Jeremiah: “We’re adaptable and fit in wherever we go. We’re also married, so the band Oh Jeremiah can never break up unless one of us dies.”
Erin: “We just got life insurance.”
Jeremiah: “I’m 35. The guys I went to high school with are having midlife crises, and I’m still writing songs about pirates. But playing music together has made our marriage more fun. We’ve had the greatest adventures of our lives, and it brought us to Nashville to survive our dreams. Music is in such a weird place right now. It feels like they keep coming up with new ways not pay artists. This is the biggest our band has ever been, but it feels like the smallest in many ways. We’re trying to get more creative supplementing music so that we can still pursue this.
I didn’t expect writing a book to be part of those dreams. But writing Jones County Ghosts with stories about growing up in Laurel, MS changed our career in a lot of ways and expanded the universe of Oh Jeremiah.
The inspiration for the Jones County Ghosts book and album is that I was in a store in Laurel, dressed exactly like I’m dressed right now. This is the only way I dress. One of the workers came up to me and asked, ‘Can I help you? I can tell you’re not from around here.’ It hurt my feelings because I am from right here. Laurel has changed a lot because of the show on HGTV. The building where I took guitar lessons now sells evening gowns.
John Thompson (the owner of Callaghan’s Irish Social Club in Mobile) is the reason I wrote the book. He was the biggest advocate for me to step outside of music and write the stories. This was supposed to just be a 15-page pamphlet at our merch table. But I looked up and it was 250 pages. I have a good recall about things that don’t matter.
The stories are true. I had to call my high school theater director and ask, ‘Hey, what is the play that I pooped my pants in?’ Our class went to a nice French restaurant and then to a musical in Birmingham. I was intimidated by the menu and didn’t know what to order. So I filled up on bread and oil. Almost halfway through the play, I knew I was in trouble. I made it to the lobby and destroyed my pants. I spent the entire show in the bathroom washing my pants in the sink. I stood on a toilet during intermission, holding my pants up so no one could see me.
My mom was there and validated it all.
My dad would come home from work and spend hours making his famous chicken nuggets for us. He did it because we wanted him to. It was a national holiday when that happened. He was making nuggets when my friend Dustin caught on fire in a bonfire at our house. Dad had to stop cooking to run outside and put out Dustin. I took a bite out of a nugget before chasing after him. Dustin kept relighting and was almost bacon before we put him out. There’s another story about fire in the book. Dad bought me a 1969 Volkswagen Beetle off eBay. The car lasted three months before it caught on fire while me and my girlfriend were in it.
I didn’t realize how great my childhood was until I wrote it down. It was fun, silly, and encouraging. I want to celebrate that. I sent my mom the book and wrote her a note that said, ‘Thank you for a wonderful childhood.’”
Erin: “In our shows now, we like the audience laughing at our stories as much as clapping to the music. I told Jeremiah we need to put these stories to songs, like an extended lyric book. Put two to three stories per song, and the book will be a companion to the album.”
Jeremiah: “Erin has always played an important role and showed me what the book was supposed to be. I threw a bunch of paint at the wall, and she helped me make it into a canvas.
Erin: I think there’s a misunderstanding of chasing your dreams. Maybe our generation thought chasing our dreams meant we had to make every dollar from them. And if not, we weren’t successful in it. But I don’t think that’s true. We can explore different outlets of creativity.”
Jeremiah: “The journey has been hard, and it looks nothing like we thought it would. We’re just going to trust that at some point, this is either going to work or we’re going to look back at our small career and be like, ‘We meant every word.’”
From the intro of Jones County Ghost Stories…
In this book, you’ll read lyrics and stories that inspired the record…It’s my attempt to make it back home after a harrowing journey away. It was my burden of remembering. It’s me saying “I’m sorry” for all of those times I wished I was someplace else. It’s me, a bit older and road weary, trying to plot the spiritual coordinates on a map of my past. If nothing else, let these stories be proof that I was and am, in fact, from around here.
Lyrics from “I’m From Around Here”
All my exes buy duplexes
On the Home and Garden Television
You Could Say I’m From Around Here
I’ve got the 601 to prove it
You can tell them all you knew me once
All my aunts and all my cousins
Think I’m just some northern tourist
Lay me down in the Bogue Homa
So when my ghost comes back to haunt you
You can them all you knew me once
(I’m a reader and Jones County Ghosts is one of the best books I’ve read this year. The stories of growing up in Mississippi are even better with songs that go with them. I had to talk with Jeremiah and Erin about it.. Lynn)
Here are a few of the song videos for Jones County Ghosts
Here’s the story we did on Oh Jeremiah almost nine years ago.
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