Jason Eady

A near-lifelong songwriter who names Merle Haggard, Guy Clark, and Willie Nelson among his main inspirations, Jason Eady grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, and got his start performing in local bars at age 14, showing his natural grasp of everything from soul and R&B to blues and country. His eighth full-length album, “To The Passage Of Time” first took shape in a frenetic burst of creativity back in the doldrums of quarantine. Over the course of a three-day period last August, the Fort Worth, Texas–based musician wrote more than half of the album, locking himself in his bedroom and emerging only when he felt completely burnt out. “I went in thinking I was going to write just one song—but then the songs kept coming, and I didn’t want to break the spell,” he recalls. “I’d go to sleep with the guitar by the bed, pick it back up when I woke up the next morning, and do it all again. I’d never really experienced anything like that before. ”With its nuanced exploration of aging and loss and the fragility of life, “To The Passage Of Time” arrives as the Mississippi-bred artist’s most lyrically complex and compelling work to date.