PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — After a 12-year hiatus from country music, Jason Rogers released a new single “Lovers Lullaby” on Oct. 13, which is already being played on 300 radio stations across America.
Rogers re-entered the country music scene through his TikTok account Cowboy Jason Rogers around the end of July with encouragement from his friend viral TikTok star Chip Hafford. Rogers has posted videos of himself playing piano, guitar and other instruments. His piano video had more than 150,000 likes.
Rogers, who was nominated for Best New Artist for his self-titled album and Best Country Song for the hit “Breathe Into Me” in 2010 at the 54th annual Grammy Awards, suddenly disappeared from the airwaves that year. The song was first named International Country Song of the Year in 2007, when he wrote and recorded it as a demo. He hopes his new single will relaunch his career in country music.
“In the end [“Lover’s Lullaby”] is simple, it’s very simple, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have strength,” Rogers said.
Rogers was born in what is now Northern Light A.R. Gould Hospital in Presque Isle. He also lived in Easton and Washburn, but spent his teenage years living in New Brunswick. Presque Isle was like the New York City of the area when the family lived in New Brunswick, and they often took family trips there, Rogers said.
He wrote and sang “Lovers Lullaby” for his family and got together with his producer Martin Young to record it in Nashville, Tennessee, he said. Rogers plans to release a new song every three months for the next three years, with “Half the Hafford” being recorded in Nashville in spring 2023.
“Half the Hafford” is about getting older and you’re half the spit and vinegar you used to be, Rogers said. He wrote the song with his buddy Chip Hafford as a joke, but it blew up on Hafford’s TikTok much to Rogers’ surprise.
He also has written a comical country song called “The Toyota Fart.”
Rogers said he has tried it out on people who owned Toyotas who thought the song was funny and great. Now Rogers plans to do a comedy song about the Honda Ridgeline because it can easily get buried in an avalanche or mud puddle. He wants to mix in some comedy with the more serious songs.
“I never even looked at TikTok before,” Rogers said. “Back then it was My Space when I was doing music and that was a big, huge thing and I had hundreds of thousands of plays on that, but really it was who I knew.”
Rogers will release “Cold Here in Montana” in December or January, and plans to make a video of it. He enjoys making uplifting songs about true love and long friendships with a strong moral and ethical story, he said.
“Because music times have changed, if I say. ‘Hey, Alexa. Play Jason Rogers.’ Well Alexa just sits there, she doesn’t do it because I am not on there and my music was removed,” Rogers said. “So in reality I have to even bring back my old music as well as new music.”
Rogers wanted to fix not being on Alexa — or being found anywhere else. He wanted his legacy to be his music.
After Rogers got out of music, he worked as CEO and editor in chief of Cashbox magazine until 2012, when he started Music Charts magazine — which took two years to trademark with his partners Sam Coplin and Phill Scheldt. He still owns it.
Rogers moved back to Presque Isle in January 2018. He wants to make the city a music venue that draws people from across the state.
Rogers’ wife, Christie Wolf-Rogers, worked for TAMC in Fort Fairfield and Rogers bought Central Aroostook Psychiatric Services on Main Street so she could work closer to home. He still owns a house in Nashville so he can go down to record.
“I could’ve been overseas doing things and different things and I kind of walked away at the end of it all. This round you never know I might do something different,” Rogers said.
