JOSH ROSS

                                                              "Ain't Doin' Jack" 

                                                               UMG Nashville

While Josh Ross might just be breaking through stateside with his heavy impacting single “Trouble,” the Canadian country star has well established himself over the past year North of the border, striking the Top 5 on Canada’s Country Airplay Chart with “On A Different Night” and “First Taste of Gone,” paving the way to becoming the most-nominated artist at the upcoming CCMA’s this fall.

Though many might just now be catching onto his incredible back catalog, Ross has very wisely continued to deliver his freshest, new music throughout the first half of this year to his rapidly growing fan base; first with the very well received “Red Flags,” and now with his latest effort “Ain’t Doin’ Jack.”

Co-written with Mason Thornley, Ben Stoll, and Sam Martinez, the song perfectly blends hits of 2000’s era rock influence with modern country kissed ideals to give it an edge that teeters the lines of both genres without ever fully stepping across them into one side or the other.

The cold opening allows Josh’s vocal to immediately carry the frantic emotional pace of the downward spiral moodiness embedded into the lyrics as we find him at the bar trying to drink away the memory of a recent heartbreak, while discovering that the whiskey he’s throwing back isn’t nearly strong enough to do the trick.

He uses the verses to spell out his whiskey-soaked efforts, singing of “taking this No. 7 five deep” while lamenting that a couple down will usually provide him with a quick fix but this batch must be watered down, all while the instrumentation perfectly builds its pacing through the pre-chorus to slap into the crunching guitar driven explosion of the chorus where he relives the painful last moments of the heartbreak like a loop playing over and over in his head:

“But it ain't doin' jack

To forget the door, slamming out the drive

Tearing up the gravel, saying she ain't coming back

Left me on the porch, thinking I should be drinking

She don't love me anymore”

“Ain’t Doin’ Jack” is purely built for a live show experience, providing several sing-along and fist pumping moments that wrap around the proper amounts of energy that carry an unmistakable, mosh pit type of build. It makes sense then that he’s using this edgy song as his opener on his current tour position with Nickelback and Brantley Gilbert.

Ross will make his Grand Ole Opry debut on July 26, 2023, and has recently been announced as the support act for Bailey Zimmerman’s RELIGIOUSLY. THE TOUR in 2024.

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis) 

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