On the Cover – Phil Vassar

June/July 2008 – June/July 2008—Music Row Awards

Label: Universal Records South
Booking: Creative Artists Agency
Management: GHM Entertainment/Red Light Mgmt.
Producers: Phil Vassar, Mark Wright
Current Single: “Love is a Beautiful Thing”
Current Album: Prayer of a Common Man
Current Video: “Love is a Beautiful Thing”

Interesting Facts: Attended James Madison University on a track scholarship
Awards: Named ASCAP’s songwriter or writer/artist of the year multiple times, Academy of Country Music Top New Male Vocalist of the Year, Music Row Magazine Breakthrough Artist of the Year
Hits: “Love is a Beautiful Thing,” “Last Day Of My Life”

Phil Vassar took his seat as country music’s leading piano man with the hit songs like “Just Another Day In Paradise” and “Six-Pack Summer.” Now with a new label home and a new album, Vassar is poised for continued success. “Love Is A Beautiful Thing,” the lead single from his latest, Prayer of a Common Man, reached No. 1 on the Music Row CountryBreakout™ Chart. “It reminds me of growing up back home in Virginia,” he says of the song written by Craig Wiseman and Jeffrey Steele. “It really paints a portrait of Americana.”

“I can look back on songs I’ve written, kind of smile and remember what I was going through at the time,” Vassar says. “But it’s a different life for me now. Experience changes you and affects what comes out in your writing.” Indeed, some songs on his new project are more introspective and personal, as “This Is My Life” and the title track can attest.

Hard work paid off for Vassar, first as a songwriter. He scored hits with Alan Jackson (“Right On The Money”), Tim McGraw (“For A Little While”), Jo Dee Messina (“Bye Bye,” “I’m Alright”) and BlackHawk (“Postmarked Birmingham”). After his self-titled artist debut bowed in 2000 on Arista Nashville, the hits continued to pile up: “Carlene,” “American Child,” “Just Another Day In Paradise,” “In A Real Love” and more.

His early success as a writer led to the 2006 release of one of the most unique hits packages to come out of Nashville in recent years. With only three studio albums under his belt, Vassar offered up Greatest Hits Vol. 1, which was split between hits he’s had as an artist, as well as new recordings of the smash singles he’d written for others.

The release closed a chapter for Vassar, with Prayer Of A Common Man opening another. Co-produced with Universal South President and noted producer Mark Wright (Gretchen Wilson, Brooks & Dunn, Lee Ann Womack), the new album may show Vassar’s serious side, but he hasn’t forgotten how to have fun. “My Chevrolet,” “Why Don’t Ya” and “Baby Rocks” rank among his best toe-tappers and are already getting warm receptions at his heralded live shows.