Brett James

Brett James Cornelius (born June 5, 1968 in Columbia, Missouri) is a Grammy Award-winning American country music singer, songwriter and record producer. Originally signed to Career Records (a division of Arista Nashville) as a solo artist in 1995, James charted three singles on the country music charts and released a self-titled debut album that year. After taking time off to raise a family, he returned to Arista as a recording artist in 2002, releasing two more singles.

Since the early 2000s, James has become known primarily as a songwriter for other country and pop music artists. Among his compositions is Carrie Underwood's 2006 Number One hit "Jesus, Take the Wheel", which received Grammy Awards for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song. His writers' credits also include Number One hits for Jessica Andrews, Martina McBride, Kenny Chesney and Rodney Atkins.

Musical career

This section requires expansion with: More info on material that he's written.

Brettt James Cornelius was born June 5, 1968 in Columbia, Missouri. After leaving medical school in 1992, James began his musical career as a recording artist on Career Records, a subsidiary of Arista Nashville, in 1995. That year, he charted three minor singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts,^[3] in addition to releasing a self-titled debut album. Included on this album was "Wake Up and Smell the Whiskey", which was co-written and later released as a single by Dean Miller in 1997. An uncredited review from Allmusic gave Brett James three stars out of five, calling it "a hard-rocking set of original songs that owe a great debt to honky tonk and traditional country."^[4] Richard McVey II of Country Standard Time described the album as "pretty much your standard country record with average material and average vocals that leads to an average review of an average artist."^[5]

In addition, he appeared on two compilation albums that Arista Nashville issued. The first of these was 1996's Star of Wonder: A Country Christmas, on which he sang "White Christmas".^[6] The other was a country-gospel album entitled Peace in the Valley, to which he contributed a recording of "What a Friend We Have in Jesus". The latter album was also promoted via a special on The Nashville Network (TNN), now Spike.^[7] In 1998, James and Tammy Graham were both dropped from Career Records when it merged with Arista Nashville.^[8]

Return to musical career

After taking time off to raise his family, James attended University of Oklahoma medical school again until 2000.^[9] He returned to country music in 2002, writing singles for other artists, including the Number One hits "Who I Am" by Jessica Andrews and "Blessed" by Martina McBride.^[9] He had also been offered an opportunity to join the band Sixwire, but declined.^[10] Later in 2002, he signed again to Arista Nashville, releasing two singles of his own, entitled "Chasin' Amy" and "After All". Both songs reached Top 40 on the country charts, but neither was included on an album.^[11]

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.^[12] Non-country artists who have recorded his works include The Backstreet Boys, Bon Jovi and Paulina Rubio.

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,^[13] a re-release of Taylor Swift's self-titled debut album, and Jessica Simpson's Do You Know.

Songs written by Brett James

James' songwriting credits include six Number One hits: "Blessed" by Martina McBride, "Who I Am" by Jessica Andrews, "When the Sun Goes Down" and "Out Last Night" by Kenny Chesney, "Jesus, Take the Wheel" by Carrie Underwood and "It's America" by Rodney Atkins. Besides these, he has co-written several other Top Ten country hits, including cuts by Rascal Flatts, Josh Gracin, Sara Evans, Tim McGraw and others.

Discography

Brett James (1995)

Brett James
Studio album by Brett James
Released	September 12, 1995 (1995-09-12)
Genre	Country
Length	37:59
Label	Career #18789
Producer	Steve Bogard, Mike Clute
Professional reviews
Allmusic - [4] Country Standard Time – mixed[5]

Track listing

All songs written by Brett James except where noted.

1. "Wake Up and Smell the Whiskey" (Brett James, Dean Miller) – 2:52
2. "Many Tears Ago" (James, Hunter Armistead) – 3:53
3. "Worth the Fall" - 3:00
4. "She's Killin' Me" (James, Jennifer Kimball) – 4:04
5. "If I Could See Love" (James, Steve Bogard) – 3:02
6. "Female Bonding" – 3:18
7. "Dark Side of the Moon" – 4:12
8. "Just Like We Never Happened" – 3:28
9. "Thrill of the Chase" – 2:43
10. "The Way That You Love" – 3:50
11. "Enjoy the Ride" – 3:37

Personnel

• Bruce Bouton – steel guitar
• Paul Franklin – steel guitar
• Rob Hajacos – fiddle
• Dann Huff – electric guitar
• Jeff King – electric guitar
• Chris Leuzinger – electric guitar
• Chris Rodriguez – background vocals
• Matt Rollings – piano
• John Wesley Ryles – background vocals
• Judson Spence – background vocals
• Biff Watson – acoustic guitar
• Dennis Wilson – background vocals
• Lonnie Wilson – drums
• Glenn Worf – bass guitar

Singles

References

External links

• Brett James at MySpace