Jordan Schneider
Jordan Schneider Credit: Craig Boliver

If there’s one thing country music knows best, it’s heartache. The next best thing country music knows is how to make it go down so, so sweetly. Well, the new debut collection by Orlando’s Jordan Schneider is the sweetest country sipper to come by in a while.

Schneider has long been a familiar face in the music scene, though more on the floor at Will’s Pub as staff than on stage. Over the years, he’s performed both solo and as part of Slim Walker & His Orchestra, Goodrich & the Die Tryin’s and Zap Dragon, but those appearances have been very occasional. Now, however, he’s finally released his own solo debut record. And justifying the time this introduction has taken to materialize, it’s a fully cooked emergence.

Now about that pain. When it comes to heartbreak, you could, of course, go full tear-in-my-beer wallowing and lean into the bitterness if you really need to work some shit out. But the backside of love is a fact of life, and there’s a sensible school of thought that says, baby, if you gotta take the pill anyway, might as well sugar the goddamn thing. It’s on that foot that Schneider’s new On Deaf Ears EP steps out onto the dance floor.

Without exception, all five songs here are about love’s lapses, but there’s not really one bummer strummer in the lot. Instead, Schneider coats all the woe in thick, golden honey. Led by his lilting, gentlemanly croon, these wide, pining melodies swoon and melt with classic soul, drawing from the best country made between the 1950s and the 1990s.

Grand numbers like “I Tried,” “(Where We Once) Walked Together” and “You Don’t Like” couch the lament in the swing and stomp of the honky-tonk. Even the slower saloon doo-wop of “Take Another Sip (Of My Heart)” is the kind of swaying anthem that could trigger a full-bar sing-along. Taken together, this EP is lovely heartbreak without the maudlin drag. No macho outlaw posturing or bro-country party bullshit here, just earnest tenderness that goes down like sweet bourbon.

Performed entirely by Schneider save for percussion by star local drummer Waylon Thornton, On Deaf Ears is a sterling debut stocked entirely with leading songs. It now streams everywhere, including on TLU’s Spotify playlist.

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This article appears in Jan. 28-Feb. 3, 2026.

Music columnist.