Before songwriter Phil Vassar hit pay dirt with No. 1 country hits "I'm Alright" and "Bye Bye" for Jo Dee Messina, he couldn't get a recording contract.
"I shopped around a demo I had made of 'Right On the Money' and 'For a Little While' (big hits for Alan Jackson and Tim McGraw, respectively), but no one would give me the time of day," Vassar said with a laugh. "Now, well, it's different."
Vassar, one of Nashville's most celebrated songwriters, will be one of the guests on Kenny Chesney's "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems" tour, which will make a stop in the Delta Center on Wednesday, June 5. Show time is 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available through all Ticketmaster outlets or by calling 325-SEAT or online at www.ticketmaster.com. Other artists on the bill include Montgomery Gentry, Jamie O'Neal and, of course, Chesney.
"I didn't know songwriting was an option, growing up," Vassar said during a telephone interview from Phoenix. "I did a lot of sports in high school. And I majored in business administration in college. Then songwriting snuck in and took me hostage."
At first, Vassar didn't know what to do about his newfound obsession. "All I knew was that I just had to write songs."
Raised in Lynchburg, Va., Vassar moved to Nashville in 1990 and, after six years of trying to make ends meet, he found a regular songwriting gig with EMI Music Publishing. That's when the hits started to roll in. Besides "Right On the Money" and "For a Little While," Blackhawk's "Postmarked Birmingham" and Collin Raye's "Little Red Rodeo" hit it big.
In 1999, Vassar was named ASCAP's Country Songwriter of the Year, and in 2000 he finally snagged a recording contract with Arista and hit the charts himself with the hit "Carlene" from his self-titled debut album. His current hit, "That's When I Love You," rests at No. 11 on Billboard's country singles chart.
Although Vassar is on his own, he still writes and produces. In fact, one of his projects has some Utah ties. "Kenny Rogers called me and said he knew a group of boys that sounded pretty good," Vassar said. "I told him I'd be happy to help them out."
That group was the up-and-coming country quintet Marshall Dyllon — featuring Bountiful's own Daniel Cahoon. "They're a bunch of good kids," said Vassar. "And they're hard workers."
Vassar's production of Marshall Dyllon's "Live It Up" was spotlighted on "Salt Lake 2002: Light Up the Land," a commemorative album for the 2002 Winter Olympics. "It was an honor for all of us to be asked to be represented on that album," Vassar said.
Currently, Vassar is helping country-parody artist Cledus T. Judd on his new album, and Vassar is looking forward to releasing an album of his own, "American Child." The title track is now in heavy rotation on CMT.
Vassar also won an award as Top New Male Vocalist from the Academy of Country Music a couple of weeks ago. "The ACM award was the payoff," he said. "I'm living my dream. And I just want to keep pushing myself."
E-mail: scott@desnews.com