Photo: Getty Images
Caroline Jones has welcomed Baby No. 1.
The Zac Brown Band member and solo singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist announced on Thursday evening (December 14) that she and husband Nick Dana welcomed their newborn baby, Declan Tudor Dana, on November 29. The Homesite artist shared a black-and-white photo of the new family of three on Instagram, writing in her caption:
“Declan Tudor Dana sailed (🙃) into the world via water birth at our home on 11/29/23. It was the most intense, raw and surreal experience of my life. Nick and I are overjoyed, overwhelmed, and very grateful to be able to soak up this time as a new family of 3. Thank everyone for their kindness and well wishes throughout my pregnancy, especially my brothers in @zacbrownband. Extreme gratitude to our heroic angel birth team: @thedoulamidwife, Sadie Whitehead & Candace Jones, and also to @ccmeyer and @bridgetteyler, who were invaluable resources through this process. We are excited to share more soon. In the meantime, I am a perpetual puddle of breast milk and happy/exhausted tears!”
Jones, 33, revealed in late June that she and Dana were expecting their firstborn child. She was 19 weeks pregnant when she shared a video in knee-high water to mark “baby’s first swim in Tennessee.”
Jones and Dana tied the knot in 2021. The “Million Little Bandaids” star shared photos from the stunning winter wedding at that time, writing in a post on X (formerly Twitter): “I said I would never get married and I don’t like skiing (I did both for this picture). Which tells you everything you need to know about what a genuine inspiration Nick Dana is. God gathered every attribute I could ever want and need in a partner and alchemized them perfectly into this man who deserves everything good in this world. And I get to be the steward of his soul. What an honor. 🙏🏻❄️”
Jones — who grew up in New York City and has studied a broad range of music, including pursuing her passion for traditional country music — toured until she was 37 weeks pregnant. She said in an interview with iHeartCountry earlier this year that she takes “a lot of pride in whatever crowd I’m in front of and whatever performance that I’m doing, giving it 100% and bringing my A game.” Jones joined Zac Brown Band for the award-winning group’s “From The Fire Tour,” in addition to playing her own headlining shows.
“Frankly, for anyone with a high pressure job who's trying to do it at the highest level, it's just harder to be a woman,” Jones said earlier this year on the Biscuits & Jam podcast. During that interview, she pointed out artists like Carrie Underwood, Maren Morris and Sheryl Crow, who helped inspire her to balance her career in music while starting a family. “And I don't say that for pity. It's a huge investment for us to start a family, much more than being a man and that's just a fact of life and something that you have to navigate if you're a woman which is also an incredible gift as I'm learning now, but it's really scary when you've built your whole life around your career and your dream.
“…it was a big conversation for us and something that I was really nervous would affect my career in the eyes of other people,” she continued. “I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to do both well, and so when we decided that we were ready to have kids, then there's the whole thing of like, ‘Well, it's ideal to have a baby in the winter because I'm not touring.’ So I can take the time that I need, or else I'd have to miss a year of touring. I sound like an athlete, but it's true, and I want to take that time. It's such a magical time if you're going to become a parent to take those three or four months or some people have longer, some people have shorter. You're never going to get that back.”
Most recently, Jones debuted her latest full-length album, Homesite, an 11-track project featuring the title track, “Lawless,” “Million Little Bandaids” (a collaboration with Zac Brown Band), “Superpower,” “Keep It Safe” featuring Alyssa Bonagura, a cover of Cry Cry Cry’s “By Way of Sorrow” featuring Vince Gill, and other highlights.
“Musically, it’s the most raw and energetic production I’ve put out, and lyrically, it’s the most honest and narrative,” Jones shared. “I wanted to be nervous in the studio again, so we brought in a new crop of talented musicians and collaborators, led by co-producer and multi-instrumentalist Brandon Hood, who challenged me in new ways and brought a more raw sound out of me. Ric Wake, my longtime co-producer and I handpicked these songs, which are a blend of solo writes and collaborations with some of my favorite Nashville writers.
“I titled this album ‘Homesite’ because it is about building,” she added in an Instagram caption, “building a career and body of work that I am proud of, building a fanbase that I am wildly grateful for, building my character by practicing grit and resilience, which are central themes in these songs, and finally, building a family of my own.”