Tulsa-born country music artist Jeff Carson dies | Music

Jeffrey Lee Herndon, known musically as Jeff Carson, was born in Tulsa on December 16, 1963 and began his musical career singing in church.

After forming a band in Rogers, Arkansas, Carson eventually moved to Branson, Missouri. He wrote songs and performed locally before moving to Nashville, where he began recording demos – Tracy Byrd (“Walkin’ To Jerusalem”), Tracy Lawrence (“I See it Now”), Reba McEntire (“The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter”), Tim McGraw (“I wouldn’t want it any other way”), Faith Hill (“It matters to me”), Mark Wills (“Places I’ve never been”), Diamond Rio ( “Mirror Mirror”) and others.

In 1995, Chuck Howard was instrumental in securing a recording contract for Carson at Curb Records and the single “Yeah Buddy” was released to radio. It was Carson’s first single on the charts and was followed by “Not On Your Love”, which went to No. 1. The following single, “The Car”, became a top five hit. , finishing at No. 2, and won Carson its first ACM Award for Video of the Year.

Carson’s body of work includes 14 Billboard charted singles.

In 2009, Carson retired from music to become a law enforcement officer with the Franklin Police Department in Williamson County, Tennessee.

Carson returned to music in 2019, signing a singles deal with MC1 Nashville to recut and release a previously recorded song “God Save The World”, which charted on the Music Row Top 40 chart.

Most recently, Carson signed with Encore Music Group and was in the studio with Buddy Hyatt recording a specialty album for release later this year which included duets with Michael Ray, Darryl Worley, Mark Wills and Craig Morgan.

Carson is survived by his wife, Kim Cooper Carson, his son Dayton Grei Herndon Carson, his mother Virginia Norton, his brother Steve Herndon and his sister Karen Spurlock as well as aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews.