at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n(Gregory Page, mentioned in this interview, is Mraz\u2019 opening act.)<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
St. Pete Catalyst: Tell me about this gospel album.<\/p>\n
Jason Mraz: It was recorded in 2007, for my grandma. So almost 20 years ago. Any time I made music, in my youth, my grandmother would follow it up with \u201cWhen you gonna make me a gospel album?\u201d That was her preferred radio station. So I decided to please her, and one holiday I gifted her a gospel album, for Christmas.<\/p>\n
It has been in our family for 20 years, and it is a favorite. And through the encouragement of friends and family, and also because of where I\u2019m at in life \u2013 I\u2019m going to be 50 next year \u2013 I resonate more with the material these days. About what\u2019s gonna happen when we die, and how can I find comfort and peace in the here and now? And trust in the hereafter.<\/p>\n
So, I\u2019m finally sharing Grandma\u2019s Gospel Favorites. And it\u2019s not for everyone; it\u2019s for Grandma, specifically. But for anyone who may love that Appalachian, bluegrass, Americana sound, and old-timey songs of comfort, Grandma\u2019s Gospel Favorites may be for you!<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Was the whole thing recorded in 2007, with no later overdubs or changes?<\/p>\n
It was. I\u2019ll admit there are two songs that were written post-Grandma, through the years, but they were still on brand as I moved through life. My grandma lost one of her daughters, unfortunately \u2013 my aunt. And that was probably five years after I\u2019d made the record for my grandma. And I wrote a new song called \u201cWhen We Die,\u201d which is sort of asking, what the heck happens when we die? What kind of comfort will I find?<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s an original song that I included on this release. My family loved it, we played it at my aunt\u2019s memorial. And my dad insisted I include it on Grandma\u2019s Gospel Favorites.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And you did \u201cDaddy Sang Bass,\u201d the old Carl Perkins\/Johnny Cash song.<\/p>\n
That was on the original record. I made this album fast, for Grandma, and I needed to include songs that were gonna make her laugh. And \u201cDaddy Sang Bass\u201d was definitely one of those. She always loved that.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
OK, this album is something you\u2019re putting out to make a profound statement at this point in your life. Even though it\u2019s most likely, well, counter-commercial.<\/p>\n
I wouldn\u2019t even say it\u2019s a profound statement from me; it\u2019s basically an album of covers of old-timey songs. The songs themselves make a statement, I guess \u2013 they help us find comfort in times of stress, or times near death. And that\u2019s certainly where my grandmother was. She was in her later years when I gifted her this record. And she had lost her husband.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a well-made record that I\u2019ve just been sitting on for all this time. Through sharing it with friends and family, they said \u201cIt\u2019ll find its audience,\u201d basically.<\/p>\n
So it isn\u2019t a huge commercial push. I\u2019m not going to be going to radio, or making music videos, or changing my identity for it. And it may become the first in a series of covers albums. The album cover says Jason Mraz Sings Grandma\u2019s Gospel Favorites. Well, maybe I\u2019ll Sing Holiday Favorites or Sing the Music of Gregory Page, who\u2019s one of my favorite songwriters.<\/p>\n
It may open up new doors for me, I\u2019m not sure.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just to cover the ground, I\u2019ll ask: there\u2019s no question in your mind of \u201cAre my fans going to accept this?\u201d<\/p>\n
I never know what fans are going to accept. Even if it\u2019s an album full of originals. Some people like the mellow acoustics, some people prefer the horns, and the uptempo dance with the raps in it. I never know what fans are gonna gravitate towards. It\u2019s really not up to me to decide.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
You\u2019re an artist. You\u2019re allowed to do what you want.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s right! And it\u2019s music. There\u2019s lots of music out there to be celebrated, to be heard, to be sung. To be shared. I\u2019ve really had fun exploring genre the last few years. In 2020 I put a reggae album out. And the last effort was more sort of pop disco, because I\u2019d never truly embraced dance. And I went for it.<\/p>\n
And then this was a complete departure from both of those things. But it also revealed a little bit \u2013 for anyone who\u2019s playing the home game \u2013 about where I started. And I did start at Grandma\u2019s house, singing in front of her fireplace, and singing on Sundays at church.<\/p>\n
It may not reflect fully on my beliefs today, but it\u2019s still who I am and where I came from. I did grow up watching Hee-Haw and Lawrence Welk, and listening to old-timey country music.<\/p>\n
My favorite songwriter is Willie Nelson, and he\u2019s done a fantastic job of exploring genre. In fact, I consider him a jazz artist who plays country music.<\/p>\n
I hope to have a long life in music. And that will include all types of music, if I live long enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You can take the boy out of the country, but you\u2019ll never take the country out of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-269006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mraz-Grandma-300x300.jpg\")
You can take the boy out of the country, but you\u2019ll never take the country out of the boy.<\/p>\n