Music Row Quotes

One of the great reasons to be in Nashville is, you get guys like Shane McAnally to write songs with.

My producer, Michael Knox, he's kind of my eyes and ears on Music Row. While I'm out on the road, he's looking for songs, and then he and I will get together and go over songs.

When I first came to Nashville, people hardly gave country music any respect. We lived in old cars and dirty hotels, and we ate when we could.

I've been here 21 years, and I literally did walk up and down Music Row trying to break into the business. I felt very free to go into any publishing company.

Obviously I love Nashville, I love Tennessee. It's a great organization to play for.

I love Nashville. It's such a great town, and I'm a huge country music fan. That's what I listen to on the radio in the car.

Growing up in Nashville, especially in a music business family, means growing up with knowledge that seems like common sense until later in life when you realize people spend thousands of dollars a semester trying to learn or pretending to learn while looking for some intern job on music row.

After 'Mosaic,' I think a lot of people didn't know what my next record was going to be. And that's what I love. I just love doing music because I'm not going to follow the patterns and formulas of Music Row.

It's a very smart, progressive bunch, these people that make country music. They're not country hicks sitting behind a desk with a big cigar giving out record deals and driving round in Cadillacs with cattle horns on the front grille: it's a bunch of really wonderful, open-minded, great people down on Music Row that make this music.

I wanted to live in Nashville. I wanted to sing country.

Have I felt misunderstood by Music Row at times? Of course.

Music Row gets dragged through the dirt, but they're just trying to survive.

I fell in love with Nashville. I got lots of work.

I naively thought I had to go door to door, find somebody who could record me singing some songs. I didn't know Music Row, I didn't know anything! So after six or seven months, I went back home and went to college.

Nashville's been like my second home.