Beginning in February, “Under Ford’s Ice Cream Lights” and five other songs penned and performed by Newton County native Lucas Carr, will be released on Spotify, Apple, Pandora, Amazon, and many other music streaming services. The 6 song EP was produced, recorded, and mixed by Jimmy Nutt (assisted by Jonathon Moody) at the NuttHouse Recording Studio in Sheffield, Alabama.
Getting his music recorded and distributed has always been a dream for Carr. but they started taking a back seat to his full-time job and life in general. But thanks to your feedback to his music found online, his drive to push forward with his dream was sparked.
In 2021, Carr was settled in to writing and playing music in his spare time while devoting the rest of his time to his job and family. In April of that year, he was featured in the Appeal’s Profile Magazine, detailing his life in music, and giving readers access to his music. Carr said that the response he received afterward sparked him to push forward with recording his music. “People were listening to my songs online and letting me know how much they liked them,” Carr said. “I began questioning myself if it was really that good. Then I asked my wife if she thought they were good enough to professionally record and she said ‘Yes’. So, then I started researching recording studios.”
Carr contacted Grammy award winning Engineer Jimmy Nutt, who runs The NuttHouse Recording Studio. Nutt’s impressive resume includes working with such artists as Percy Sledge, Jimmy Buffett, Mac McAnally, and Jason Isbell. And in February of last year, Carr travelled to the studio in Sheffield, with a binder full of his songs. Nutt helped him select five of his songs to record. Needing one more song, Carr returned home and got to work. “As soon as I finished the song, I sent it to Jimmy,” Carr said. “As soon as he listened to it, he said that it had to be included.”
In April, Carr travelled back to The NuttHouse and recorded his songs. In awe of the session musicians that he recorded with, Carr described them as the ’92 Dream Team of musicians’. “Two members of Jason Isbell’s band, Chad Gamble on drums and Jimbo Hart on bass, are also session musicians that live in the area, so they played for me,” said Carr. “Jay Burgess played on it, Wayne Bridge came in and played some steel guitar on some songs, songwriter Walt Aldridge played mandolin on some songs, Jimmy Nutt played guitar, keys and percussion on some songs, Clayton Ivey played keys on some songs, Evan Lane did some background vocals, and James LeBlanc played some lead guitar on some songs. If you look these guys up, as far as I’m concerned it was a star-studded cast of players.”
“Under Ford’s Ice Cream Lights” will be released on February 17 as the first single off his EP. The song title leads one to believe it’s about Carr’s love of baseball and the old field that’s used to be behind the old ice cream shop in Newton, but there’s more to it. “While it’s about that little league field that’s not there anymore, it’s also about hanging your cleats up after playing the game for the last time,” said Carr. “You don’t know you were in the good old days until they’re gone.”
The next single will be released on March 3 and it’s a new song that Carr penned. And finally, on March 17, the entire 6 song EP will be released.
Carr is thankful for all the feedback that he’s received on social media and hopes that people really like his upcoming EP release. “I feel like the songs have got some substance and staying power to them,” Carr said. “I really hope people like them and listen to them for years to come.”
Under Ford’s Ice Cream Lights
Sometime’s when I’m back in Newton
And I turn down Ford Avenue
I think of all you guys and start to smile.
And I remember for a moment what it was like
Under Ford’s Ice Cream lights.
-Lyrics written by Lucas Carr
