By day, Jason Craig (Jason Parman) works at a government job. But by night, he, his brother Scott, and their band hit the road and perform at various places in the St. Joseph and Kansas City areas singing about his home, Worth County and growing up on his parent’s farm near Hatfield. Jason and Scott came and performed at a concert in Sheridan to cap off a day of celebrations at Old Defiance Days. His entire band will perform August 31st at the Grant City Sesquicentennial.
He showed his talent as a showman growing up when he DJ’d for high school dances. Finally, he discovered that he had a talent for writing songs. He wrote a song about his parents, Ed and Nancy Parman of Hatfield on the occasion of their 40th wedding anniversary. The song was about them living lives of service and facing life with courage and love. From there, his songwriting career took off and it is still growing. Word about Craig and his band is spreading and he is starting to get concerts this year as far away as central Iowa in the north and Oklahoma in the south. Now, Craig is planning on doing a video to his signature song, “Worth Countin’ on,” about growing up in Worth County and promoting the county as a good place to live. He has already done one album and is now working on his second, which he plans to have finished in October.
Craig sang solo at Sheridan Saturday with his brother Scott Parman serving as his producer. When the whole band is together, Scott serves as his bass player as well. “I always enjoy coming home and I’m glad it’s not 8,000 degrees out,” said Jason.
Jason sang a mixture of original songs about trucks, country live, working on the farm, and the woman that he loves; he is married with children. He brought four different guitars to the concert Saturday; he quipped that he plays all of them so that his wife won’t sell them.
He led off with “Who says you can’t go home,” about growing up near Hatfield. He joked that the Holy Trinity of Country was beer, bait, and ammunition. One song he performed was “Steel toes,” written by Scott and finished off by Jason celebrating the working man. “Wife of the Night” incorporates nearly every pickup line that he has heard over the years and features a man in the bar who spends all his spare time trying to find a woman. “I love you for good” is dedicated to his wife.
“On the Farm” was written after Craig met a man on the plane who was a farmer and showed the virtues of hard work and how it pays off. He covered some popular songs such as “Hallelujah,” “The Fireman,” and “Shake it for me.” “I want you to want me” was inspired by the popular song, which Craig said never made sense that it was set to happy music. “Run back to you” was another song dedicated to his wife, about being away for a long time and then coming back.
The song that had the most audience impact was not an original but a song by a friend of Craig’s, “Linda started lying,” about a woman who constantly went out and cheated after saying that she loved the man and what the man felt about her behavior. Everyone had knowing smiles on their faces as they could identify with that song.
Craig said that the audience cheers meant a lot to him and that it was not too bad for 105,000 degrees out. He said that one big influence on him was the late George Jones; “The world will never be the same without him,” said Craig as he performed his hit, “He stopped loving her today.”
No comments:
Post a Comment