For the fourth consecutive year, the Academy of Country Music will host the Academy of Country Music Stage at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (NFR) held in Las Vegas from Thursday, December 3rd through Saturday, December 12th. New country artists, including David Nail, will take the Academy of Country Music Stage in the Cowboy Corral, a special area created by Las Vegas Events, to entertain NFR fans inside the Cox Pavilion at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. The event is free to NFR fans and open to all ticket holders.

The Academy of Country Music Stage will include performances from David Nail, Ash Bowers, Easton Corbin, Halfway to Hazard, LoCash Cowboys, Sean Patrick McGraw, Heidi Newfield, Joe Nichols, Sunny Sweeney, and Josh Thompson. Doors will open at the Cowboy Corral at 5:00 PM/PST expect on Saturday, December 5 and Sunday, December 6 when they open at 4:00 PM/PST. Music performances on the Academy of Country Music Stage begin at 5:45 PM/PST expect on Saturday, December 5 and Sunday, December 6 when they begin at 4:45 PM/PST. Rodeo performances begin at 6:45 PM/PST expect on Saturday, December 5 and Sunday, December 6 when they start at 5:45PM/PST.

“The Academy of Country Music is excited to kick off the 10 nights of music with ACM award winner, Heidi Newfield and close with ACM award winner Joe Nichols.” said Michelle Goble, Director, Membership and Events for the Academy of Country Music. “NFR is a great stage to showcase a wide variety of acts which include Texas touring bands, newcomers and established artists.”

The Academy of Country Music Stage artist line-up is as follows:

Thursday, December, 3, 2009 – Heidi Newfield, 5:45pm & 9:00pm

Friday, December 4, 2009 – David Nail, 5:45pm & 9:00pm

Saturday, December 5, 2009 – Sunny Sweeney, 4:45pm & 8:00pm

Sunday, December 6, 2009 – Easton Corbin, 4:45pm & 8:00pm

Monday, December 7, 2009 – Josh Thompson, 5:45pm & 9:00pm

Tuesday, December 8, 2009 – Halfway to Hazard, 5:45pm & 9:00pm

Wednesday, December 9, 2009 – LoCash Cowboys, 5:45pm & 9:00pm

Thursday, December 10, 2009 – Ash Bowers, 5:45pm & 9:00pm

Friday, December 11, 2009 – Sean Patrick McGraw, 5:45pm & 9:00pm

Saturday, December 12, 2009 – Joe Nichols, 5:45pm & 9:00pm

Specific dates and times on additional entertainers during the Wrangler NFR can be found at www.NFRexperience.com. Additional information about Las Vegas can be found at www.visitlasvegas.com.

This past weekend MCA recording artist, David Nail helped raise money at the “Shake The Lake” country concert at Joe’s Bar in Chicago. Greg Olsen, the Chicago Bears' tight end, was host to the concert which raised over $50,000 to benefit the Greg Olsen Foundation -- Receptions for Research (receptionsforresearch.org) a non-profit organization committed to raising funds for various types of cancer research.

Nail donated his time and merchandise sales to the foundation and Joe’s Bar contributed all bar sales. Big ticket items such as Chicago Bears’ Jay Cutler and Olsen football cleats and guitars autographed by Miranda Lambert, George Jones and Sugarland were auctioned off.

Nail will ring in the holiday season with 1050 ESPN Radio’s 6^th Annual MIKE & MIKE In The Morning Holiday Broadcast. The event will air LIVE on ESPN2 and the 240+ ESPN radio stations on December 2^nd from 6-10am EST from the Hard Rock Café New York. The show is open to the public and will feature a silent auction, celebrity appearances, Knicks tickets sold at a discounted rate as well as a live performance and on-air involvement from Nail.

Proceeds from the silent auction and Knicks tickets will benefit the Marty Lyons Foundation which provides and arranges special wish requests from children ages 3-17 that have been diagnosed with a terminal or life threatening illness.

Nails current hit single “Red Light” continues climbing up the charts breaking into the Top 10 this week.

Nailed It!

Eight years after his first single briefly cracked the charts, an older and wiser David Nail has finally released his first album. This time he means business, finds, Douglas McPherson.

He’s from Missouri, and lives in Nashville, but David Nail describes his sound as California Country. “Musically, it’s smoother, kinda easy listening. But lyrically it’s maybe a tad darker than some of the music that’s out now.”

The smoothness and the darkness are epitomized by the opening and closing tracks on Nail’s debut album, I’m About To Come Alive.

The opener, Mississippi, rolls along on a prominent and striking piano line by Chuck Leavell. Right up to the chorus, in fact, it’s just Nail and the piano. The song is about a Southern man, in a snowbound New York, feeling the pull of the Delta, and until the band kicks in for the chorus, the track sounds more like a Billy Joel record than your typical Nashville tune.

The movie, Ray, about Ray Charles, had just come out when we started making the record,” Nail explains. I sat down with the producer, Frank Liddell. He asked me what kind of instrumentation I was feeling, and I just said, “Man, I hear a lot of piano. I feel like I want the piano to play a really important role, and be kind the backbone.”

“Frank knew the perfect guy in Chuck Leavell, who is arguably one of the best known piano players in the world. He was one of the original members of the Allman Brothers Band, he toured with the Stones. Once we got in the studio and he began to play, it really set the tone for what we were hoping to accomplish.”

If Mississippi exemplifies the pop edge of Nail’s ‘California Country,’ the darkness at the heart of his lyrics is now here better represented than in the closing song, Missouri.

The latter is the only song Nail wrote entirely on his own, and its deeply personal nature is self-evident.

“November’s almost over

The chill of winter’s on the way

Still I sit here on this balcony

And smoke my brain away…”

“I was between record deals and I had been going through a fairly deep depression,” says Nail. “My personal life was not too successful, and neither was my professional life. They were both, I guess, affecting each other and I had really run out of inspiration. I was back home in Missouri, at my folks’ house visiting, and I was just lying awake one night. I was in a pretty bad relationship and it was one of those things where I had realized it had reached it’s peak. It was more or less my plea that she would see that the end was a lot closer than it appeared, and maybe she would leave me instead of me having to play the bad guy and do it.”

The unflinching lyric makes it clear that Nail was to blame for the relationship’s breakdown.

“You’re waiting for the phone to ring,

Wondering which David it will be…”

I think at that point in my life everybody wondered which David are we gonna see tonight? Is it gonna be the fun, energetic, excited David who’s always laughing and joking? Or is it gonna be the depressed David who has no interest in having fun or looking at the good side of life? And moer times than not, it was the latter.”

Nail admits, “The song shows a very unflattering side of me, and a lot of people questioned why I was so adamant about putting it on this record. But it just serves as a reminder of the personal struggles that I’ve overcome, and how far I’ve come from that period of my life where my personal relationships couldn’t get any worse, to now where I’m having a little bit of professional success and I’m newly married in a really great relationship. I find it very rewarding to look back on that song and see how far I’ve come.”

Born in Kennett, Missouri, Nail got his talent and passion from music from his father, who was a high school band teacher. “My father was a huge Beatles fan. A huge British invasion guy: Hermans Hermits, The Dave Clark Five. I grew up listening to all that stuff, and a lot of Motown records and classic rock. Very early on, I fell in love with Elton John, Stevie Wonder and the Commodores. It was music a lot of 10 year olds weren’t listening to. But I guess I was old enough, even then, to realize why I was interested in music from 20 and 30 years before I was born, and maybe that was what was gonna set me apart later in life.”

The Beatles, Ellton, Stevie…The pop influence certainly shows in Nail’s music. But surely he listened to some country music too? That came with the country boom, led by Garth Brooks, in the early 90’s.

I often say I became a country fan along with everybody else in the world. The only difference was, it was 1992..and I began to wonder what was popular in 1982 or 72 and 62. I guess I researched it a little more than a lot of people. I went back and listened to a lot of those old records, and that’s where I found a guy called Glen Campbell who, to this day, is my favorite artist of all time.

“If you listen to those records from that time period, Glen is completely uniqure from everything else. He was such an admired musician as well as a singer and a performer. As far as being a well rounded artist, he was about as good as it got.

Although som e of the material on Nail’s album has the feel of a confessional singer-songwriter, it’s also a mainstream country project with a typically heavy reliance on outside songs. Some if its consistency perhaps comes from the fact that five of the 11 tracks were co-written by the same man: Scooter Carusoe, either with Nail or other writers.

“Scooter is one of my publishers as well as a very close friend of mine, and he’s probably become my mentor as a writer,” Nail explains. “Scooter is a guy who came to town and worked in various parts of the business, and I think there were a lot of people who were unware that he was creative himself. But he began writing in his downtime, I guess. Then, as the years went by, he began looking into the possibility of coming out of the closet as a writer, and letting people know that was the reason he came to town.

“I think he’s just brilliant. He has such a picturesque way of writing. When we get together, you’ll often hear me say ‘Find the Scooterism’ because he has lots of unique ways of describing something very normal and familiar. It makes for a very inspiring writing session.”

Even when he wasn’t a co-writer on a song, Nail says, “I found myself gravitating towards a lot of Scooter’s songs because they were things that I wanted to say. Rather than go, ‘I’ve got to write that song,’ and try to paraphrase it to make it pertain to my life, I just chose to record his version.

A perfect example of Scooter’s original outlook is Strangers On A Train. Co-written with Aimee Mayo, the lyric finds the narrator making eye contact with a girl on the train. He’s already spoken for, so nothing happens—they don’t even speak. But he comes away wondering ‘what if…’ I think the coolest thing aboutthat is, if we’re being honest with each other, we’ve all been in that situation. When I first heard the demo, I immediately began to think of what the video would look like, how cool that would be. Here in America, you don’t normally travel too far by train, except for the subway, and we don’t have a subway system here in Nashville. So it took me back to a lot of old movies, seeing people on trains. Also, I fly quite a bit and I’m a people watcher. It took me back a few years to when I was travelling, looking across at another car and seeing somebody that piqued my interest, just wondering what they did and where they were from and where they were going.”

Surprisingly one of Nail’s favorite songs on the album, Turning Home, was written by Scooter and one Mr. Kenny Chesney. Obviously, the song was written for Chesney to record. But when—“much to my surprise and happiness,” he didn’t, Nail jumped at the chance of recording it himself.

“That is a song that I feel really serves as a backdrop to, or a theme for, this record. You know: the small town kid who goes to the city in search of this impossible dream, up against so many odds, and so far from the type if place he was used to. Just his struggle, of finding himself and overcoming some demons…it was very much the theme of what I wanted to do on this record.”

Of Turning Home is the story of Nail’s life, thenm This Time Around, which he wrote with Lee Miller, is even more so.

“I know what you think, here we go again

The same waste of potential that I’ve always been

But this time around

I’m a little more ready

…a little bit older, a little more figured out.”

I’m About To Come Alive is the second bite of the Nashville cheery for Nail. He signed his first deal, with Mercury, in 2002. His debut single, Memphis, reached #52 on the charts. But a self titled album, produced by Kieth Stegall, remained unissued and he was subsequently dropped from the label.

What went wrong?

“You hear people say,” ‘Oh, it was just a bad time’ or politics got involved…but I don’t know that even today I know the reasons why. At the time, I was so young and green that it was probably a year and a half after I lost my deal that the light went on and I realized the significance of what had happened.”

Giving the question a little more thought, Nail decides in retrospect: “I know I was entirely too young to grasp the significance of the opportunity that was given to me. Coming from a very rural place, and never having travelled very much, I know my priorities probably weren’t in the best place. I think with age and some struggles I began to realize that if I ever got another chance, this is what’s gonna be my priority and this is what’s gonna be important. I think that experience has given me a different perspective this time around.”

Between deals, Nail concentrated more on writing than performance. He was writing songs for himself to sing, rather than pitching them to other artists, and there were times when he came close to giving up his dream of anyone hearing them.

“I always kinda had one foot in the water and one foot out. I wanted to do it, but I was scared, because my last opportunity didn’t go the way I had hoped. I’d never played around town much. But a bar owner in town had seen that I’d lost my motivation and more or less insisted that I get back out. I credit him with getting me back on stage and reminding me how enjoyable it was to just sing and have people come to see you and enjoy what you do. It re-energized me to think I could do this again.”

Asked if having a history was a help or a hindrance when he went shopping for his current deal with MCA, the artist says “I think my history was so small…people may have heard my name, but they didn’t know exactly what I did. I found that a lot of people, when they heard the record we were working on, that’s when they would go back and listen to the old project…and be amazed at how different it was. And I would say, jeez, there’s eight years there. Eight years of hard living and life and experiences and pain. It’s only natural that would come out in the lyrics and the sound of my voice.”

As we’ve heard, Nashville doesn’t have a subway system. But it’s down in a grubby looking urban subway that we find Nail on the cover of I’m About To Come Alive. His t shirt and jeans are also more city than country—a look that goes with a sound that is already one step away from the Nashville norm.

“I’ve always said that when it comes to image, you can dress however you want to dress, but the public’s gonna be able to tell if that’s you or that’s not you. It would have been easy for me to come to town and throw on cowboy boots and cowboy hate and say, here I am, I’m country music. But I think those people who wear a cowboy hat would be able to see right through that. So I always said I’m gonna be me. If you see me on the street at 2 o clock in the afternoon I’m not gonna look terribly different to how I’ll look at 10 o clock on stage. I just try to be comfortable and I think that, at the end of the day, if nothing seems too forced or out of the ordinary then the music and the look will coincide.”

Country singer brings fight for cause to LWR

By Roger Mooney

At first, it wasn’t what Dick Vitale was saying, but how Vitale said it that grabbed David Nail’s attention.

Nail was watching Louisville and Arizona play in a Jimmy V Classic Basketball game in December 2006 when he heard Vitale tell the ESPN audience about a little girl in Lakewood Ranch who was battling a rare form of brain cancer.

Suddenly, Vitale wasn’t using his normal high-octane, rattle-the-windows voice. Instead, Vitale was straight-forward serious.

“He’s always a passionate guy. Very loud,” Nail said. “But there was a change in his demeanor and the look in his eye.”

Nail was listening.

“Payton Wright ... 4-years-old ... chemotherapy ... radiation ... Medulloepithelioma ...,” Vitale said.

Scary words.

“It was extremely moving,” Nail said. “I think it was one of those bits of fate.”

It was Vitale’s message that sent Nail to Payton Wright’s Web site, where he spent three hours reading Holly Wright’s journal detailing her little girl’s fight for her life with a rare type of neuroepithelial tumor. Nail left a comment on the site. He heard from Payton’s dad, Patrick, the following day.

At the time, Nail was a young musician/song writer looking for a break. Now, he has the No. 12 single on Billboard’s Top 40 country chart and a tour that has him crisscrossing the country.

On Saturday night, Nail will be in Lakewood Ranch for a benefit concert at MacAllisters Grill and Tavern’s St Andrews Scottish Festival on Main Street, an event to celebrate Scottish heritage with proceeds going to the Payton Wright Foundation. Payton passed away in May 2007, days after her fifth birthday.

“I bawled my eyes out reading the story of this little girl,” Nail said.

In that first message to the Wrights, Nail wrote: “I don’t know if I can do anything worthwhile, but I’ll spend the rest of my life telling the story of your little girl.”

“Payton’s touched a lot of people,” Patrick Wright said. “We’re just humbled by it. It makes us feel good.”

Nail was born in Kennett, Mo., a town small enough where everyone knows everyone else, Nail said. Yet he never knew of anyone suffering like Payton or her family.

Two days before watching that basketball game, Nail had been asked if he would start a foundation. Nail gave it some thought, but didn’t feel passionate about any one cause. He visits childrens’ hospitals and thought of getting involved in the Boys & Girls Club.

“But I never really felt a connection to be really, really passionate about something,” Nail said. “I didn’t want a charity for the sake of having a charity.”

Enter Vitale, the Lakewood Ranch resident, who uses his platform as an ESPN college basketball analyst to spread the word about the V Foundation, which raises money for cancer research and awareness in the name of Jim Valvano, Vitale’s friend and former college basketball coach who lost his battle with cancer in 1993.

After meeting Payton in 2006, Vitale has directed his own crusade against pediatric cancer.

That December night in 2006, Vitale picked up another warrior in David Nail

“David’s not just saying he’s going to help and write a check,” Patrick Wright said. “He backs it up, and he’s backing it up by coming to the event and giving a free show. That’s the great part about it. He’s very sincere.”

Nail will play “Red Light,” his No. 12 single off his debut CD, “I’m About to Come Alive.” Nail mentioned Payton in the jacket of his CD. During a sound check before a recent concert, Nail took some white tape and put the initials, “PW” on his guitar.

Fans ask him what “PW” stands for.

“Putting Payton’s initials on my guitar was a subconscious thing,” Nail said. “I never dreamed how many people would ask about it.”

Nail directs them to paytonwright.org.

Nail’s desire to help the Payton Wright Foundation was further fueled in June when he and his bride, Catherine, took time from their honeymoon at St. Pete Beach to have dinner with Holly and Patrick.

“I told my wife, ‘I don’t know if I would be able to go on after that.’ To me, that’s truly the most inspiring thing,” Nail said. “They are still together. They still celebrate life. They are still a mother and father to their daughters.”

Nail’s tour has taken him to Lakeland, Jacksonville, McDonough, Ga., Oxford, Miss., Maplewood, Tenn., Chicago, Columbia, Mo. On Saturday, he will perform on Main Street in Lakewood Ranch. After that, he’s off to Las Vegas, Indianapolis, Baton Rouge and Twin Lakes, Wis.

He hopes his CD will take him to the top of the country music world.

He plans on taking Payton’s story and the work of the Payton Wright Foundation where ever he goes.

“Hopefully, as my career goes on, my voice will be something more meaningful, and I can do more,” Nail said. “Hopefully, we’ll find a way to keep this from happening.”

David Nail Says "Galveston" Changed His Life

By Alison Bonaguro
November 16th, 2009

When I get a chance to interview a country artist, I try to ask questions about what's happening right that minute. How's the single doing? What's the live show like? That kind of thing. But some singers tend to grab my hand and take me down memory lane. Like David Nail. One little question on Friday night (Nov. 13) about how he got his start led me down a path that revealed Nail is not just another country singer who claims all he listened to growing up was Merle Haggard. His musical muse? Glen Campbell. "Glen Campbell changed my life," Nail told me during an interview on his bus.

"I heard him do 'Galveston' on a TV show, and his voice was so smooth and had so much range," he said. "So I went to my local Wal-Mart and they had one CD. I bought it and took it on a road trip and listened to it over and over." His favorites after that trip? "Dreams of the Everyday Housewife," "Where's the Playground Susie?" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix."

Before that country epiphany, Nail admits to singing in his bedroom to New Kids on the Block and picking up an old guitar of his dad's when he was in seventh grade. "It only had the bottom two strings, but I was able to pick out '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction.' I thought I was a genius. I was like, 'If I can do this with two strings, imagine what I can do with six?'"

Even before that, he got his first taste of how hard he'd have to practice to get better. "When I was about 8, I started taking piano from Mrs. Crow (Sheryl Crow's mother -- Nail and Sheryl Crow are both natives of Kennett, Mo.). I practiced so little, though, that I never got any better," Nail admitted. "So for three years I always opened the recitals because the worst kids always went first."

So maybe the piano wasn't for him. But if his "Red Light" hit is any indication, all that time honing his vocals to be as smooth as Campbell's has certainly paid off.

Nailing It

By Ken Tucker
November 7, 2009

David Nail, whose single “Red Light” is No. 15 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart after 35 weeks on the tally, proves that the phrase “overnight sensation” oversimplifies things.

Nail’s first single, “Memphis,” peaked at No. 52 on Hot Country Songs in 2002. But the Mercury debut album he recorded was never released. He had signed with the label eight months after moving to Nashville from his birthplace, Kennett, Mo. The town is also home to Sheryl Crow, whose mother taught Nail piano.

Ginny Rogers, music director at country WKLB Boston, remembers meeting Nail on a Mercury promotional visit. “I liked his songs back then, but thought he was ahead of his time musically,” she says.

When his producer and head of A&R Keith Stegall left Mercury, so did Nail, who moved back to Missouri. The singer/songwriter returned to Music City two years later and eventually signed with MCA Nashville, a Universal Music Group sister to his former label.

Still, success eluded him. Then Nail released a cover of Train’s “I’m About To Come Alive” in 2008, which hit No. 47 on Hot Country Songs. But the release of his MCA debut album of the same name, produced by Frank Liddell and Mike Wrucke (Miranda Lambert), was pushed back.

“Red Light,” a song about a breakup in unlikely circumstances, was released in March. Weeks later, Nail finally had a slow-but-sure hit. WKLB is one of the stations having success with the song. “Listeners like story songs and this one is no exception,” Rogers says. “Although I think it took them a little longer to catch on because it’s a new artist. They got it, though, and that’s the sign of a true hit.”

The single has sold 132,000 copies, according to Nielsen Soundscan. For the week ending Oct. 25, it sold 11,000 downloads – its best sales week yet and fifth straight week gain. Meanwhile, the “I’m About To Come Alive” album, released Aug. 18, has sold 22,000 copies.

Nail promoted the single by embarking on a Red Light Road Trip tour across the United States, tied to the Major League Baseball season. While on the road, a camera-toting Nail tried to convince locals he was a major-label artist who wanted to perform for free. The often hilarious webisodes premiered on CMT.com and are also posted on DavidNail.com.

“There’s reality TV and there’s what we’re doing,” Nail says. “There was no editing, no crew. You can’t script some of the stuff we were doing.”

At a recent celebration with friends and fellow artists for his top 15 single, Nail got a little emotional. “There were a couple of moments when I had to take a deep breath and soak it in,” he says. “There’s no greater feeling than acceptance by your peers.”

Chicago Bears Recruit Keith Anderson and David Nail

By Alison Bonaguro
October 29th, 2009

Country music and professional sports are hopelessly intertwined. Country stars go to the games, athletes show up at their concerts, and then those stars go to even more games. It's like a never-ending circle of mutual admiration.

And on Nov. 13, it gets even better for Chicago. Greg Olsen, the Chicago Bears' tight end, is hosting a Shake the Lake country concert to benefit breast cancer, brain cancer and Children's Memorial Hospital. Keith Anderson and David Nail will both be on hand to entertain and raise a little cash.

But why would two guys from Nashville come up to support the Bears? "My lead guitar player grew up in Chicago, and I just kind of took up his passion," Anderson told me. "We didn't have a pro football team when I was growing up in Oklahoma, so I had to pick Steelers or Cowboys. I'm a Steelers fan, but now I'm a Bears fan all the way. And Greg Olsen's the best tight end in the league." Noting that he's also looking forward to seeing Nail's show, Anderson said, "I was blown away when I saw his live show. He's got one of my favorite voices in country right now." Even Nail said, "I'm excited to share the stage with Keith Anderson and to support the work that Greg does."

To up the ante even more, country fans can bid on an autographed guitar from Sugarland, and football fans can bid on Chicago Bear Jay Cutler's pink cleats. Cutler will be at the event, too, for all those quarterback lovers out there.

Olsen himself is a huge fan of country music, so after his mom fought and won her battle with breast cancer, it seemed only natural for him to stage an event like this. "I have always been fond of Keith's music, and I am excited to see him live," Olsen told me. "I have gotten to know David pretty well over the past couple of months. I love his music and feel like he is getting ready to explode. Being able to combine country music with my passion for breast cancer research is truly a dream come true." Proceeds will benefit the Greg Olsen Foundation -- Receptions for Research.

Rising country singer David Nail will perform Nov. 21 at a benefit for the Payton Wright Foundation at Main Street in Lakewood Ranch.

By Roger Mooney

On the inside of his CD, not far from where country singer David Nail dedicates the album to his grandparents, you’ll find these words:

“Payton Wright, I never knew you, but I will spend the rest of my life making sure the world hears your story.”

So when Payton’s father, Patrick, asked the rising singer to perform at next month’s St Andrews Scottish Festival on Main Street in Lakewood Ranch, an event to celebrate Scottish heritage with proceeds going to the Payton Wright Foundation, Nail easily said yes.

“David is a full, 100 percent Payton Wright supporter,” Nail’s manager Brian Wolf said. “He wants to focus on Payton Wright and cancer research.”

The St Andrews Scottish Festival, scheduled for Nov. 21, is hosted by MacAllisters Grill and Tavern. Chameleon will open for Nail.

“To have a national star singing his heart out on Main Street is pretty exciting,” said Karen Ronney, who owns MacAllisters with her husband Malcolm. “Hopefully there will be a big crowd and we can raise enough money to blow cancer research out of the water.”

“Red Light,” Nail’s second single off his CD, “I’m About to Come Alive,” is currently 13th on Billboard’s country chart.

Nail first learned of Payton’s battle with Medulloepithelioma, a rare form of brain cancer, in December 2006 while watching a college basketball game on television. Dick Vitale, the ESPN basketball analyst who lives in Lakewood Ranch, was telling the audience about Payton and her plight.

“At that point, David wasn’t even sure if he would have a single or a career, but he decided he was going to help Payton and dedicate his life to cancer research,” Wolf said.

Nail contacted Patrick and his wife, Holly, through their Web site and a relationship developed.

“I don’t know why, but Payton just touched a lot of people and made people want to reach out and help,” Patrick Wright said.

Nail never met Payton. His CD was released a year after Payton passed away in May 2007. But Nail and his bride, Catherine, took time from their honeymoon this June to have dinner with Patrick and Holly in St. Petersburg.

Nail told the Wrights he would do whatever he could to help their foundation.

“When I called to ask him to play, he said, ‘I’d love to do it,’ ” Patrick said. “It’s pretty cool that he would do this.”

Nail, who will perform Nov. 5 in Lakeland and Nov. 6 in Jacksonville, is scheduled to play a benefit for breast cancer awareness Nov. 13 in Chicago that is hosted by Chicago Bears tight end Greg Olsen.

Nails’ tour will take him to Colorado on Nov. 18. From there he will fly to Florida.

MacAllisters has held a St Andrews Scottish Festival for the past three years. Ronney said the crowds have grown so much each year that they had to move it outside. This year’s event will include everything Scottish: golf, bagpipes, haggis sampling.

Music, too, including the songs of one of country’s rising stars.

“It is a nice family event, and we’ll raise money for the Payton Wright Foundation,” Ronney said. “It’s amazing that David Nail is coming down to be a part of this.”

David Nail Answers YOUR Questions!
David Nail recently took the time to answer some of our reader’s questions. Check it out!

October 19, 2009

You have a very unique voice and style when you sing. I love it! Did you always sing this way or did this come from years of experience? (Vicki) I think when you first start singing you can’t help but sing like the first people you begin listening to. It wasn’t till I moved to Nashville when I realized I began sounding different.

Who did you grow up listening to? (Anita) Glen Campbell, Elton John, Vince Gill, Garth Brooks, The Beatles

Who is your favorite artist to cover and why? (Anita) Train or Stevie Wonder

Who was your biggest influence? (Nicole) Glen Campbell

What is your worst habit? (Kristin) I cannot tell, there’s a reason it’s bad.

What kept you motivated after the first deal with Mercury didn’t pan out? (Andrew) Desperation!

What taught you the most from those early years? (Andrew) Growing up is not just a kid thing, you grow well into your 20’s.

What country Female artist out right now would you like to go on tour with and/or do a duet with ? (Emily) Miranda Lambert, and since I’ve sang with her already, how about another duet with Jennifer Nettles from Sugarland.

I see that you are writing MLB blogs now. Who do you think is going to win the AL Cy Young award? (Emily) I said Justin Verlander before, but probably Zach Greinke now…

We all know that country music is your love, but sports are not far behind at all. Lately, you’ve been rooting for the White Sox and Cardinals, then in football, for the Titans, Rams, and Bears. So, if you had to pick one baseball and one football team to make it to the World Series and the Super Bowl who would it be? (Kayla) Bears in football, and I’m a little biased. Phillies in baseball.

What about hockey? Have you gotten into that sport yet? (Kayla) The best man in my wedding actually plays in the NHL. I love hockey, but I can’t help but wonder if having many friends play makes it easier to love.

What do you do when you’re stuck at a Red Light? (Scott) Look to see if someone is singing my song.

Who has been your favorite artist to play a show with? (Lindsey) Luke Bryan or Eli Young Band

Who puts on some of your favorite concerts to see? (Lindsey) Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney and Miranda Lambert

What is your favorite moment of your career thus far? (Jessica) Opry debut or having my friends/peers like Miranda, EYB [Eli Young Band], Billy Currington, Luke Bryan, Lady A be so excited for my success…

Thanks to everyone who submitted questions!

Be sure to check out Nail’s new album, I’m About To Come Alive, which is in stores now.

Artist News From David Nail

By Sarah Skates
October 1, 2009

The Chicago White Sox and WUSN celebrated “Country Music Night” on Sept. 22 and featured MCA Nashville artist David Nail performing the national anthem and a four-song acoustic set on the field. He is also acting as MLB.com’s first ever celebrity blogger and will post weekly updates through the World Series. Nail will return to the Windy City Nov. 13 for a performance at Joe’s Bar to benefit cancer research.

Elsewhere, Nail will be GAC’s “Fan Focus” artist in October with special coverage and promotional spots. He continues to tour in support of his recent release I’m About To Come Alive, which is up 15% in sales this week.

David Nail Shares Musical Tie With Sheryl Crow

Kennett, Missouri has two musical hometown heroes, now that David Nail has made a splash in country with his critically-acclaimed album, 'I'm About to Come Alive.' The midwestern town's other famous face is none other than Sheryl Crow -- the Grammy-winning pop-rocker whose family can take also take a little bit of credit for David's success. In a page out of the what-a-small-world book, Sheryl's mom taught David the piano!

"My hometown is so small that you run into everybody all the time. I just saw her at a little barbeque restaurant when I was home," David tells The Boot of Mrs. Crow, explaining that he took lessons from Sheryl's mom when he was young but then quit in favor of the guitar. "That's one of those life lessons that pains me to admit that I was wrong. I can remember so many people, especially Mrs. Crow and my father, saying, 'You're going to regret not sticking with the piano.' And of all the regrets musically I have, that's No. 1."

David's new album features a "shout-out" to his home state, 'Missouri,' which he also says is the most personal track on the album. His current single, 'Red Light,' just cracked the Top 20 on the country singles charts.

David Nail Delivers Steamy Country Set

David Nail sings to the crowd at the WDRM stage Saturday night at Big Spring Jam in Huntsville.Country crooner David Nail started a steamy set on the WDRM stage Saturday night with a soul-tinged ballad, “Mississippi;” steamy, thanks in part to the heavy moisture clinging to the air following the afternoon’s rains.

The rest of the steam came from the handsome newcomer himself. After entertaining the mellow crowd surrounding the stage with poetic country rock numbers about first love, Nail reached back into his bag of soul for the Marvin Gaye classic, “Let’s Get It On.”

“Doesn’t that just feel good?” he teased the crowd.

Nail’s smooth baritone and charming demeanor won over the crowd, many of whom were unfamiliar with tunes like “This Time Around” and “Again.”

He affably congratulated Alabama football fans - “I’m just glad we got on after that football game, or none of y’all would be here” - then offered another crossover cover.

“Hey, how about something you’ve heard of?” he teased before launching into a respectable cover of the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” proving this country boy’s got soul, too.

“That was kinda sexy,” said Marilyn Ray of Huntsville.

David Nail – “I’m About To Come Alive”

By Tomi L. Wiley
September 25, 2009

As a little Southern girl I was raised in church, often squirming on hard, unforgiving pews and distractedly swinging my feet clad in black patent-leather shoes and lacy white socks, my head slung back and staring up at the bright jewels of the stained glass windows. But it was always the music – the soaring piano lilt and lifting choir voices – that rooted me in place and captured my attention, and this is why I immediately tuned into David Nail’s “Mississippi,” the first track on his debut album, I’m About to Come Alive.

Nail’s is an album cut with an undercurrent of longing and prickling reminders of everyday pleasures, with the pull of muddy water and reminiscence that is distinctly Southern. “Mississippi” is a yearning for home and the safety of one’s place in the world, a staple of country music emphasized by the bluesy gospel riffs that take me back to those long hours in church surrounded by family and friends, eating on blankets on the ground after Revival in the warm haze of sunshine and security.

The album’s first Top 40 hit, “Red Light,” turns that sense of sun-soaked security on its head with the notion that not all bad things happen at night or even when you think they will – as my mother has always said: “You want to see God laugh? Make your plans.”

“Red Light” captures the irony of life, how the tides suddenly turn in the middle of your journey, and those traveling their own paths will swirl around and beyond you, but they’re still traveling. And it’s best that you pick up anchor and move along with them.

Alive includes a duet with country firecracker Miranda Lambert and songs co-written by Rascal Flatts’ lead singer Gary LeVox and Kenny Chesney, and the polished experience of the songwriters is evident in the songs they co-penned, “Summer Job Days” and “Turning Home,” respectively.

But its Nail’s duet with Lambert in “Strangers on a Train” that is the beating heart of longing on this album, rife with the little thrills of everyday pleasures which we often let pass by like a blurred landscape as we travel through life. Nail, who co-wrote five songs on Alive, is a gifted lyricist, with resonating lines like “the cold makes snow out of the rain.”

With Alive, Nail invites us on a journey through the pleasures and ache of life, beginning with “Mississippi” and ending with “Missouri,” which just happens to be Nail’s birthplace. He left a small town for the bright lights of Nashville, just a boy with a dream, and with his debut album it looks like his journey to Music City might just be the beginning of an extended stay.

“I feel like regardless of where you grew up, city, small town, east coast, west coast or whatever, there’s something in this music that you can relate to,” Nail says on his website, www.davidnail.com. “They might not all be exactly the same, but everyone has those moments; the first time you left home, falling in love, losing love. That’s what moves me, what I can dig into.”

Dig into Alive and see where it takes you. For me, still a little Southern girl at heart, it’s worth the trip.

Kick off the trip with: “Mississippi,” “Red Light,” and “Strangers on a Train.”

David Nail gets a 'swift' kick up the charts

By Carrie Pritzer
News Staff Writer

David Nail admitted he was starting to feel like the guy he was singing about in “Red Light.” At least, that’s until Taylor Swift stepped in — or chirped in.

The sun was shining, but Nail’s world was starting to crash down. This was his second chance with a record contract, but after nearly 6 months, the single wasn’t going anywhere.

“I always felt like all I needed was a little window of opportunity,” Nail told the Daily News in a recent interview.

That’s about the time Swift tweeted to her more than 1 million followers that her new favorite song happened to be “Red Light.”

“I thought surely that can’t affect it that much, but it has,” Nail said. “I can remember going to MySpace right after I heard about Taylor, and my plays had doubled from the previous day just from the traffic from catching wind from her.”

Within weeks, the 30-year-old has gone from a virtually unknown artist to one with a top-25 hit that continues to climb.

Perhaps an even bigger first for the Kennett, Mo., native is having his debut album — appropriately titled “I’m About To Come Alive” — in stores as of last week.

Nail dropped out of college and moved to Nashville 10 years ago. He quickly landed a record deal with Mercury and released his first single in 2002. The song peaked at No. 52, and it wasn’t long before he and producer Keith Stegall were let go, Nail said.

“When the single was released, I was flying by the seat of my pants and not really sure what I was supposed to be doing,” he said. “To be honest with you, I was still so young and everything had happened so fast, I don’t even know if I was upset about it. I don’t think I even grasped what was happening.”

Nail said that when he did realize what was going on, he fell into “a two- or three-year depression.” But the friendships at Mercury remained, and after various changes at the label, he was re-signed to Universal Music.

But his career still crawled, and it’s actually been nearly three years since Nail started the album, he said. “I’m About To Come Alive” was originally schedule for release last summer, but after the title track failed to reach the top 40, Nail said the release was shelved.

That was déjà vu for Nail.

“I don’t want to say I prepared myself for the fact that it might not happen, but it definitely had begun to creep across my mind,” he said. “So for now it to be here, to say I’m excited would be the understatement of the year. It’s surreal.”

Nail credits his June wedding for keeping him sane through the stressful time. Instead of watching “Red Light” stall on the charts, wedding obligations kept his mind occupied. By the time the wedding rolled around, a little promotion from Swift and Lady Antebellum’s Hillary Scott gave the song a “swift” kick up the charts.

Nail said artist recognition from having a song in the top 40 to a top 20 is more than he ever imagined. But does that mean he feels like things are finally starting to happen?

“No,” Nail said bluntly. “I’m very much a realist and been here long enough to know how quickly things can change. I will say, though, I’ve begun to let myself feel some sort of feeling of accomplishment. Just even having a reason to have a big high five — you have to stop and enjoy those little moments along the way.”

Conversation Corner with David Nail

By Andrew Vaughan

Some names just stick. When David Nail’s record company offered their debutant up for interview and review I felt sure I knew the name. Sure enough, there on my haphazardly organized bookshelf was a 2002 promo CD labeled, David Nail - an advance album that contained at least two memorable tunes. I guess David himself can solve the mystery.

“Well, that’s cool that you have that still. I made that album in 2001, 2002 when I first came to Nashville from Missouri. But there were some record company changes and some politics and it never came out.”

In actual fact, the album that never was spawned a single, "Memphis," which did pretty well in the Top 100. But when producer Keith Steagall was fired from Mercury, the David Nail project lost its main instigator and Nail was lost in the shuffle.

“It happens in this business. I don’t remember being devastated - I always thought I’d get another deal. I think at the time things had happened so fast for me. I’d only been in town a couple of months and I had a publishing deal and then a record company signed me right after that. I had no idea as a young kid in town that record deals were hard to come by and that it would take me several years to get back to where I wanted to be in this business.”

While Nail claims to have never been disillusioned, he did leave musical pursuits for a while to coach a baseball team, but, naturally enough, he turned to music when the time was right.

"I never lost my love for music. I was always writing and playing somewhere, but it took me a while to deal with the business side again. That’s a whole different ball game and it has to be dealt with separately to the music. But, you know, I had faith that God had a plan for me, and that the plan involved music."

David Nail, raised by a high school band director, first fell in love with the music of Elton John. “Elton John was one of the main reasons I started singing, and is still a tremendous influence. I think he and the Beatles are probably two of the greatest melody makers of all time. I ‘discovered’ country music in the early 90’s along with everyone else my age, but I guess I kind of got more obsessive than everybody else. I found myself looking back as far as the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, exposing myself to some of the biggest stars of that era. It was then that I fell in love with Glen Campbell, who is still one of my all-time favorites.”

When MCA finally came knocking and the album I’m About to Come Alive became a reality, Nail was determined to make the most of this second chance.

“I told the label that I will do everything it takes to get this album on the radio. I’ll be there for radio tours, signings, promo events; whatever they think will help my career I will do. I really want this album to work ‘cause I think it’s a great record. People ask me all the time how I’d describe my music and I say, 'Well, I hope it’s good.’ Hopefully people will just enjoy it for being good music and take from it whatever it makes them feel. We have some wonderful musicians on here, and I’m hearing that folks like the songs. So all we can do now is wait and see and be ready to do whatever needs to be done to take it to the next level."

Looking at the current condition of country music, I wonder if David Nail feels he’s part of a new wave of artists ready to replace superstars like Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. “I don’t know about replace! There are definitely some great young artists out right now. I think they are all different. You know, Miranda Lambert is fantastic. Blake Shelton. There’s a bunch of us around the same age who have a new country sound I think, but it’s not like a movement stylistically - just a generational change I guess. I’m just focusing on maybe getting a great support slot on a big tour this year and breaking this album across America. I’ll worry about selling as many records as Kenny Chesney later!"

David Nail's Top 10 for Summer '09

By Alison Bonaguro
August 25th, 2009

Summer may be almost over. But that hasn't stopped me from stumbling onto this top 10 for summer '09 list from "Red Light" rookie, David Nail. Oh, the things we learn when artists use their blog like a diary. This list is all the things Nail loves, and I have to say, the man's got good taste. Like Diesel Jeans and G-Star shirts. Hot. Combine that with his vintage white loafers, and you've got a signature look that's a country mile ahead of the Wranglers and cowboy hat thing. And how's he maintain that boy-next-door clean cut look? Organic Tea Tree shampoos and Kiehl's All-Purpose Face Moisturizer. (I think his disarming smile must come from the Red Diamond red wines on his list, though.) He also enjoys free WI-FI, sweet potatoes, Sperry boat shoes and Abercrombie flat front shorts. But really, who doesn't?

David Nail CD Release Party

HE NAILED IT THIS TIME!

By S. Parks

After a certain success a few years back with the single “Memphis” on his Mercury album that was never released, David Nail took an extended baseball vacation from music and, thank goodness, didn’t forget to come back to Nashville after the game.

Nashville’s Tin Roof is quite often packed but somehow, David managed to top that with an overload of fans he’s been accumulating for some time now. This MCA artist was very much at home as he returned to the stage where he has played many times over the past several years. The only difference is, this time it was for his own long-awaited CD release party. There was no question that this handsome, hard-working musician is living up to his CD title “I’m About to Come Alive”.

David could never be accused of having a poker face because his emotions are laid out for everyone to see and hear. His songs, five of which were solo written on the CD, tell pertinent and heartfelt stories illustrating chapters in all of our biographies. This is particularly evident in “Red Light”, now climbing the Billboard charts, as he recounts the ending of a relationship. The title song is a cover of the Train album cut and certainly is prophetic at this moment. His influences are no secret either as he borrows a little from Ray Charles and Vince Gill and we can hear shades of Mark Cohn as well in the piano-driven “Mississippi”. It is also apparent that he is highly regarded by his peers with songs co-written by Kenny Chesney and Rascal Flatts’ Gary LeVox and there’s an amazing “Strangers on a Train” duet with Miranda Lambert, putting the icing on this new release.

Having performed with everyone from Blake Shelton to James Otto, not to mention the outstanding Shannon Lawson, David is a well-seasoned artist who has been patiently waiting in the wings for his turn at bat. We can add the very talented singer/songwriter Anthony Smith, who has penned for George Strait and Trace Adkins, to that attendance list as well. Anthony, Storme Warren of GAC and many other celebs were there to join David in the celebration.

The successful CD release party was only trumped by the audience singing along to his songs - two distinct moments an artist dreams about as he gives everything he has to his music. As David moves up the ladder, we will all be watching as he continues to hammer those great songs into our songlists. See for yourself on September 18 as he returns to the Tin Roof in the Music Row area.

After 10 Years in Nashville, David Nail Finally Gets the Green Light

By Whitney Self
September 1^st, 2009

Singer-songwriter David Nail isn't exactly what you would call a country newcomer. In fact, up until his recent singles, "I'm About to Come Alive" and "Red Light," it had been nearly seven years since he spent any time on the country music charts. Finally, after many years of resilience willpower, Nail's career seems to be headed in the right direction.

"I would like to sit here and say that we planned all this," said Nail during his recent interview with CMT.com "But if there's one thing I've learned in my now 10 years in Nashville, it's that there is no such plan to follow."

Over a decade ago, the fresh-out-of-high school Kennett, Missouri native moved to Music City like so many others -- with the aspirations of becoming a successful country music artist. But, it wasn't long before Nail's doubts and fears left him disheartened.

"I retreated back to my hometown and waited about a year and a half," he said. "And then, for some odd reason, I felt like I was a little bit more prepared for it."

Giving it another go, Nail returned to Nashville and this time with better luck. Within the year, he signed with Mercury Records and even released his first single, "Memphis," in 2002. But unfortunately, this success was short lived and his recording contract later dropped.

"There were definitely a few moments in my mid-20s where I wondered if God was hinting at me to pursue something else," he said.

Facing a crossroads, Nail took a break from his music to help a friend coach a local high school baseball team. It was during this time that Nail found the passion and inspiration needed to give his music another try.

Recharged and refocused, he landed a record deal with MCA Nashville and released his debut album, named after his first single and also Train cover, I'm About to Come Alive.

"I just think this record is so much about this kid who moved off to the city to pursue his dream and that's what I think is so unique about it," he explained.

I'm About to Come Alive features songs co-written by country heavy-hitters like Kenny Chesney in "Turning Home" and Rascal Flatts' Gary LeVox in "Summer Day Jobs." But Nail too contributes his own material including three co-writes and a song he solely wrote several years back, "Missouri."

The song depicts a vulnerable Nail smoking cigarettes and pining over a relationship gone sour. Throughout the song, he cleverly pronounces his state of mind as "misery" rather than "Missouri."

"Even to this day, it was the most revealing song that I've ever written, very personal," he explained. "I held onto it for two or three years before I played it for anybody because it shows a very unflattering side of myself.

"The one thing I pride myself on, more than anything," he said, "is if I'm going to write a song and it's going to have my name on it, I'm not going to skate around the truth. I'm not going to sugarcoat anything. I'm going to be as raw and sometimes as unflattering as I can be because that's the only way I know how to do it."

In addition to recording his new album, Nail has spent the last several months traveling with his guitarist throughout the United States on what has been coined "Red Light Road Trips," named after his current single, "Red Light." Filming themselves, the two play different cities while convincing the locals that Nail is a major label recording act.

"We've been turned down more times than we've been allowed to play," he admitted. "I can remember rolling through Knoxville and we had saved all our energy to have this big blowout and we couldn't find a place to play to save our lives.

"Nervous doesn't really fit my personality," he added. "And I think the whole idea we were trying to portray was there is nothing too embarrassing. I will walk into any place. I will play any place."

It's this same relentless determination that continues to be the driving force behind Nail's music and his newfound success.

"I've always been the type of person that said, 'I don't mind pressure. In fact, throw all your needs on me. I'm not worried about coming through.'"

October 1 Traverse City, MI - Turtle Creek Casino

October 17 Virginia Beach, VA - Sharx

October 23 Knoxville, TN - Tin Roof

October 24 Charlotte, NC - Coyote Joe's

David Nail Shares His Favorite Country Classic Song on opry.com

While it’s difficult if not impossible to define a country classic, what’s not nearly as problematic for fans or for country artists is to name a personal favorite country classic. In celebration of the fall return of Opry Country Classics, opry.com asked a few country artists to share with us their personal favorites—no matter how they define “classic.” Ever wondered which song David considers his favorite country classic? Check out the opry.com’s What Makes a Classic Country Song? cover story and see. (Hint: His mind must be on Tennessee.)

» mlb.mlb.com

David Nail I’m About To Come Alive Cut by Cut

By Roughstock Staff
August 18, 2009

After David Nail lost his first record deal in 2002, he could've given up but instead he worked on his craft and returned to the very same company he recorded a few songs with. Instead of being with Mercury, David is now with MCA Records, both parts of UMG Nashville. David's album, "I'm About To Come Alive" was released August 18, 2009.

“MISSISSIPPI”
(Scooter Carusoe/Dan Colehour/Chuck Leavell)

I found ‘Mississippi’ when we were starting the entire process. Actually, I was being nosy one day at my publisher’s office and was going through every song in the entire catalog, which was about 5,000 to 6,000 songs. I saw the title and for some reason it just intrigued me. I listened to it and it was this really dirty piano vocal. I just loved it. The movie Ray had just come out and since I’ve always been really into him, the first thought that occurred to me, was, ‘wow this sounds like something you could just picture Ray Charles singing.’ So, naturally, me being a Ray Charles fan and a huge soul/R&B guy, it was just an obvious choice. I later found out it had actually been written for a possible Ray Charles album. It’s one of my favorite songs on the record.

“I’M ABOUT TO COME ALIVE”
(Pat Monahan/Jimmy Stafford/Scott Underwood/Charlie Colin/Rob Hotchkiss/Clint Bennett)

I’ve been singing this song for probably five or six years. Never at any moment did I think that I’d have an opportunity to cut it for this record. It’s just been that song that has been a constant in my career. For the longest time people just assumed it was one of my songs or a song that I had written. Little did they know that it was actually a cover of one of my favorite groups Train. It was the last cut on their My Private Nation record. It had a very strong, personal meaning to me at the time and over the years it’s taken more of a literal, professional meaning. I’m sure I’ll say all these songs are one of my favorites, but this is the song that has kind of been associated with me through the last few years of my career.

“RED LIGHT”
(Jonathan Singleton/Melissa Peirce/Dennis Matkosky)

This came to us after the record was done. The head of A&R, Brian Wright, who’s a really good friend of mine, brought it to me. To be honest, at the time I wasn’t real crazy about adding it just because any time you do a record you more or less have to force yourself to close the book on it because otherwise you’ll just keep going back and wanting to fix and add things. I had kind of gone through that process but after I listened to it I said, ‘I get it. Just tell me when and where we’re recording.’ And since we’ve been out on the road with it, introducing it to the world, so to speak, it’s been great. I think it was something that we were missing on the record and I’m glad we had the opportunity to add it.

“AGAIN”
(David Nail/Scooter Carusoe)

‘Again’ is a song I’ve wanted to write for 20 or so years. As far back as I can remember, there’s a specific girl in my hometown I wanted to write about but I was never able to capture a story about her. I walked into my producer’s office one day with eight lines and they were actually the first eight lines of the song. I said, ‘man, I have no clue what this is or where it’s going but I really have to finish this song.’ I knew where it was coming from and I knew that this was my best chance yet to capture that adolescent, first love, so to speak. The best thing about being a songwriter is that you have the power and you can kind of manipulate the lyric to maybe stray a little bit from the truth. There are definitely some true moments to the song, but there are some fictional moments in the song too. I’m not a huge tempo writer. And this is one of probably only four or five songs I’ve ever written that have any kind of tempo to it. But it’s definitely one of the best songs to play live because it kind of rocks out a little bit.

“CLOUDS”
(David Nail/Scooter Carusoe)

This idea came from an interesting experience. I had just been to Florida to see a girl. You know when you first meet someone, you’re excited and you think, ‘this could possibly be the one.’ So, in the back of my mind I was thinking I have a week, I’m just gonna enjoy this. What I learned is after about the second or third day you realize the reality of things, like bad habits, and that it’s not gonna work out but you’re stuck for the duration of the trip. So by the end of that week we both kind of realized that we had reached the peak, so to speak, of our relationship. I’ll never forget the feeling, driving back to the airport, and thinking, ‘wow, this is so awkward.’ The silence. It just seemed like we were never gonna get there, and the plane couldn’t take off fast enough. I came back to Nashville and told that story to a friend of mine. He immediately started writing down exactly what I was saying. Little did I know, he was more or less writing the song as I was telling the story. When we recorded it, it turned out to be a beautiful track. It’s one of the songs that I’m more proud of from a lyrical standpoint. It’s another one of my favorites.

“SUMMER JOB DAYS”
(Neil Thrasher/Michael Dulaney/Gary LeVox)

When I first heard the demo I just knew I had to cut it. Growing up I never went on a lot of vacations. I was actually 21 before I saw the ocean for the first time. There were a lot of times that I wanted to go on spring break in college or in high school with my friends but didn’t. So there’s always been this image in the back of my mind of what that week would’ve been like. This song was kind of my way of actually experiencing that.

“STRANGERS ON A TRAIN”
(Scooter Carusoe/Aimee Mayo)

Like ‘Mississippi’, I found this through our catalog at the publishing company I work for. A lot of times when you hear songs you automatically picture what the video would look like. You can just see it playing out in your mind. That’s how it was with this one. After I’d found it, I was backstage at a Miranda Lambert show and as it often happens on the bus, a guitar got brought out, so I played her the song. She immediately started singing harmony with it, and it was just one of those things where the magic happened without even trying to force it. I was lucky enough that she agreed later to actually sing on the record. If it all ends tomorrow I’ll be able to go home with a record and say somebody who’s not only a friend, but extremely talented agreed to do that for a new artist, and that’s cool.

“LOOKING FOR A GOOD TIME”
(Sean McConnell)

Joe Fisher in the A&R department at the label called me very early on in the recording process. He was like, ‘man, I don’t exactly know if this song’s for you, but if nothing else you’re just gonna love it and you’re gonna want a copy of it just to listen to.’ I was so excited. I got in my car and drove to the label. I was like, ‘play it for me, play it for me.’ I had this feeling that it was going to be special. He played the guitar vocal of it by the writer, who’s an amazing singer and songwriter. It was one of those songs where I didn’t even exactly know what was going on, but it was so powerful and so intense. I looked at him and said, ‘I don’t even know if I have the power to do this, but put that song on hold. I have to have that song.’ It has very intense lyrics, and is very dark and deep. It’s something that I felt a calling to sing. We’ve actually started opening the show with a more moodier, vibey version of it. I’m really proud of the way it turned out. I think it’s a great song.

“THIS TIME AROUND”
(David Nail/Lee Miller)

‘This Time Around’ is a song I felt like said what I really had to say. I moved to Nashville nine years ago and have kind of had some ups and downs professionally. It’s just a message that I needed to say to a lot of people in town, but mostly to myself. It’s just a song about growing up and maturing and realizing that you can learn from your mistakes. And if you do that, you can show others that you’ve changed.

“TURNING HOME”
(Kenny Chesney/Scooter Carusoe)

This song has kind of gotten me to this point. The first time I heard it, it was just a guitar/vocal of Scooter singing. It was one of the first songs that I’d heard when I started at Carnival Music. I just knew that this was that song that I had been searching for, probably the entire time that I’d been in Nashville. It was something I could really dig into and sing the way I had been wanting to sing. Being from a small town in southeast Missouri, all the imagery in the song was something that I could really relate to. I can close my eyes and be back in that small town…Friday night football game… I just love it. When we play it live, I always look back at the guys in the band and say, ‘hey, let’s take ‘em to church’. It just has that gospel, soul, old-school Motown kind of feel to it. I just love it. It’s without a doubt my most favorite song to sing.

“MISSOURI”
(David Nail)

I wrote this probably five, six, seven years ago. I was going through a really rough stretch, both personally and professionally. It came out one night really late. It was really hard for me to play or share with anyone, but I found that once I did, it was a huge weight off my shoulders because it was almost like I was shutting a door on that dark period of my life. There’ve been a lot of times where this song was right on the verge of not making the record, and I fought hard for it because not only is it close to my heart because I lived it, but with the title being Missouri, I felt like it was, in a way, a shout out to my home state, which I’m very proud to be from. I think that it’s, without a doubt, the most honest that I’ve ever been in a song. I definitely revealed a not so flattering side of myself, but I think that it’s the best production on the record. I’ve had the pleasure to hear it on a few stations that spun it and it sounds so good coming over the radio. God-willing, I hope someday it’ll be a single because I just think that it’s a really powerful song.