Caroline Jones lauds mentor Jimmy Buffett, juggles Zac Brown Band, solo work

ATLANTA — Caroline Jones, at age 34, is truly in the juggling plates part of her life.

She just had her first child in November. She is pursuing a solo country music career, releasing her seventh album last fall. And she is part of Atlanta’s own Zac Brown Band.

“It’s been pretty hectic so far with a 5-month-old, but we are slowly but surely getting the hang of it,” Jones said in a recent call with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution before a concert stop in town.

She joined the Zac Brown Band as its only female instrumentalist in 2022. “It’s been a blast,” she said. “We’re playing football stadiums. You can’t really get bigger than that!”

Jones also considers Chesney, a dominant country superstar for more than two decades, as a mentor and has opened for him as a solo artist.

Of Chesney’s career advice, “what sticks to me is he’ll go to the worst seat in the house and he’ll sit there and meditate on the distance that his energy and spirit has to reach when performing to capture every person in the crowd,” she said. “That always inspired me. It can seem surreal looking out at the crowd. You forget they’re individual people.”

For the Zac Brown Band, which did its own baseball stadium tour in 2022, playing second fiddle is unusual.

“Going on stage in the daylight is new,” Jones said. “It’s also a crowd where not every single person paid to see us. That offers a fresh energy especially to a band of veterans. This is a challenge of winning over a crowd. Zac thrives in these scenarios. He’s a hunter in more ways than one.”

And while the band remains relevant on country radio, she said Brown is already thinking about the group’s legacy. “It’s cool to see all these teenagers who know all the words,” she said. “We want to be considered one of the greats.”

Speaking of greats, Jones is still mourning the death of Jimmy Buffett, whom she considered a dear friend. She was able to join an array of all-stars at the Hollywood Bowl last month to celebrate Buffett, who created a subgenre of chill, beach-oriented rock music that Chesney and the Zac Brown Band have embraced.

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