Entertainment Entrepreneurship

with special guest, Brett James

Friday, April 12 | 10am | Lila Bunch Multimedia Room

From pursuing an artist career, to med school, back to songwriting, producing, establishing his own publishing company, and now investing in a restaurant and venue in SoBro, come hear about Brett James’ journey as a creative entrepreneur.

Brett’s songwriting/producing highlights:

He began writing singles for other artists in the early 2000s, including the Number One hits “Who I Am” by Jessica Andrews and “Blessed” by Martina McBride.

He continued to write for other artists, with two more of his co-writes topping the charts: “When the Sun Goes Down” by Kenny Chesney and Uncle Kracker, and “Jesus, Take the Wheel” by Carrie Underwood, in 2004 and 2006 respectively. “Jesus, Take the Wheel” also won a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song, the latter of which was awarded to James and the song’s other two songwriters. Rodney Atkins’ “It’s America”, Chesney’s “Out Last Night” and Carrie Underwood’s “Cowboy Casanova”, all co-written by James, also topped the country charts in 2009. In 2010 James charted number one with Jason Aldean’s “The Truth” and Chris Young’s “The Man I Want to Be”. ASCAP named James their country songwriter of the year in 2006 and again in 2010. Non-country artists who have recorded his works include Kelly Clarkson, Backstreet Boys, Bon Jovi (although Bon Jovi once reached number one on the Billboard Country Songs chart) and Paulina Rubio. James also co-wrote American Idol season 10 winner Scotty McCreery’s debut single “I Love You This Big”.

In 2008, James also began working as a record producer, with his production credits including Gracin’s We Weren’t Crazy, Kristy Lee Cook’s Why Wait, a re-release of Taylor Swift’s self-titled debut album, Jessica Simpson’s Do You Know and Kip Moore’s Up All Night.