Nashville Songwriters

The Stories Behind Nashville's Biggest Hits

The songwriters who created some of country music’s greatest hits will perform live at DPAC in a benefit show on Friday, February 21, 2025, presented by Loud Lemon and 94.7 QDR. At Nashville Songwriters at DPAC, the writers behind dozens of #1 country hits bring their songs and stories to DPAC to help benefit Loud Lemon Foundation.

This is DPAC’s seventh year hosting this annual Triangle event, which is organized by songwriter and area resident Jeff Outlaw.  These seven top country songwriters will sing their hits and share their stories, bringing fans closer to the creative process that has produced some of the biggest hits in country music:

Jeff Outlaw is a published songwriter of fourteen years and signed a worldwide publishing deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing.  In addition to collaborating with many of the artists participating in this show, Jeff has worked with Phil Vassar, Troy Cartwright, Matt Nathanson, John Legend, Plain White T’s, Kip Moore, Drake White, and Brothers Osborne.  His hits include “She’s On Her Way” by Phil Vassar and “Still Ain’t Made It Home” by Casey Donahew. He has created numerous video treatments for music videos with Vassar and served as Creative Advisor for Vassar’s popular show, Songs from the Cellar.

Tim Nichols, with nearly two dozen smash hits, multiple BMI songwriting awards, a Grammy for Best Country Song, as well as being inducted into the Nashville Songwriter Hall of Fame in 2017, Tim Nichols has earned his place among Nashville's most elite and respected tunesmiths.  Tim Nichols wrote the multiple award-winning song “Live Like You Were Dying” by Tim McGraw.  It is the only song to have won every major song award that is presented for country music.  Other Nichols’ hits helped launch the careers of Jo Dee Messina’s “Heads Carolina, Tails California” and Dustin Lynch’s “Cowboys and Angels”.  Chris Young stayed at the top of the charts for 3 weeks with the Nichols composition, “The Man I Want To Be.” More recently, Cole Swindell put a new twist on the Jo Dee Messina, Heads Carolina classic by staying at the top of the country charts for 5 weeks and winning the 2023 Academy of Country Music Song of the Year Award with “She Had Me At Heads Carolina.”  He has also collaborated with artists like Alan Jackson, Reba McEntire, Keith Whitley, and Lee Ann Womack, to name a few.

Jimmy Yeary began his music career singing in churches with his family, playing more than 200 dates a year singing Southern gospel music. In 1994 Jimmy moved to Nashville, where songwriting became his main focus. He began writing for Skyline Music Publishing and later signed with THiS Music. He co-wrote “I Drive Your Truck” with Jessi Alexander and Connie Harrington, and other top hits include “Everything is Gonna be Alright” by David Lee Murphy with Kenny Chesney, “Anywhere With You” by Jake Owen, and “Why Wait” by Rascal Flatts.

Wynn Varble began writing songs at age 15 and after years of performing in honkytonks & bars, Wynn decided to make the move to Nashville. His first radio single was “Fit To Be Tied Down” by Sammy Kershaw. Since then, Wynn has had many hits including three number ones…all three were nominated for “Song Of The Year” by the CMA or ACM and sometimes both. Wynn’s three number one songs are “Have You Forgotten” by Darryl Worley, “Waitin’ On A Woman” by Brad Paisley, and “I’m A Little More Country Than That” by Easton Corbin. In addition to his number ones, Wynn has had songs recorded by artists such as Garth Brooks, Cody Johnson, Jon Pardi, Trace Adkins, Mark Chesnutt, Willie Nelson, Kellie Pickler, Lee Ann Womack, and many others. In 2009, Wynn received the Nashville Songwriters Association’s Songwriter of the Year Award. He made his Grand Ole Opry Debut in 2011.

The Warren Brothers are an American songwriting duo who have written hits for several chart-topping country artists and rock bands. Brad and Brett Warren started as recording artists in their hometown of Tampa, Fla., before moving to Nashville. They were CMA nominees for Duo of the Year for six straight years and had Grammy nominations for Song of the Year and a CMA Song of the Year. Among their hits are “Highway Don’t Care” by Tim McGraw, “Red Solo Cup” by Toby Keith, and “Drink to That All Night” by Jerrod Niemann.

Monty Criswell is a two-time Grammy nominee for Country Song of The Year (“I Saw God Today” and “Just Fishin’) and won the CMA Single of the Year award in 2008 (”I Saw God Today”). In 2021, his Eric Church song “Hell Of A View” won the Music Row Awards Song of the Year award and received a CMA nomination for both song and single of the year. He is also an ACM, Dove, People’s Choice Awards and Canadian CMA nominee. His songs have been featured on ESPN, ABC, The SEC Network, Netflix, The Hallmark Channel and the hit tv series Yellowstone. Monty’s had over 300 songs recorded over the span of his 30-year career as a full-time songwriter, having at least one #1 in each of the last three decades. On the most recent Trace Adkins album, several of Monty’s songs include collaborations between Trace, Luke Bryan, Pit Bull, Keb Mo’, Stevie Wonder and Snoop Dogg. Hits include "Tough" (Craig Morgan), "Like Jesus Does,” “Hell of a View” (Eric Church), "I Saw God Today" (George Strait), “Loving Every Minute” (Mark Wills), "Just Fishin'" (Trace Adkins), "Five More Minutes,” “Fall of Summer” (Scotty McCreery), “Country’d Look Good On You” (Frank Ray), Making Me Look Good Again” (Drake White) and “Handle On You” (Parker McCollum) among others.

Catie Offerman may be a new name to country music fans, but she’s already gaining a reputation as one of the genre’s most skilled players and promising modern traditionalists and Nashville’s music community is responding. Originally from New Braunfels, Texas, Offerman grew up on a horse ranch. Home schooled by her father in the tack room of their barn, she gravitated towards music at a young age. Offerman started playing piano at the age of four which eventually led her to pursue other instruments such as violin, accordion and more. When she was 11, Offerman’s accordion teacher asked her to join their polka band where they traveled across Texas performing. Offerman graduated from Berklee College of Music at the age of 19 and signed her publishing deal with Universal Music Group Publishing about five years later. Offerman was featured in The Highwomen’s “Redesigning Women” video, inked her record deal with Universal Music Group in 2020. She was named Pandora’s Ones to Watch for 2023, included in CMT’s “Next Up” class of 2023 as well as being named CMT Next Women of Country. Offerman has spent most of 2023 on the road touring with Parker McCollum, Ian Munsick, and Tyler Hubbard. She’s performed att C2C Festival in London as well as dates with George Strait. In 2024 she went back out on the road with labelmate Parker McCollum's Burn It Down” tour.