Jeff Batson is Tryin’ To Get To Heaven
By Alan Shipston for Country Music News International Magazine
Trying’ To Get To Heaven is a new single by Jeff Batson following the story of a husband who changes his life to be a better man for a singular end goal. With all his past indiscretions, the singer is faced with the dilemma of reinventing himself in order to have a heavenly relationship with the woman he loves, after she has passed. “She always saw the right in him and overlooked the wrong,” Batson sings in a convincing voice wrapped around a country pop/rock arrangement. This mid-tempo tune has an energetic drive with an infectious danceable feel fueled by tasteful electric guitar fills and a robust rhythm section. As he comes out of the verses, Jeff is in full swing delivering the chorus,
Now he’s doing all he can
To be a better man
Cause some day he wants to be
By her side again
He’s prayin’ he’s forgiven
And changing the way he’s livin’
Tryin’ to get to heaven
Jeff Batson is a Nashville-based singer/songwriter originally from the St. Louis suburb of
Cahokia, Illinois. He developed a strong regional following playing the clubs around
metropolitan St. Louis before relocating to Nashville in 1997. Some of his more notable
engagements include sharing the bill with Hank Williams, Jr, Keith Urban, Tracy Byrd, Collin Raye, rock ‘n’ rollers Gary U.S. Bonds, Three Doors Down and bluegrass legend Dr. Ralph Stanley. The St. Louis Post Dispatch once called him “a natural frontman.”
Jeff’s numerous radio and television appearances through the years include a
performance on TNN’s Prime Time Country and a reenactment role in an episode of The Discovery Channel show, New Detectives. As an artist, he has hit the top of the Euro Academy of Country Music chart twice with End of the Grains and Come on Sunshine. As a songwriter, Jeff’s songs have been recorded over 40 times by other artists. These credits include the title cut on Tracy Lawrence’s Grammy-nominated gospel release, The Rock and success on the Texas Regional Radio Report Chart with Texas artist/writer Jamie Richards, who took their songs Wasted and Last Time ‘til the Next Time, inside the Top 10. His firefighter tribute song, Don’t Call Me a Hero, has received acclaim from the firefighting community around the globe and That’s a Winner, his tribute to late St. Louis Cardinal’s announcer Jack Buck, remains a St. Louis baseball fan favorite. Two of Jeff’s songs, Make a Wish and Hometown Heroes, were released as singles by Laura Bryna on her Equity Records project and both had accompanying videos. Hometown Heroes was used by the Air National Guard in a national promotion that included both television and radio commercials.
Jeff possesses an authentic gift for turning real emotions into songs and he sings them
with a passion that makes his music satisfyingly void of routine mediocrity. His work as
both a writer and performer will excite any fan of good, honest music and Tryin’ To Get To Heaven is certain to open new doors for Jeff Batson.