The Miracle Off Exit 17: Colin Lynch Releases New Music, Prepares for European Tour
Colin and his band rocked the house on the Barefoot sidestage. From left: Vince Quaciari, CJ Mills, Alec Rette, Lynch, Leo Kozsuch, and Pat McHugh.
A lot can change in a year. That couldn’t be truer for local country music singer Colin Lynch. Last summer, Lynch attended Barefoot Country Music Fest in Wildwood as a fan, buying his tickets with the money he’d made playing local bar gigs.
Things got a bit out of hand for the not-quite 20-year-old, when he decided to hop over the fence into the main stage VIP section, attempting to see country music’s latest superstar Megan Moroney up close. Security greeted him with a fist to the face and a foot out the door.
Colin Lynch poses with 15,000 Iowans at his show opening for Megan Moroney.
Fast-forward to one year after he got the bum’s rush and Lynch was invited back to the very same event to perform as a musician.
Lynch and his band played a pulse-pounding 30-minute set on the Discover Stage in the Patrón Tent to a packed house full of family, friends, and fans. Though the young musician had limited time to show off his talent, he made every moment count.
“Barefoot was awesome, it was really fun,” Lynch says. “A couple of the ladies that worked there said it was the most packed they’ve seen that tent. It was a great time.”
But how did this temporary troublemaker turn his luck around and become a star in the making? A combination of relentless dedication and good fortune set Lynch on a path toward success, recently releasing his debut album “Miracles Off Exit 17,” with many more plans for the future.
After the incident, Lynch continued working on his craft, playing cover tunes to bar patrons and writing new material in his spare time. As the summer turned to fall, Lynch kept balancing his schoolwork with his passion for singing and songwriting.
Over time, Lynch amassed a significant following on TikTok, posting clips of himself singing atop his family’s shore house roof. One video went viral, and drew the attention of talent scout Chris Crowley: “I liked his voice, I liked his look, and I also just thought, ‘Why is this kid on a roof?’ I thought it was cool.”
Crowley took Lynch under his wing and hasn’t regretted it.
“Colin’s been such a dream to work with because he’s motivated to be successful and has a real passion for music,” he says. “He’s this perfect merging of talent and ambition. Whether he had a label deal or not, Colin would still be someone who just loves to sit down, write songs, and tell stories in those songs. He’s great at doing that, but then on top of it, he’s ambitious. He was down to go on this journey with me, and I’m grateful for it every day.”
Crowley opened the door for Lynch to travel to Nashville to record singles such as “Aida’s Smile” and “4th of July Darlin’”, the latter of which became a cornerstone track of Lynch’s ode to the Jersey Shore. With Crowley’s help, Lynch’s rise to stardom went from gradual to supersonic, and caught the attention of United Talent Agency, or UTA, which took him on as a client to help book him on opening gigs for more established artists.
“Support tours are great opportunities for artists like Colin because obviously we can’t sell big theaters and arenas yet,” Crowley says. “It’s a great way for us to get him in front of another artist’s audience and hopefully gain some new fans.”
Colin Lynch and manager Chris Crowley were proud to host the album release party at Shenanigan's in Sea Isle City.
Just before the release of “Miracles Off Exit 17,” Lynch’s newfound talent agency put him to the test, ironically pairing him with another client, Megan Moroney – the same artist he regrettably tried and failed to see in concert the year prior. In late July, Lynch opened for Moroney at the Great Jones County Fair in Monticello, Iowa in front of his largest crowd to date, with about 15,000 people in the stands during his set.
“It was such a surreal experience,” Lynch says. “My agents kind of threw me to the sharks to see if I would do well or not, and luckily I did. I was in a whirl that day. I was so nervous, I couldn’t eat. I was just like, ‘Man, I hope I don’t screw this up.’”
Crowley, who attends most of Lynch’s shows, can attest to the nerves both of them were feeling before the set. “It was one of the first times I’ve seen Colin, maybe just a little nervous,” he says.
As Crowley anxiously taped down Lynch’s set list prior to the show, he wondered, “Can these people tell that I’m struggling to tear this tape off of the roll? Do I look stupid out here?” When he went back into the green room, Lynch asked, “How many people are out there?” Crowley sarcastically answered, “There’s a couple.”
Like any rising musical artist, Lynch adds at least one cover song to each of his sets. While he originally planned to do a Kenny Chesney cover, not everyone agreed that was the right choice for the young Iowa crowd.
“I understood why he wanted to do that, because Megan and Kenny are really close,” Crowley says, “but I said, ‘Dude, I think most of these people are like 14 or 15 years old. Their parents listen to Kenny Chesney, I don’t think they’re going to know his songs.’”
Lynch’s team decided to go a much different route, landing on the pop song “Love Yourself” by Justin Bieber. Despite the song being outside of Lynch’s country wheelhouse, the multitalented singer did Bieber proud. “The crowd went nuts at the fair, it was ridiculous,” Lynch says.
He did so well in his trial run opening for Moroney that he was invited back to open for her in Europe on “The Cloud 9 Tour.” This month, the pair will make 10 stops on the nearly monthlong tour across northern and western Europe.
“Last year, I got kicked out of Barefoot because I was being an idiot,” Lynch admits. “Then this year, I played that same festival, and now I’m going to be touring with Megan Moroney. I can’t really wrap my head around it. If you told me about all of this a year ago, I'd think you're nuts.”
From Oslo to Belfast, and Paris to London, Lynch will get to make a name for himself, as long as he keeps one song on each setlist: “Megan said the only condition of me going on the tour was that I have to play that Justin Bieber song every night.”
Colin Lynch and his band on stage at Shenanigan's.
Soon after his successful trip to Iowa, it was time to return home to the East Coast and perform his album release party at Shenanigans in Sea Isle City. After local indie rock band Floracene opened the show, Lynch and his band performed his new original tracks along with plenty of covers to fill out their 1-hour, 15-minute set.
“We sold out the whole thing. We packed it out,” Lynch says. “It was an amazing day. So much of Sea Isle and a bunch of people I grew up with were there, so it was really cool.”
Notes Crowley: “Hometown shows are really special, because it always starts with the people who support you before the rest of the world supports you. Getting to have all the family and friends in a place like Shenanigans was such a fun time. It let us keep building Colin’s narrative of how Sea Isle helped build this EP.”
Along with handpicked pictures from his childhood, Lynch and his team carefully crafted an assortment of his best beach tunes, which culminated into Lynch’s EP (extended play), “Miracles Off Exit 17.” It’s a five-song limited release that tells vivid tales of Lynch’s childhood summers.
“I wrote all these songs a while ago, and I’ve just been waiting to release them,” Lynch says. “They were all written in that same era of songwriting style of mine. They all fit together and are all similar in theme, but different in style, and unique in their own way.”
Colin Lynch with Megan Moroney. After he and his band opened for her in Iowa, they were invited to join her European tour.
"Beach Fire Embers"
“I reckon my heaven is a late July, on a balcony lit up by cigarette light.”
While it’s no secret that Lynch gathers much of his lyrical inspiration from his experiences in Sea Isle City, what makes his music so special is the attention he gives to the tiniest of details.
“Beach Fire Embers,” the opening track of “Miracles Off Exit 17,” is a quintessential Lynch song, describing all the senses experienced by an adolescent on a late night down the shore. The song is bookended by soft and mellow sections, but abruptly shifts to upbeat rhythm with a strong harmonica riff, reminiscent of Zach Bryan’s “Pink Skies.”
Though “Beach Fire Embers” portrays the end of a summer night, the fire beneath Lynch’s career is just beginning to set ablaze.
“Mary Jane”
“So I started walkin’ to the East Coast at high tide, and I met myself a woman wearin’ deep brown velvet eyes.”
The tone of the EP switches from sentimental to cheerful with “Mary Jane,” a song that Lynch says always sets the mood: “We’ve started off with ‘Mary Jane’ every single show we’ve had. It starts off kind of like bum, bum, and then it just runs into the whole set and creates an organic form of energy.” This tune features a catchy chorus, a deep bass line, and best of all, a piercing fiddle that channels John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy.”
The foot-tapping, hand-clapping energy of “Mary Jane” helps keep up the pace of the album and leaves listeners itching for more.
“Liquor Ridden Kids”
“Cause tonight I think I might give it all away to an isle city lady that I met yesterday.”
Lynch returns listeners to another slow ballad in “Liquor Ridden Kids,” which sticks to the EP’s theme of telling captivating summer stories. Locals will appreciate references such as Corson Bay, North Philly, and of course an “isle city lady.”
“Liquor Ridden Kids” is another track that harkens to Zach Bryan, an artist Lynch closely emulates. It features a similar rhythm to Bryan’s “Fear and Friday’s” and the detailed storytelling of “Heavy Eyes.”
“I like ‘Liquor Ridden Kids’ the best because it was one of the first songs I’ve written,” Lynch says. “It’s probably got the most real experiences in it. That one just means the most to me. Even though it’s not one of the songs that we’ve pushed on social media like crazy, I still like that one the best.”
“4th of July Darlin”
“I can see your starlit eyelids, gleamin’ on down on this East Coast town we call our home.”
While Lynch is fond of the previous song, his fans would likely disagree on which is their favorite. “4th of July Darlin” has by far the most listens of Lynch’s Spotify catalog with more than 2 million streams. The foundational track of “Miracles Off Exit 17,” “4th of July Darlin” had a cult following on social media long before it was released officially, much like Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season.”
This catchy tune, which is an absolute earworm if you’re not careful, parallels much of Kenny Chesney’s work, pairing the powerful patriotism of “American Kids” with the coastal camaraderie of “Get Along.” It begins mellow and thoughtful, but slowly builds up to the iconic guitar riff and crescendoes at song’s title, as Lynch belts out “And you said happy fourth of July, Darlin’!”
“‘4th of July Darlin’ was probably the hardest song to write,” Lynch says. “I actually had the riff for a very long time, for like a year on the guitar. I just couldn't figure out what words to put on it, and then one day it hit me, and I wrote out all of ‘4th’ in like 15 minutes.”
Lynch’s patience and persistence paid off with the song of the summer, and possibly every summer hereafter.
“Miracles Off Exit 17” is now streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you listen to music. To follow along with Colin’s journey to stardom, you can follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok @ColinLynchMusic.
“Pine Barren Heart”
“So till her pine barren heart starts beatin’ red, or till the young blood in her rush to her head, we can drive until the breakin’ of this coastal bend, cause darlin’ I don’t ever want it to end.”
The fifth and final track of Lynch’s EP is possibly his most heartfelt and folksy song since his debut single, “Aida’s Smile.” While Lynch performs “Pine Barren Heart” with his classic country twang, its melody and chorus resembles the folk ballads of Mumford & Sons and Noah Kahan.
Lynch is also fond of “Pine Barren Heart,” but for him it’s “like picking between kids,” and says, “I love all these songs so much.”
Being the last song of the album, “Pine Barren Heart” aptly concludes with Lynch admitting, then asking, “Cause darling I don’t ever want it to end, and darling did you ever want it to end?” The open-ended lyric leaves this writer and Lynch’s listeners pining for what will come next for the young artist.
After “The Cloud 9 Tour” in Europe with Megan Moroney, Lynch will also join folk band Buffalo Traffic Jam on their “Pictures of You” tour in Canada in October. Beyond his fall tours, Lynch plans to perform more opening acts, play shows throughout the Northeast U.S., release another EP later this year, and with a little luck, release a full-fledged album by next year.