VOA常速英语:Deep South Music Influences Jason Eady's, 'When The Money's All Gone'

"When The Money's All Gone" is the title track to Eady's newest CD. Jason began playing music when he was a teenager, but gave it up after his college years. Instead, he joined the United States Air Force, serving in Europe and Asia. And while Jason didn't play much while he was overseas, he says living outside of the U.S. ended up having a big influence on his music.

"I think the biggest part of that was opening my eyes to what's out there, and how different cultures live," he said. "In the deep south where I grew up, I just saw one lifestyle pretty much forever. Getting out and seeing other things, as far as songwriting goes, that really helped open my eyes to writing from different people's perspectives I think."

Who were all these people he was writing about? Where do he find them?

"I just kind of observe, really, especially going out and playing shows," Eady said. "I try and listen after shows to conversations. A lot of times I'm kind of eavesdropping on other people at the bar. Some of it comes from reading, just reading different things. I don't really fish for it by talking to people, because then it's not the same. It's really interesting to listen in on somebody who doesn't know you're listening. You can get a lot of true insight into people when you do that."

When asked about his approach to song-writing, he replied,"It's very, very structured for me, not structured in that I do it every day. But when it's time to write, I may go two or three months and not write anything, and then I may go three weeks and write 10 songs. That's really the way I wrote this album. I probably had six songs maybe written for it, and I wrote the last four or five of [within] two weeks of doing the record."

In the coming weeks, Jason Eady's schedule will find him touring in Texas and the Southwest. He's hoping to take his music back overseas, so keep an eye on his website, http://www.hxen.net