Nashville Songwriters

The songwriters who created some of country music’s greatest hits will perform live at DPAC in a benefit show on Friday, February 16, 2024, 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 sixth year hosting this annual Triangle event, which is organized by songwriter and area resident Jeff Outlaw.  These six top country songwriters, plus special guest Lee Brice 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:

When Curb Records recording artist, Lee Brice isn't selling out arenas, writing and recording songs, or building new brands like American Born whiskey, you'll find the family man with his wife Sara, two young boys, and daughter. Meanwhile, with over 3.7 billion on-demand streams, and over 4 billion spins on Pandora, Brice continues to enjoy massive success at country radio, digital streaming services, and on the road. He has reached the #1 spot at Country Radio with Platinum-selling “Memory I Don’t Mess With,” which consecutively follows three prior #1s: ASCAP’s 2021 Country Song of the Year and 3x Platinum track “One of Them Girls,” “I Hope You’re Happy Now” with Carly Pearce, and the 4x Platinum hit “Rumor,” which was nominated in the category Single of The Year at the 55th Annual ACM Awards. One of the most-played country artists of all time on Pandora, he was the second country artist behind Keith Urban to receive the Pandora Billionaire plaque.  Lee is also a GRAMMY nominee, a CMA and ACM award winner, and he's taken nine radio singles to Number One: "A Woman Like You," "Hard to Love," "I Drive Your Truck," "I Don’t Dance," "Drinking Class," “Rumor," “I Hope You’re Happy Now," “One of Them Girls,” and “Memory I Don’t Mess With.” Garth Brooks, Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney and others have recorded his songs, and he's performed on numerous TV shows, including NBC's Today, ABC's The Bachelor, NBC's The Voice and FOX's Miss USA 2018.  Lee performed as part of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song honoring Garth Brooks, aired on PBS March of 2020. At the 54th Annual CMA Awards, Lee took home the prize for Musical Event of the Year for his song with Carly Pearce, "I Hope You're Happy Now." At the 56th ACM Awards, “I Hope You’re Happy Now” won Single of the Year and Music Event of the Year, and Lee and Carly Pearce performed the song live.  Lee’s latest album, Hey World, has been certified Platinum and features current radio single "Save the Roses” which has amassed 19 million on-demand streams to date.

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.

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.

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.

Deric Ruttan is a Grammy-nominated, Nashville-based singer/songwriter and a Canadian country music artist.  The writer of multiple #1 country songs, Deric has had over 90 songs recorded by other artists, including cuts by Blake Shelton, Jason Aldean, Eric Church, Tim McGraw, Dierks Bentley, Darius Rucker, Justin Moore, and David Nail to name a few.  Bentley’s chart-toppers “What Was I Thinkin;”, (Billboard #1), and “Lot of Leavin’ Left to Do” (Radio & Records #2) are Ruttan co-writes, as are the Eric Church hits, “Guys Like Me” and “Hell On The Heart” (Mediabase #8).  In November 2013, Deric celebrated a multi-week #1 when “Mine Would Be You,” recorded by country superstar and The Voice judge Blake Shelton, was a three-week number one (Billboard) for the artist.  “Mine Would Be You” was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Country Song, and an ACM Award for Song of the Year.  In 2016, Deric celebrated his second Blake Shelton #1 hit with the introspective “Came Here to Forget.”  In 2017, Country music superstar, Jason Aldean took Deric’s song “Any Ol’ Barstool” to the top of the Billboard and Mediabase charts to become the songwriter’s 4^th #1 country single, and in 2020, “Die From A Broken Heart,” by Mercury Nashville duo Maddie & Tae, climbed the charts to become Deric’s 5^th #1 song. 

Jessi Alexander has written four #1 songs, including “I Drive Your Truck,” recorded by Lee Brice and winner of Song of the Year at the 2013 CMA Awards, 2013 NSAI Awards, and 2014 ACM Awards. A few of her other hits include Blake Shelton’s “Mine Would Be You” and “Drink On It.” Alexander also co-wrote Miley Cyrus’s “The Climb,” which topped the charts and won Best Song from a Movie at the 2009 MTV Movie Awards.

David Lee Murphy has written over 30 charting country singles and as well as #1 songs including “Til It’s Gone” by Kenny Chesney, “Anywhere With You” by Jake Owen, “The Only Way I Know” by Jason Aldean, “Hell Yeah, I Like Beer” by Kevin Fowler, “Live a Little” by Kenny Chesney, “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not” by Thompson Square, “Big Green Tractor” by Jason Aldean, and “Living In Fast Forward” by Kenny Chesney. Murphy not only writes for some of the biggest names in country music, he released an album “No Zip Code” produced by Buddy Cannon and Kenny Chesney with many popular songs including the number one hit single and duet with Kenny Chesney, “Everything is Gonna Be Alright.”  Murphy, who’s songs “Dust on the Bottle” and “Party Crowd” continue to be staples at country radio.