Jason Harwell

Singer/songwriters are everywhere these days, but how many of them have competed nationally at Meat Judging and Evaluation? Though one may be tempted to guess none of them, Jason Harwell would be quick to correct you. He says, “I had reached the peak of my athletic abilities – sitting the bench and chasing foul balls in the parking lot – and thought that maybe it was time to seek greener pastures, so to speak.” Growing up on a cattle farm in rural Georgia, he need look no further than his local Future Farmers of America. Soon after, Jason found himself in a giant meat locker in Kansas City placing carcasses in order from best to worst. “It was a wonderful experience. Meat judging isn’t something you letter in, I suppose, but I got to wear a hard hat and miss a week of school. It’s not what most people do in high school, but it seemed to fit me,” Jason says. Doing things differently has been a hallmark of Jason’s life. Now 26, Jason has long since given up the glitz and glamour of meat judging for a career in music, and he continues to take the road less traveled. He says, “but I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I wasn’t truly living the kind of life I was intended to live. The more I thought about it, the more I had to find out what that meant” This search for true life eventually bore fruit with the Alive in the Fall album, a wide-reaching collection of alterna-folk songs incorporating shimmer-pop piano flourishes and alt-country washes of steel strings that, according to Flagpole Magazine, “brims with sincerity and soul”. “With Alive in the Fall”, Jason says, ”my goal is to share these experiences in the hope that they will find someone in a similar place and, ultimately, offer them something real. Something that didn’t come out of a computer. I feel that’s my responsibility as a songwriter.” -- from http://myspace.com/jasonharwell