Tennessee natives Ernest and Jelly Roll are taking listeners to the school of hard knocks in their new anthemic collaboration, “I Went to College/I Went to Jail.”
Luke Bryan, Ernest, Rivers Rutherford and Chandler Paul Walters wrote the euphoric song, which finds Ernest and Jelly Roll recounting the life lessons they’ve gleaned from their respective unconventional education routes.
“We both grew up in the 6-1-5 / Both sides of the train tracks / Had two different lives / Both sons of sinners, needing set free / We met at a party over big bags of weed,” Ernest and Jelly Roll declare in the autobiographical first verse.
The second verse continues with a candid recount of Ernest’s drop-out from college and Jelly’s time behind bars.
“Well, I was supposеd to go four years and quit after one / I was sеntenced to seven, but after four, I was done / Well, I burned all my books, I stayed up and read / I could’ve been a doctor, I should’ve been dead,” they singers trade lines on their trip down memory lane.
Instead of lamenting their acquisition of non-conventional diplomas, Ernest and Jelly celebrate trekking down the road less traveled and coming out better from it.
“And I went to college, and I went to jail / One was a dorm room, one was a cell / Who came out on top? Hell, it’s hard to tell / I went to college, and I went to jail,” the country singers profess proudly in the chorus.
Sonically, “I Went to College/I Went to Jail” continues in the vein of Ernest’s acclaimed Flower Shops (The Album). It traffics heavily in classic country with the forefront placement of steel guitar lines, nostalgic chord progressions and unabashed twang. If you’re a fan of neo-traditional country and candid, yet tongue-in-cheek storytelling, this new song might be right up your alley.
“I Went to College/I Went to Jail” is one of five tracks Ernest has dropped ahead of the April 12 release of his forthcoming new album, Nashville, Tennessee. Other songs out now include the spirited Western-swing breakup tune “Why Dallas” with Lukas Nelson, “Ain’t as Easy,” “How’d We Get Here” and “Ain’t Too Late.”
Nashville, Tennessee is available to pre-order and pre-save now.
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