Artists That Begin With T

Thompson Square

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:49:00 GMT

Thompson Square isn’t a real place, exactly. It’s the musical territory staked out by the husband-and-wife duo of Keifer and Shawna Thompson, an exciting and unpredictable area where country meets rock, rough meets smooth and one vagabond heart finds a harmonious common ground with another. It’s the sweet destination where two journeys end and another one begins. “It’s the place where we create our thing, a little fantasyland where we live,” Keifer says. And now the rest of the world is invited to enjoy a nice, long visit.

What you’ll hear there is the fruitful combination of Keifer’s soulful intensity and Shawna’s crystalline grace; her classic country upbringing and his wide-ranging singer-songwriter influences. When the two teamed as a duo six years ago, two promising solo careers came to an end in favor of a new entity whose collective diversity, range and reach only amplifies the talents of each of its members. Thompson Square is the result of two very different personalities and musical approaches finding a perfect match.

“There’s an innocence about her, a genuineness,” Keifer says of his wife. “I’m loud and not scared of anything, and I throw myself into situations there’s no solution to and work it out later. It’s a yin and yang thing with us.”

“I’m very reserved, a little on the shy side,” says Shawna. “Keifer is the life of the party, humorous, likes attention. I’m a realist …”

“… and I’m a wholehearted dreamer,” her husband adds.

Shawna grew up in tiny Chatom, Ala., learning traditional country songs from her guitar-playing father and soaking up the sounds of Reba McEntire and Alabama on the radio. Keifer was raised in Miami, Okla., where he was exposed to everything from Roger Miller and Merle Haggard to punk rock and heavy metal before finding his most profound influences in thoughtful tunesmiths like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty. Both moved to Nashville within the same week, and met at a singing competition a few days after hitting town. “I walked in and saw her, went right up and started talking to her,” Keifer recalls. “She beat me in pool, and that’s where it started.” Like Keifer, Shawna sensed a connection right away. “I knew immediately,” she says. “It sounds so cheesy, but it was a love at first sight thing for me.”

Each had come to Music City intending to pursue a solo career, and for a few years that’s just what they did—long enough to establish styles of their own, and long enough to pay some serious dues. “We’ve both been through so many things that were supposed to happen and didn’t,” Shawna says, recalling all the promised record deals that never materialized and open doors that suddenly shut. For several years the notion of performing as a duo didn’t occur to them. “We couldn’t see the forest for the trees,” Keifer says. “She was doing her own thing, and I was doing my thing. After a while it made sense to combine what we did. We looked at each other one day and said, ‘Why haven’t we done this before?’” And so Thompson Square was born. (At first they tried Thompson Squared—as in a mathematical equation—but, as Keifer notes with a chuckle, “Nobody could hear the ‘d.’”) They adjusted to the idea of combining the pressures of married life with a career choice that demanded near-constant togetherness. “A lot of couples can’t be together 24 hours a day—but for us it doesn’t work unless it’s like that,” Keifer points out. “So it’s perfect. Singing together just completed the puzzle. To be able to share this with the person you’ll spend the rest of your life with is a great thing.”

The pieces truly began falling into place for Thompson Square in 2009. Manager Shawn Pennington—a longtime acquaintance of each who had, ironically, once counseled Keifer and Shawna against forming a duo—caught the couple’s show at a Nashville club and found himself bowled over by their powerful chemistry and cutting-edge style. Within days Thompson Square was performing for the staff at Stoney Creek Records, and soon afterward they signed to the label.

The duo quickly hit the studio to begin recording their first album, and the result seamlessly combines their wide-ranging influences into a loose, lively and identifiable sound all their own. “It’s got that rawness like country and rock bands used to have back in the day, it’s got a real, ‘band’ feel to it,” Keifer says.

Among the first tracks laid down was Thompson Square’s debut single, the playful “Let’s Fight,” It’s an ode to friendly marital spats—and the ensuing reconciliations. “Because Shawna and I get along sometimes too good, it’s hard to write sad songs about love lost when you’re not experiencing that,” says Keifer, who co-wrote the song. “But I thought it’d be cool to write a song saying, let’s fight and get things stirred up … and then make up!”

At the other end of the spectrum is “Keeping Up With the Joneses,” a devastating ballad about the pain of addiction co-written by Keifer and sung primarily by Shawna. “When Shawna sings that, she speaks for all the women out there going through that ordeal,” Keifer observes. “She delivers it so well that I knew it needed to be her song instead of mine.” It’s just one way in which Thompson Square subverts the stereotype of the married couple singing fluffy love songs to one another. “We don’t want to do lovey-dovey songs,” Shawna declares. “This is real stuff.”

Now Thompson Square is ready to bring music fans an uncut dose of that “real stuff”: the sound of a dreamer and a realist, country cool and rock rawness, husband and wife. “This combination, it’s a cool thing,” Keifer marvels. “It’s not two of the same, it’s two different things coming together to make something better than what we can be apart.”

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Aaron Tippin

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:24:00 GMT

Aaron Tippin was born July 3, 1958, in Pensacola, Fla., and raised in Traveler's Rest, S.C. He performed in local honky-tonks in the 1970s, and when his teenage marriage fizzled, he pursued music with a vengeance. He competed on TNN's You Can Be a Star talent contest in 1986, landed a song-publishing contract and moved to Music City in 1987.

Always a focused and purposeful man, he took up competitive weightlifting, eventually building his frame to a 47-inch chest and 16-inch biceps. He worked the midnight shift at a factory in Kentucky, commuted to Music Row to write songs, did his late afternoon strength training, went to bed, got up and did the whole routine over again, day after day. The dedication paid off. He won barbell competitions, and Charley Pride, David Ball, Mark Collie and others recorded his songs.

Tippin performed his first Nashville nightclub show in 1990, and it earned him a contract with RCA. His ambitious first single "You've Got to Stand for Something" cracked the Top 10 in 1991, and 1992's "There Ain't Nothin' Wrong With the Radio" stayed at No. 1 for three weeks. His twangy, nasal vocals may have prevented a more consistent track record, as Tippin scored a total of six Top 10 hits for RCA. (In all, he charted 19 songs for the label.) He moved to Lyric Street in 1998 and charted a No. 1 with the raucous "Kiss This" (co-written with wife Thea) in 2000. In the wake of 9/11, his patriotic anthem "Where the Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Fly" peaked at No. 2.

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Trent Tomlinson

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:01:00 GMT

While in high school in Kennett, Missouri, Trent placed second in the “You Can Be a Star” talent show on The Nashville Network which began to fuel his passion for country music.

Son of a former University of Missouri basketball star who later got drafted to the NBA by the Cleveland Cavaliers, Trent debuted his first single, “Drunker Than Me” in 2005 which was followed by his album Country Is My Rock.

“Drunker Than Me” peaked on the US Country chart at 19. “One Wing in the Fire” hit 11 on the chart, the highest position of his career, the following year in 2006.

After Disney closed their country label, Lyric Street, Tomlinson took time to write, record and produce several new songs and search for a new record label.

In early 2011, Kevin Herring, former VP of National Promotion at Lyric Street, became the President of Skyville Records. After seeing a Facebook post from a radio programmer raving about Tomlinson’s new project, Herring knew it could be a great project for Skyville to take on.

“Trent Tomlinson is arguably the best country singer and songwriter working in the mainstream today.” Says Wally Wilson, Skyville Managing Partner. “Trent has the uncanny ability to remain true blue to his traditional country roots, and yet create records that are straight down the middle of the fairway, radio-wise.”

Tomlinson is gearing up for the release of his brand new single with Skyville Records, “A Man Without A Woman.” This is a song that men can relate to and woman can agree with. It will be hitting iTunes on October 11^th.

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Travis Tritt

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:56:00 GMT

"Dude, I knew you could sing, but I had no idea you could do that blue-eyed soul thing!"

Producer Randy Jackson paid that compliment to Travis Tritt, after recording a duet between Tritt and soul man Sam Moore for Moore's 2006 album, Overnight Sensational. Then he made a suggestion. "If you ever want to do an album that puts a bigger spotlight on that," Jackson said, "I'd love to work on it with you."

The end result of that conversation is The Storm, Tritt's widely-praised 2007 release. Tritt and Jackson teamed up to create a powerhouse collection of songs that emphasize the irresistible soul side of Tritt's singing. It's a card that has always been in Tritt's stylistic deck, but one that has often been overlooked by listeners unfamiliar with the deep musical links between country and R&B, particularly in the South.

And in Jackson, Tritt found the ideal collaborator. Before he gained acclaim for his role as a judge on "American Idol," Jackson had played bass with artists ranging from Aretha Franklin to Journey. Demonstrating that type of range is precisely the aim of The Storm.

"Growing up just outside Atlanta, to the north of us you've got the Grand Ol' Opry in Nashville," Tritt explains. "A little bit South you've got Macon, Georgia - home of the Allman Brothers, the Marshall Tucker Band and Capricorn Records. And off to west you've got Delta blues. Sprinkle Southern gospel over the top of that, and you're talking about where I came from. I loved all of that music."

To make that point, "You Never Take Me Dancing," the first single from The Storm, opens with Tritt's bluesy moans and a seductive acoustic slide guitar, before settling into the funkiest groove this side of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition." The song was written by Richard Marx, who also collaborated with Tritt on "Doesn't the Good Outweigh the Bad," a rollicking relationship song that grew out of Tritt and his wife's experience building a new house. "You know how they say that if your marriage can survive building a house it can survive anything?" Tritt asks, laughing. "That is absolutely a fact."

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Shania Twain

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:48:00 GMT

Shania Twain was born Eileen Edwards in Canada on Aug. 28, 1965, the second oldest of five siblings. She was raised in Timmins, Ontario, about 500 miles due north of Toronto, where her stepfather, an Ojibway Indian named Jerry Twain, and mother, Sharon, had both been raised. It was a proud but, at times, impoverished existence. They struggled to keep enough food in the cupboards, but there was always an abundance of music in the household.

Twain often grabbed a guitar and retreated to the solitude of her bedroom singing and writing until her fingers ached. "I grew up listening to Waylon, Willie, Dolly, Tammy, all of them," she recalls. "But we also listened to the Mamas and the Papas, The Carpenters, The Supremes and Stevie Wonder. The many different styles of music I was exposed to as a child not only influenced my vocal style, but even more so, my writing style." Her mom noticed Twain's talents, and soon the youngster was being shuttled to radio and TV studios, community centers, senior citizens' homes, "everywhere they could get me booked." An 8-year-old Twain was often pulled out of bed to sing with the house band at a local club but only after alcohol sales ended at midnight. Later, Twain spent summers working with her stepfather as the foreman of a dozen-man reforestation crew in the Canadian bush, where she learned to wield an axe and handle a chain saw as well as any man. In the winter season, she would sing in clubs and do television and radio performances as often as her schooling would allow.

In 1987, at age 21, Twain lost her parents in an automobile accident. She took on the responsibility of raising her three younger siblings. She managed to keep the household going with a job at Ontario's Deerhurst Resort, which not only provided for her new family responsibilities but also gave her an education in every aspect of theatrical performance, from musical comedy to Andrew Lloyd Webber to Gershwin. Three years later, with her brothers grown enough to take care of themselves, Twain was on her own. Shedding her real name, Eileen, she adopted the Ojibway name of Shania, meaning "I'm on my way." Twain recorded a demo tape of original music and set her sights on Nashville.

Although Twain landed a record deal with Mercury Records on the basis of her original material, her self-titled 1993 debut album featured only one of her songs, the feisty "God Ain't Gonna Getcha for That." Singles "What Made You Say That" and "Dance With the One That Brought You" each peaked at No. 55 on the Billboard country singles chart. It took a phone call from a distant admirer, rock producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange (AD/DC, Def Leppard, Foreigner, Bryan Adams and many more) for Twain to find a true believer, both in her voice and her original songs. Twain and Lange met face to face in Nashville at Fan Fair in 1993 and married six months later, by which time they'd written half an album's worth of tunes together. As 1994 unfolded, they traveled and wrote their way across the United States, Canada, England, Spain, Italy and the Caribbean. They began to lay down basic tracks for a new album in Nashville, later recording overdubs and mixing in Quebec.

The first results of their labor, "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under," entered the Billboard country singles chart in January 1995, peaking at No. 11. Twain's second album, The Woman in Me, debuted on the country albums chart the following month. The collection has sold 18 million copies, making Twain the best-selling country female artist of all time. The single "Any Man of Mine," hit the charts in May and became the first of four consecutive No. 1 hits for Twain, including "(If You're Not in It for Love) I'm Outta Here!," "You Win My Love" and "No One Needs to Know." The project won a Grammy for country album of the year and was named album of the year by the Academy of Country Music in 1995.

Twain's third Mercury collection, Come on Over, was released in 1997, two years after her last album. The project continued Twain's hot streak, producing No. 1 hits "Honey, I'm Home" and "Love Gets Me Every Time." The sultry ballad "You're Still the One" went to No. 1 on the country singles chart and made it to No. 2 on Billboard's Hot 100 pop chart, solidifying Twain as a crossover artist. The sassy "Man! I Feel Like a Woman," a Top 5 country hit, helped secure the singer a contract with cosmetics company Revlon, which used the tune in TV ads featuring Twain. Come on Over has sold 11 million copies to date.

While The Woman in Me broke records and made Twain an international star, critics didn't know what to make of her sexy image and independent approach to marketing her music. Instead of touring to promote the record, Twain made a series of sexy videos, one of which was shot on location in Egypt. The singer finally mounted her first major tour in 1998 following the release of Come on Over. The highly anticipated outing helped earn Twain entertainer of the year trophies from the ACM and the Country Music Association in 1999. Twain has won Grammys for best country song ("Come on Over" and "You're Still the One") and for best country female vocal performance ("Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" and "You're Still the One"). She also has taken home trophies from the Canadian Country Music Awards, Canada's JUNO Awards and the American Music Awards. In 1999, Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) named Twain both country songwriter of the year and pop songwriter of the year. "You're Still the One" was named BMI's country and pop song of the year.

At the top of her game, Twain retreated to her home in Switzerland with her husband at the end of 1999. She and Lange welcomed their first child together in the summer of 2001 while preparing her 2002 release Up!, featuring the hits "I'm Gonna Getcha Good" and "Forever and For Always."
Twain released a Greatest Hits album in 2004, which included a duet with Billy Currington, "Party For Two."

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Josh Turner

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:36:00 GMT

Whether it's with his deep, soulful voice, his South Carolina accent or his philosophy on life, Josh Turner has never been one to hurry. But a memorable country song recently convinced him to pick up his pace.

The singer-songwriter was months away from scheduled recording sessions when he first heard "Why Don't We Just Dance," which became the debut single from his fourth studio album, Haywire. Josh placed the song "on hold" with the music publisher so they wouldn't allow anyone else to record it. But when another artist expressed interest in the song, the publisher asked Josh to record the song to see if he liked it enough to keep it, and he did.

"We felt like we couldn't lose that one," Josh says. "It's a strong song and something that I could have a lot of fun with vocally. I felt it would be a great center point for the record. It is positive and a love song and you can dance to it. Nowadays, that's a good formula."

The excitement over that song fast-tracked the recording process and inspired his songwriting, propelling him to write or co-write five of the album's 11 songs: "Haywire," "As Fast As I Could," "Eye Candy," "Friday Paycheck" and "The Answer."

"This record has been the quickest record we've ever made from start to finish," says Josh. "But I'm glad our haste didn't make waste. I love every single song. One thing I've noticed is that you are definitely hearing more of my range, high and low on this album. I'm really proud of this record."

And that's saying something, given what he's accomplished so far. Since earning a standing ovation as an unknown singer on the Grand Ole Opry stage in 2001 with his impressive delivery of "Long Black Train," he has established himself as one of the most identifiable male vocalists in country music.

The Hannah, S.C. native has sold more than 4 million albums and garnered two multi-week No. 1s ("Your Man" and "Would You Go With Me"). His debut album was certified platinum for more than 1 million copies sold, and his sophomore album, Your Man, was one of only four country albums to reach double-platinum status in 2006. Six years after his Opry debut, he was inducted into the prestigious organization, becoming one of the youngest artists to receive such an honor. He recorded a CMT special with his musical hero, Randy Travis, and has spent time writing songs with another one of his heroes, John Anderson.

"For me, it is icing on the cake," he says of his success. "My biggest goal in life when I was growing up was to find the right woman to marry and get a record deal. I've accomplished both of those things, so regardless of what happens beyond that, I'm happy."

"When I wake up in the morning, I think about writing and performing and singing country music. I'm happy I get to go out on the road making a living doing what I love to do and it's all because I chased my dream and never gave up."

Blender magazine says Josh "is a country Barry White. His burring voice can tease our sensuality in unlikely places." His rich baritone brings an undeniable sexuality to a love song, so it's no surprise that love songs have been among his most popular recordings. The majority of songs on Haywire are love songs; there's not a heart-break or cheating song to be found.

"I don't feel like you can have too many love songs," he says. "The world is always looking for that next great love song. It's like what Eddy Arnold told me a long time ago. 'If you have the opportunity to record a great love song, do it. That is what people like the best, the songs that are about a man and a woman.' I've really taken his advice to heart. If you look at my two number-one songs, those are big-time, positive, straight-forward love songs."

He's at his most masculine and sensual on "Lovin' You On My Mind" and the Don Williams' classic "I Wouldn't Be a Man" while he reveals his sweetness in "As Fast As I Could." He's timelessly romantic in "Your Smile," and "Haywire" and "Eye Candy" capture his playfulness and humor.

It was a father's love that inspired the Phillip White/Steven Dale Jones song "I'll Be There," and Josh was moved by lyrics such as, "When you need a coach or you need a fan/Need a castle built out of ocean sand/ Or a rainbow chaser, I'm your man/ I'll be there." While they were recording the song, keyboardist Gordon Mote suggested an arrangement change.

"The music fades away and then I start singing with just the piano and it builds up to the line where it says, 'Need a daddy or you just need a friend,'" says Josh, the father of two boys. "The first time we changed the arrangement, the words wouldn't come out because I was getting choked up. That had never happened to me in the studio. I was extremely emotional when that part rolled about because it was just a touching way to sing that last verse. There were so many images running through my mind. That was the first time the father in me really came through on a song and I didn't even see it coming. It just happened naturally."

Josh explores his love for Jesus in "The Answer," a soaring song that required Josh to step out of his comfort zone in the studio. "There was a spot in that last chorus where I was like, 'This song has got to just bust wide open,'" he says. "It was a little tough for me because I'm not used to singing way up there in the high part of my register, but you definitely hear that on that song. It is such a powerful song so I just gave it all that I had."

Josh uses this same approach to his career in the music industry, where many artists seem to come and go quickly. "I don't ever want to take anything for granted," he says. "I've learned from certain people that it takes a lot of hard work, passion and love for what you do to have longevity in this career."

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Josh Thompson

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 19:10:00 GMT

In Josh Thompson, working-class country has found its most authentic spokesman in a generation. A compelling singer, he is an artist whose songwriting reflects both the gritty realities of blue-collar life and the beer-fueled release of the Friday-night honky-tonk.

There is no doubt about his work ethic, which was perhaps most evident in the days when he was juggling the publishing deal he earned just seven months after moving to Nashville and the trade he had worked at since he was 12.

"I was still pouring concrete three days a week," he says. "A lot of times I'd start at 7, then wash off with a garden hose and head to a writing appointment. Some nights I'd write songs until 2:30, get up at 6, splash some water on my face and do it again."

That work ethic, the honesty in his writing and the energy in his performances have combined to make Josh a powerful new voice in country music. Thompson’s Columbia Nashville debut, Way Out Here, showcases the man who has lived the music he makes.

Way Out Here, above all, shows Thompson’s personal journey through the landscape of the people whose love and loss, living and dying have fueled the best of country music. At its core are "who I am" songs that define the salt-of-the-earth characters whose concerns Josh knows and relates so well--"Name In This Town" is a look at the place of reputation and identity in a small community; "I've Always Been Me" is a man owning his own good and bad, taking pride in the authenticity he brings to living; "You Ain't Seen Country Yet" waves its allegiance to country life proudly; and "Way Out Here," the album's title cut, takes the listener as far back into backwoods life as it's possible to go.

Romance gets varied treatment, from "Won't Be Lonely Long," a hell-raiser about being dumped as the gateway to a great Friday night, and "I Won't Go Crazy," a waltz about staying sane that wears its sense of irony proudly, to "Back Around, a tender look at a young couple discovering love. "Blame It On Waylon" brings a heavy backbeat and outlaw attitude to a song that probes the origins of everything from Josh's scars to his personality. Then, from opposite ends of the spectrum, two of the CD's most affecting songs are "Sinner" and "Beer on the Table." "Sinners" is a nakedly honest song about the nature of sin, grace and redemption, a powerful and affecting piece of work. "Beer on the Table" is one of the most down-to-earth working man's anthems in years, a look at the dance between work and play, and the hard-won, easy-go nature of money that ties them together.

Produced by Michael Knox (Jason Aldean), the CD captures both the emotional nuance that marks Josh's work and the raucous energy that sparks his live performances.

Before the release of his own album, Josh was best known for penning the title cut to Jason Michael Carroll's latest album, "Growing Up is Getting Old." The song was one of several played for Sony Music Nashville execs by pluggers at Josh's publishing company, and their reaction to his voice and the strength of the songs earned him a meeting with label chief Joe Galante and A&R head Renee Bell.

"I played them four songs," says Josh, "and an hour or so later Renee called and said, 'How would you like a record deal?' I said, 'Are you serious?' She said she was, and after the screaming was done, I said yes."

The deal capped a life journey that didn't turn musical until Josh was well into his 20s--a journey that began in one of the nation's blue-collar Meccas. Josh was born in Milwaukee to a father he calls "the workingest man you ever saw." He was in the concrete business and Josh started working for him for a dollar an hour during the summer before he was a teenager, helping pour concrete for patios, driveways, basements and garages. His mother sang Patsy Cline and pop standards around the house, while his father listened to the Beach Boys and Everly Brothers. Josh sang along with Randy Travis and other country greats on the radio, but says, "Singing and songwriting were never even in my mind as being a career for me." He was, rather, drawn to sports.

"I was quite a rambunctious kid," he says with a laugh, "and instead of putting me on Ritalin, my parents opted to put me in gymnastics." His twelve years as a first-rate gymnast included two as all-around state champion, and he was active in football and track in high school.

He worked for his father until he graduated ("by the skin of my teeth," he says), then joined a road crew, moving up to journeyman concrete finisher at nineteen. He worked on "roads, curbs, and miles and miles of city sidewalks," but after three years decided he wanted to go on to college. As an avid outdoorsman who relished the time he spent on his grandfather's 160 acres as a boy, he knew what he wanted to study.

"I told my mom one day there was really only one thing I was interested in getting a degree in," he says, "and that was natural resources. I have a deep love and respect for the outdoors, and I didn't want to pour concrete the rest of my life and end up with a broken back and burned out knees at 35. I wanted to do something I loved, even if it meant less money."

He went to school an hour and a half from his home and drove back to pour concrete three days a week to help pay for it
.
"It wasn't much of a college experience," he laughs. "At that point, I wasn't there to party." It was during that period that his casual interest in music became a passion. "I got my first guitar when I was 21," he says. "I took lessons for a while, but once I could make three or four chords, I picked up the rest on my own and started writing. It was almost like a drug for me. I had to do it."

He had been turned on to traditional country in his mid-teens and had begun scouring the CD bins at truck stops for Merle Haggard and other classic artists. "'Mama Tried' was the first song that really sparked something in me," he says.

Josh recruited some buddies in a rock band to help him put together a country show for a music festival on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and then for some gigs in "backwoods bars and honky-tonks."

"We ended up playing eight shows together," he says. "It was good just to experience getting out and playing in front of people."

Then, after two years studying forestry and fish and wildlife management, Josh jumped at the chance to take a wilderness guide course, living with a small group in the deep woods and living off the land. He was hoping to turn the experience into a job "off the grid" in the Alaskan wilderness, but when he didn't land one, he went back to pouring concrete.

"I'd work, then go home and write," he says, "and pretty soon I started thinking, 'OK, I'm going to save my money and get to Nashville as soon as I get laid off.' I pretty much lost myself in writing and playing for a year, and then I moved."

Josh hit Nashville in January of 2005 with just those eight band gigs and a handful of acoustic gigs under his belt. He rented a room for two weeks until he found a place on Music Row. Then, after seven months of writers' nights, networking and his first attempts at co-writing, he landed a publishing deal with Ash Street Music.

"It was a good experience," he says. "It got me into writing with people who had some success and got me some experience in the studio, which is priceless." He wrote nights and on weekends and poured concrete during the day, and when the deal ended, he decided he wanted to start performing again. He traded in his truck for a 15-passenger van, got a band together and started booking gigs. In the first year, they did 102 shows as far afield as Wyoming, playing largely traditional country and a few originals.

"We'd go out and do gigs, sometimes all week, then I'd come back to town to pour concrete and write at night," he says.

In April of 2008, Josh signed a management deal with Creek House Entertainment's Julianne Drennon.

"She believed in me enough to pitch my songs free of charge," he says. She helped him land a publishing deal with Better Angels Music, where he earned a couple of independent label cuts. Before long, he'd written "Growing Up Is Getting Old," which set in motion his own label deal. That again brought into play the power of his work ethic.

"In the three-month period between the label offer and the signing," he says, "I wrote about 70 songs, trying to come up with the best songs I could. I came in with six of the songs that we all agreed we loved, and during that period I ended up writing next four."

More recently, he has opened for artists including Jamey Johnson to Hank Jr., thrilling an ever-widening audience with his brand of high-energy country.

"I love feeding on the crowd," he says. "I love to get them rowdy and get rowdy back. I like to put on a show, to run around and beat the drums a little bit--literally. My drummer gets pissed off sometimes because cymbals are expensive, but what are you gonna do? Music makes you do some crazy things sometimes."

Beneath the energy, though, is substance he learned from the masters.
"There's nothing you hear Haggard sing that you don't just absolutely believe," he says. "If he's hurting, you know it. To be able to portray that and to be able to pour the pain through the speakers, to bring somebody to tears or make them laugh or slap the dashboard and say, 'Hell, yeah!'--he's great at that. I'm going to continue to write what I feel and what I think is real, and hopefully it can do to somebody what 'Mama Tried' did to me."

At bottom is his heartfelt love for his peers - the working men and women who have always been drawn to the kind of music he makes.

"I love the blue collar honky-tonk crowd," he says, "the men and women that, like it says in 'Beer on the Table,' pretty much work their butts off all week and like to have a good time Friday night, because that's who I am--a working guy that got lucky enough to get a recording contract."

And that means those working men and women have the kind of champion whose talent and empathy come by all too infrequently. It makes the release of Way Out Here worth celebrating.

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