Multi-award-winning singer, songwriter, guitar and bass player. Kenny Chesney, Brooks & Dunn as well as multiple bluegrass artists have brought his original songs to number 1. In addition, he has seen continued songwriting success with songs recorded by such artists as Wynona Judd, Jake Owen, Lee Ann Womack, Dan Seals, Don Williams and many others including three songs recorded on Chris Stapleton’s multi-platinum selling album “Traveller.” One single won the ACM award for “Song of the Year.” The album received the ACM and CMA award for “Album of the Year” as well as a Grammy award for “Country Album of the Year.” As an artist, the International Bluegrass Music Association has awarded him Male Vocalist of the Year, Song of the Year, Album of the Year, Gospel Performance and Recorded Event of the Year multiple times for each category. He’s also been awarded Songwriter of the Year from the association. As a vocalist, he has recorded with various artists including, Alan Jackson, Alison Krauss, Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, Lee Ann Womack, Chris Stapleton, and John Fogerty, among others.
“I always think like, if you can have a really good conversation with somebody, and it's true, and it means something, then I think that would make a great song.”
“There was music in the house all the time. There was guitars and banjos and pianos. And we all sang, and we just did it for fun. And we would go around, and we would play these churches around southern Virginia and North Carolina. And that's how I got started singing.”
“I still have that first song. Now I'm not saying that that was a great song, but it was a song, and it pleased her and that made me feel good. And then I thought, you know, I kind of like doing this, because it's making people happy.”
“I was asked to move to Nashville years before I did, but I was playing in a bluegrass band called The Lonesome River Band. And we were doing real good and traveling across the country. And we’d go to, like, Japan and Canada and we’d go to Europe. And so, I was very content doing that.”
“I called her up and I said, ‘Have you ever heard of a guy named Don Cook? He called me up, maybe he wants to talk to me.’ And she said, ‘I think you may be talking about Don Cook, the producer, the songwriter.’ And she said, ‘You need to call him back’.”
“When people are down, and I've heard other songwriters say this too, not that you want someone to be down on their luck or to be sad or to be going through problems in life, it's just that I think people are more honest. And I think people are going to be like, you know, because maybe they felt like they've already lost everything, and they don't have anything else to lose. So, they just tell the truth.”
“I was very fortunate, that I think because I had a career in bluegrass music, that it wasn't that I was more special than anyone else, it's just that I think God gave me a chance.”
“I could play the bass, but trying to play bass and sing lead, I had to really work on that. It didn't come natural. So, I worked on it really, really hard because I really wanted to be in that band.”
“I don't write a song, ‘Oh, my God, my song's so great. I know exactly who I'm going to send this to and they're going to cut it.’ I never think that way. But the funny thing about it was that the guy, Chris Stapleton – me and Barry wrote it with – was actually the man who recorded it.”
“All I'm thinking about is I want to write the best song that I can. I don't care if it's gospel, bluegrass, country, rock and roll, pop. I just, I want to leave there feeling like, ‘I feel like I wrote a really good song today.’ And the song will find where it needs to go, I think.”
“Once we won, I went backstage, because they want you to go backstage and talk. And so, once we got back there, I never left. I mean, I watched the show from backstage. I was back there talking with Little Big Town and Nick Jonas and all the people that were coming back there and I'm like, ‘Man, this is a whole lot better than sittin’ in that chair out front’.”
“I don't know exactly what I said, but anyway, I'm like, ‘Man, they quoted me in Rolling Stone magazine.
Life is good’.”
“Once you start it, stick with it, don't be a quitter and don't whine about things that you don't have any control over.”
“It’s Getting Better All the Time” (Brooks & Dunn)
“Never Wanted Nothing More” (Kenny Chesney)