When listening to Jaron and the Long Road to Love’s debut album Getting Dressed In the Dark it’s important to remember this fact:  It’s really one artist, Jaron, performing these songs and the “and the Long Road to Love” is his way of explaining what the album is about, his long road to find love.  All of the songs on the album were written before or after a break-up with one woman.  Jaron’s solo debut single “Pray For You” is a song that has taken the country music world by storm since an independent release last winter on Jaron’s own label Jaronwood Records.  The single started its current fast rise up the charts once Universal Republic and Big Machine Records in Nashville got involved in the promotion of the single and this album. 

Getting Dressed in the Dark starts off with “Petals Back On The Rose,”a song that finds Jaron hopelessly trying to revive a relationship that’s on its way out.  While the tune is pop-leaning sonically, the lyrics couldn’t be called anything but country.  “Beat Back Love” is a song about that guy who is the one cleaning up his best friend’s messes after another relationship fails.  Jaron finds himself trying to figure out a way to tell her that he has been with her through thick and thin and that he should be the one to make her dreams come true but she never allows him out of the ‘friend zone.’

On “Without Her Leaving,” Jaron sings about a man who didn’t realize what he had ‘til it was gone while “It’s A Good Thing” – one of only 3 co-writes on the record, this time with twin brother Evan, Sarah Buxton and Nashville artist Andy Davis – is a song that chronicles a hurt man letting his wall break down enough to let love back in and says that ‘it’s a good thing’ that the woman worked that wall down so he could, let love in. 

Every song on Getting Dressed in the Dark details a different part of the relationship and “I Hope You Hit Traffic” is like many of the songs on this album, refreshing lyric-driven tunes that deal with matters of the heart.  It’s witty like “Pray For You” but it doesn’t get as ‘vindictive’ but still could find itself as a worthy follow-up single down the line. 

The final track on Getting Dressed in the Dark is a song that every woman wants to hear.  It talks about various ‘normal’ or ‘unsexy’ ways the woman is beautiful to Jaron.  It’s nice to have a song like this after so many songs about being hurt in a relationship. 

With 10 well-written and produced country/pop tunes, Getting Dressed in the Dark is a strong storyteller’s album. It’s the kind of album that rarely seems to get made these days and unlike other ‘storyteller’ albums, it is quite commercial and that could (and should) make Jaron and the Long Road to Love a steady member of mainstream radio charts.

You can support Jaron and the Long Road to Love by purchasing the album at Amazon | iTunes.