Jo Dee Messina will release her new album, Me, on March 18. The project’s title was chosen by her fans, who helped fund the project through a Kickstarter campaign last year. Jo Dee wrote or co-wrote many of the songs found on the album and she’ll release it on her own newly-established label, Dreambound Records.
“This album is truly for you, the people who appreciate the creative process, as well as my amazing fans,” Jo Dee said. “There’s no question, I wouldn’t be where I am today without your love and support. You’ve been with me since the beginning. This album is a fresh start for me, and I want us to go on this exciting journey together.”
Through Jo Dee’s “My Time. Our Music” Kickstarter campaign, fans helped her surpass her $100,000 goal. According to Jo Dee’s publicist, her campaign was the most successful one to come out of Nashville and, at its completion, was the 15th largest funded music campaign in Kickstarter’s history. Fans were able to use social media to select what songs would be included on the album, submit artwork for her label logo, pick the album title and chose the project’s first single, “Peace Sign.”
After parting from her previous record label, Jo Dee used the time to reflect and put pen to paper. A song found on her new album, “Not Dead Yet,” was born.
“I had been listening to the naysayers around me and thought, ‘I have so much to offer now that I’m free of the restraints I had with my label,’” she said. “I then had a conversation with my friend and co-writer saying, ‘I have so much left to do, so much left to say. Goodness! I’m not dead yet!’ And that is how the song was born. It talks about how if I listened to the small thinkers and naysayers, I might as well throw in the towel. Music is my life, it’s a part of who I am. I’m not ready to give up that part of my life. Hell, I’m just getting started!”
Jo Dee is also a wife and mother of two young sons which inspired a crowd favorite, “A Woman’s Rant.” It was written in just a few minutes during a time when her youngest child wouldn’t sleep longer than a couple of hours at a time.
“One night I was sick and could barely move so I tried to wake up my husband to get the baby, but I couldn’t get him to budge,” she said. “After feeding the baby, burping him, changing him, I was wide awake. That’s when I went downstairs and wrote ‘A Woman’s Rant.’ It’s literally a day in the life of me.”
Jo Dee has always had a personal relationship with her fans. The song “Me” allows them a peek into her more vulnerable side, part of the reason that “Me” was ultimately the winning song when it came time to pick the album’s title.
“The song came about through a conversation with one of my co-writers, Kathie Baillie of Baillie & The Boys, who has a grown daughter,” she said. “I was feeling the stress of trying to be everything to everyone and asked her how she did it. There is a part of me that thinks when I look in the mirror, I should see Wonder Woman. When I see me, it terrifies me. Can I really pull off all the things I have to be to so many? I don’t know. We’ll see. This song gives folks a peek at the vulnerable side of me which isn’t shown that often.”
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