Early one morning and a coupla weeks back I get a text from Shane McAnally making sure that I was invited to his #1 party for his Kenny Chesney single “Somewhere With You” (with co-writer J.T. Harding). Not sure why seeing as he and I have never been real, real close but I’d really admired him for years as being a great talent and person. He and Erin Enderlin (brilliant writer that I worked with at UMPG and who I’d met him through) used to write some of my favorite songs together. I mean some REALLY great one’s including Lee Ann Womack’s single “Last Call”. I was SO honored that he went out of his way in reaching out, regardless. I say this knowing I'm nowhere NEAR this kind and thoughtful.
About this song and situation, his publisher Robin Palmer pitched the song directly to Kenny at a gathering held in this very same room of the #1 party at the Cabana Lounge (in Nashville,TN). The song had been pitched multiple times to other people in hopes that they would get it to Kenny (Record label, management, etc..). None thought that it was right for Kenny. Go figure, it was different and that’s what drew Kenny to the song (it’s not an exact science as you can tell). Anyways, I’m embarrassed and it’s horrible to admit that to me many #1 parties have just run together over the past 23+ years. THIS one will not. Kenny humbly did not talk much, he left it up to Shane and J.T.. You see Shane has been working at this for about 20 years and this is his first “big hit”. In the process, Shane has had his own record deal on Curb, lived in L.A., lost his house and after all of that he’d said that he was sitting at a stop light one day in L.A. and thinking to himself “if I could just get a song to Chesney this could all change”. Shane says “I swear I’m not bullshitting you, Kenny” (I’m horribly paraphrasing here but you get the gist). Well, he did and it did. He’s “been on a roll” as of late since I’d left for my blogging journey last Summer (Reba & Luke Bryan cuts and more). Fightin through the tears, Shane went on to thank his huge amount of friends that were there, his family and the woman who’d paid for Shane’s recording of the song. It cost her 60 something dollars for Shane to do a simple little demo and that ended up being what Kenny had heard and fell in love with.
From the publishing seat that I was sitting in over 17 years at Universal, I’d determined that drive, focus and even true talent gets you only so far. It’s having a “high threshold of pain” that separates the successful artists and writers from the rest. In an interview with Marcus Hummon a coupla years back (‘Cowboy Take Me Away”-Dixie Chicks, “One of These Days”-McGraw, “Born To Fly”-Sara Evans) he told me that you (writers) should look at it as “taking a vow of poverty” in being a writer or an artist. Him coming from a seminary background and also in living with the amazing minister/social worker Becca Stevens, tells me that he “knows (a little) of what he speaks”. Congrats Shane and my sincere wishes that you have many, many more, S
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