“Castle's music wanders the rockier side of country (the side that has wah-wah pedals, for instance), his Appalachian roots filtered through an East Nashville lens — an influence evidenced by the album's backing musicians, a who's who of East Side royalty: guitarists Doug Lancio (Patty Griffin, John Hiatt) and Audley Freed (Black Crowes, Dixie Chicks), drummer Fred Eltringham (The Wallflowers) and bassist James “Hags” Haggerty (Josh Rouse), to name just a few.” –Jack Silverman, The Nashville Scene Nashville singer/songwriter Jerry Castle still believes that songwriting should be magical, not contrived. Don’t Even Ask, his sophomore release due July 27, is a perfect manifestation of that theory. A whole lot of rock ‘n’ roll wrapped in a whole lot of country, Don’t Even Ask is born of a man in a whirlwind of huge life changes: a new father, a corporate career, freshly divorced, Jerry found himself reaching out for something solid to hold on to as he returned to his life-long passion of song-writing. The songs that began to pour out of him were layered with the same texture, grit and honest emotion as his life. In the summer of 2009, at the suggestion of friends and music industry insiders who had heard a handful of the new songs that Jerry had written, he headed into Curt Perkins’ Electric Avenue Studio in East Nashville with Chad Brown (Jim Lauderdale, Ryan Adams, Bob Segar), Fred Eltringham (Wallflowers, Dixie Chicks, Ben Kweller) and James Haggerty (Josh Rouse, Joe Marcs Brother) with the intent to record some demos to shop. But during the recording, Jerry had a personal and creative resurrection and it was there in the studio that the new CD Don’t Even Ask was born. In January, Jerry returned to the studio with a star-studded line-up of Nashville A-listers including: Audley Freed (Black Crowes, Dixie Chicks, Peter Frampton), Curt Perkins (Josh Rouse, Stella), Doug Lancio (Patty Griffin, Steve Earle, John Hiatt), Brad Pemberton (Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, Brendan Benson), The McCrary Sisters (Bob Dylan, Buddy& Julie Miller, Jim Lauderdale), Jefferson Crow (Radney Foster, Gary Allan), Molly Thomas (Todd Snider) and Amanda Shires. Don’t Even Ask is a reflection of a man begging questions in the middle of life’s ups and downs, pushing listeners inside themselves to ask their own questions. The album touches on some of life’s darkest subjects: paranoia, addiction, fear, anger and pain are brilliantly balanced with personal triumph, love, confidence and joy. This is the record of a man who went on a search for himself and actually found him, and in the making of the album it would seem Jerry’s learned a few lessons of his own: follow your gut and don’t even ask.