Scotty McCreery celebrated his sixth chart-topper “Cab In A Solo” on Wednesday at BMI in Nashville with co-writer Brent Anderson, co-writer and producer Frank Rogers, and producer Derek Wells.
“Cab In A Solo” is a traditional country song detailing a heartbroken man drinking cabernet wine from a solo cup alone in the cab of his truck.
While the song is sad, its genesis was more festive. McCreery hosted a songwriters’ retreat in the North Carolina mountains at his home. Rogers and Anderson got together before the trip to work on some ideas.
“We were just trying to get just some nuggets of things that it might be interesting,” Rogers said. “We started this with a groove.”
Anderson said he started playing some chords that he wanted to write a song to, and Rogers agreed.
Then they started throwing out titles. Someone said something that led to the idea of “Cab In a Solo.”
“Cab In A Solo” Started with Mumbling
“We started mumbling stuff, and we started working on some lines,” Rogers said. “All of a sudden, Brent, he’s playing, and we’re working around the lines, and he goes, ‘Hold on.’ He just starts laughing. I’m like, ‘Why? What?’ And he came out with that. Well, there it is.”
Then they joined McCreery on his North Carolina porch to knock out some lyrics.
“I had an idea of what I was looking for on the record,” McCreery said at BMI. “These guys came in with ideas that were just out of this world. ‘Cab’ was one of those that we all freaked out. It was one of the first ones we wrote. We knew it was special right there on the back porch.”
McCreery admitted he didn’t know what the song was about the first time Rogers and Anderson shared the title, but he was intrigued.
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“I think some of the greatest country songs are the ones that made you tune into the lyrics that make you listen and the twist of words and stuff,” he said. “The second time, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we need to get out there and write this immediately.’ I think that’s the strength of country music, is those stories.”
McCreery said they weren’t drinking red wine when they wrote it. Rogers jumped in to exclaim that might be an aggressive elixir to have at noon. The group chose beer instead because they had more songs to write throughout the day.
Rogers said they had shifted to red wine by that night when the three of them, along with Derek George and Monty Criswell, wrote McCreery’s current single “Fall of Summer.”
Scotty McCreery Drank Beer Writing About Red Wine
“It was a very fun write,” McCreery said of “Fall of Summer.” “I just feel like (the writers’ retreat) takes you, your brain, to a different creative space other than an 11 a.m. at the office kind of write every day. ‘Fall of Summer’ was one we all sat around talking about ideas and who wants to write different things, and every single person wanted in on that song. We were all just laughing our way through because we were like, ‘Oh man, this feels so good.’ We were kind of going around writing different songs in different rooms, but everybody wants to be together on this.”
McCreery started his country music career when he won “American Idol” as a teenager. Now, he’s 30 and married with a son of his own. Rogers has produced McCreery since he was 19. Watching him mature and his music grow with him has been rewarding for the seasoned veteran.
“It was just meeting this kid, and it was like, ‘Okay, great singer, but what do we sing about?’” Rogers recalls. “He is like, ‘Well, we can do love songs, but no sexy kind of thing.’ And it’s like, ‘Okay, there’s no alcohol. There’s no party. There’s none of it.’ And so it was, ‘Here’s what works and what doesn’t. It’s honest to him.’”
By the next record they made together, McCreery was in college, and the sphere of what they could creatively cover expanded to include college life. He was married by the next album and had a son for his current collection, Rise & Fall.
“It Took a Lot For Me to Get to This Place”
“My job as a producer and a co-writer is really to get a snapshot of where he is at that moment in time,” Rogers said. “I put it in a package that people can digest and sing along to. Most artists by and fourth record, ‘What else are we going to sing about?’ And by Scotty’s fourth record, he’s like, ‘Cool, we have a whole new world to sing about because he has just progressed so much.’ It’s been one of the most unique experiences from a producer side because we never run out of material.”
Following the pre-party chat, McCreery and his co-writers gathered in BMI’s expansive lobby to celebrate the song’s success with their families, friends, and Music Row executives.
BMI’s MaryAnn Keen emceed the event for BMI and ASCAP and surprised the new Grand Ole Opry member with seven BMI Million-Air Awards during the event. The recognition is given to songwriters whose works have surpassed 1 million broadcast performances on U.S. radio. McCreery’s hits have garnered over 11 million radio airplay.
“It took a lot for me to get to this place,” McCreery said. Ever since ‘Five More Minutes,’ we’ve been on a role, and it feels good. It feels very fulfilling. My fans have stuck by my side since before the first No. 1, and it’s just grown since then. It takes a village to get to this point.”
Photo by Danielle Del Valle/Getty Images
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