson Ross – Backstage Balladeer (2025)
Jefferson Ross’ fascinating Backstage Balladeer is a self-contained project he laudably wrote, performed, produced, recorded, and mixed on his own. He also shot the album’s imaginative cover photos.
The songs revisit Ross’s familiar terrain: life, death, faith, doubt, and the modern American South, through a tighter, solo lens. Religion figures prominently. Lyrics ponder a Pentecostal upbringing against a well-traveled, well-read perspective, asking whether old beliefs and new ideas can coexist.
Subjects include a snake-handling mountain woman facing despair, an amusing story of a couple launching a profit-minded cult, the liberating pull of travel, and a lighthearted ode to tacos. The musical palette shifts between folk, Americana, and country across the set as Ross alternates between Fender and Martin guitars.
The result highlights Backstage Balladeer as a true one-artist statement, intimate in execution, broad in scope, and aimed at listeners who appreciate songcraft without excessive studio gloss.
Track listing:
- Crooked Lines (3:29)
- Power (3:58)
- Lion in Zion (3:24)
- Travel (5:26)
- One Taco at a Time (3:17)
- Let’s Start a Cult (3:15)
- Jerry Lee Lewis (5:20)
- Brimstone Blues (4:49)
- Serpent (5:08)
- I Believe What I Think I Know (5:09)
- Mary Magdalene (3:55)
- The Blues and the Blood (3:14)
- Backstage Balladeer (4:08)
- House of the Lord (4:10)
Author: Ryan Emmert
