Jesus, Jack & Me
Recorded in Anderson, SC
Released February 15th, 2024
Distribution: Tunecore
Publishing: 256 Miles Away Publishing
Initial Information:
“Jesus, Jack & Me” the album took a year to record. Many of the tracks were over 25 years old. These were songs that were written but had never been recorded.
Liner notes are written by Benji Merritt.
Tracks:
Both Sides Of The Road (Words & Music by B. Merritt)
Featuring Andrew Crawford on lead guitar. He is an incredible guitar player, songwriter and musician. He recorded this in two takes.
This song began as a hook line entitled “Georgia On Both Sides Of The Road” because my family has some hunting property in Lousiville, Georgia. One afternoon I was thinking about how much I love being there, getting to hunt & be outdoors with my friends and family. It’s one of the places I feel the most free. The pace of life down there slows down. We hunt, we eat, we sleep & we hang out together. As I thought about it more and more, I began thinking about how much I wish my day to day life felt that way. Why can’t we all get along, be free, enjoy living as Americans where we get to speak out minds, be whatever we want to be? You would think that we would be the happiest people on the planet. In reality, we aren’t. So, I decided to make the song about something a little bigger than a small plot of land in Georgia. It’s an anthem saying “Enjoy your freedoms & I will enjoy mine, and we can live on both sides of the road.”
I’ve always wondered what it would be like if the band BOSTON were a Southern Rock band. That is why there is an organ at the beginning of the song.
Jesus, Jack & Me (Words & Music by B. Merritt)
“Jesus, Jack & Me” came to me quick. On a previous record I wrote an instrumental that is called “Sour Mash” after I visited a very popular distillery in Tennessee (wink wink). While thinking about that song and my visit there, I thought about how much I love whiskey and bourbon. I love the taste, the process, and I especially love this particular brand of whiskey and it’s company’s history. The downside to all of it is just that: I love it, and that could be a problem in the long run if it were to overtake me. Alcoholism runs in my family. Also there is a stigma of drinking alcohol in the deep south if a man is a church-going man. There has always been this unspoken thing of “pick one or the other, but you can’t have Jesus and liquor too!” The truth of the matter is this: that just isn’t true.
As a musician as well as a Pastor for the last 12 years, I can say that I have been around both. I have also been around many people who know Jesus as their Savior, but they just haven’t been able to kick their addiction. Many of my close relatives were not healed from their alcoholism until the Lord called them home. They loved Jesus, and they loved liquor. In the end, it cost them dearly. It was some old struggle.
One of my favorite lines that I have ever written is this one from this song: “It’s a battle between two spirits, and neither one is letting go.” You write your whole life and only get one or two like that.
I couldn’t decide which version I liked the most; this one or the more scaled back demo version. I decided to put them both on the record.
My heart is this: I hope someone hears this song and finds a way out of addiction from it. I also want people who go to Church and love Jesus to live in the freedom of “all things in moderation.’ That’a between you and the Holy Spirit to work out in your own life. One thing is for sure, Jesus knows you, He loves you, He sees you, and He isn’t mad at you for your struggle. He is walking with you every step of the way.
I have received some flack for writing and recording this song. Jesus and I are ok with it, and that’s all that matters.
3. Firetower Road (Words & Music by B. Merritt)
This song was so much fun to write and record. I came up with the lick on my Les Paul and Orange amp one afternoon. As I started playing it over and over, It reminded me of how I felt when I rode with my buddy Bryan who had a souped up Mustang GT anniversary addition. We used to go really fast in that car and the horsepower would take your breath. One night before a high school basketball game, we were all cruising around. Bryan decided to open it up and see how fast he could go on Firetower road.
Firetower Road is located off of Highway 88 in upstate South Carolina. There is still and actual decommissioned US forestry firetower off to the right.
My Friend Ryan owns a car dealership. He received a Ford GT in to sell. There were a limited addition of them made. One day he said “Open up the double doors, I am driving that car!” Even though it brought the value down and the future owner wasn’t pleased, he said that he b=never regrets taking that car for a spin. Sometimes you just gotta go fast. There are also a couple of freaky details that are similar: Ryan and Bryan’s name rhyme, both were riding in GT’s, and Ryan now lives within a mile of Firetower Road.
My Uncle and his friend climbed that firetower when they were boys and threw a cat off of it wearing a homemade parachute made from a bedsheet, bailing twine and a leather belt. Believe it or not the parachute worked and the cat survived.
I always loved songs as a little boy that made my imagine run wild. The main one was “Devil Went Down To Georgia” as Charlie Daniels played the fiddle, I imagined every detail of the devil playing a golden fiddle. It is the reason I wanted to play a instrument, and wound up taking cello lessons. (they were all out of fiddles to rent/ true story). So in this song, I wanted to make a moment where little boys and girls could imagine drag racing. You can hear the engine, the heavy breathing, the silence right before you pop the clutch and let it go. That’s why we put a race inside the song, so the next generation of kids might listen and be inspired to let their imaginations run wild too!
Songwriters Blues (Words & Music by B. Merritt)
I wrote this song in a condo in Brentwood, Tennessee.
Saddest song I ever wrote. I had just moved to Nashville to be a song writer. I was broke, I didn’t know anyone there, and every door I knocked on was getting slammed in my face. I went up there thinking I was pretty good. They told me very quickly I was not.
I stayed up all night one night feeling sorry for myself watching TV. When the sun came up, I was as low as I could be because I didn’t want to wash out as a songwriter and have to move home as a failure. This is the song I wrote that morning. It took about 5 minutes to write.
Hole In My Pocket (Words & Music by B. Merritt & A.G. Merritt)
When my daughter Abbey Grace was 4 years old, we lived in a cabin on 80 acres of land. It was beautiful, and overlooked a private pond. We were building a house nearby so I tried to enjoy my time living there as much as possible before we had to move. One thing I enjoyed the most was sitting on the back porch overlooking that pond and playing guitar in the late afternoons. One particular tim Abbey Grace came out and asked me what I was doing. I said “playing guitar and maybe writing a song….” She said “I want to help!” So, we began trying to come up with a song idea.
As we played and sang I noticed that she had this old raggedy dollar that she kept dropping out of her pocket. I said “It looks like you have a hole in your pocket!” She replied “Yep, and I can’t keep my dollar in….”
Sometimes they just write themselves. Abbey Grace is the cowriter on this song becuase she legit helped me write and rhyme this song. We have played it on stage and snag it for literally thousands of people over the years.
This song was almost cut on two different albums prior to this one. For whatever reason, it just never quite made it on a record until now. This little song deserves to be heard.
There is one line that was recorded wrong. It’s my fault. I ept saying “I’ll change it before we send it off” but I didn’t. Abbey Grace, I am sorry. That one is on me!
Here is the correct words:
“Two dimes and a nickel make a quarter that’s what they say….”
“Four Quarters make a dollar, but my dollar keeps slipping away, hey!”
“I got a hole in my pocket……..”
If you ever hear this song live, that’s what you will hear us sing.
Love you doodle! You are an incredible musician in your own right, and one of the only people
I know who loves music as much as me.
3 Quarters In A Jukebox (Words & Music by B. Merritt & S. Holcomb)
I met Shane Holcomb in 1996. He sold me a pair of boots in Nashville the month I moved up there from SC. The rest was history, we were off and writing music together. He is an incredible songwriter and singer.
We wrote several songs together and had one published by Warner Chappell called “50 Miles To Macon”.
I wanted to honor him as a songwriter and friend and include on of ours on this record. I almost recorded “End of the trail”, a song about a worn out rodeo cowboy, but I couldn’t do it. Shane sings that one way better than me. It’s his song. I will wait for him to cut that one someday. I decided to do “3 Quarters In A Jukebox”.
One of the worst days of my time there in Nashville was when Shane called me up and said “I’m heading back to Texas, Momma (Kim) wants to go home”. We were always close to making it. We even sang at the Bluebird together. In one moment, that moment, I felt like it was all slipping away.
I helped him load up his uhaul, and we cried and said goodbye to one another. Honestly, that’s how Nashville is for young musicians. Some make it, and some go home.
Whenever I think about the “what if’s” I always think of me and Shane. I am pretty sure we had something that would have gone far.
Looking back, I am so glad he went home. I’m so glad I went back to South Carolina years later.. Our lives would have turned out so differently. He is now a High School Principal, and still married to Kim. They are awesome. I am still married to my wife Ansley, and Pastor a Church now. Here is what I know in my heart: I can guarantee that if he had not moved back to Texas and we somehow wound up making it, my life would have been completely ruined. As it turns out, we both still play and record music, and our lives turned out great.
Thank you Lord for knowing us better than we know ourselves!
Simple Kind Of Love (Words & Music by B. Merritt)
This simple little song has a strange fact to it; I wrote it from a memory of being in a house when I was a teenager. It was the first house my Aunt Iris lived in when she first got married. It was off Wren School Road im Piedmont, SC.
What I remember is this small dirt driveway. I imagined a woman laying in bed watching her husband leave early to go to work. I imagined her excited when he came back 12 hours later. I can still see that kitchen. That was years and years ago.
For whatever reason, sometimes songs pick the location in our minds. I don’t know why this simple song liked that tiny house so much, but it fits. Maybe love really is that simple. Looking forward everyday to be with the one you love.
The Legend Of Scatterbrain Johnson (Words & Music by B. Merritt)
Hambone Blues (Words & Music by B. Merritt)
I Ain’t Giving Up On Love (Words & Music by B. Merritt)
Jesus, Jack & Me Demo (Bonus Track) (Words & Music by B. Merritt)
Abbey Grace Singing “Hole In My Pocket”