| OCCHS grad earns songwriting nomination |
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Posted: Monday, October 29, 2012 9:02 pm
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By KEVIN BOWDEN
Staff Reporter
Phillip Coleman’s career as a songwriter has gone from relative obscurity to country music’s mainstream in the past year, ever since his song “Cost of Livin’” became a major hit for Ronnie Dunn.
Now, Coleman’s song about America’s blue collar workers is up for Song of the Year at the upcoming Third Annual American Country Awards show scheduled to air live Dec. 10 from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.
The video for the song captures the aftermath of the shutdown of the local Goodyear tire plant.
Coleman, son of Kenneth and Carolyn Coleman, told The Messenger Friday the nomination “is a real honor.”
He found out about his song’s nomination through a text message, which came as quite a surprise for the Nashville songwriter.
The Song of the Year category has been added as a new category this year “in an effort to pay tribute not only to country music’s top performers, but to its top songwriters, as well,” a news release states.
Coleman is a native of Obion County and a 1983 graduate of Obion County Central High School. He moved to Nashville in 1995 to pursue his career as a country music songwriter.
He married fellow songwriter Catt Gravitt in 2008 and she will be joining her husband in Las Vegas for the awards show.
She is a co-writer for two songs up for major awards at the Las Vegas awards show. She co-wrote Jake Owen’s song “Alone With You,” which is up for Single of the Year by a Breakthrough Artist and she co-wrote the Jana Kramer hit “Why Ya Wanna,” which will be up for Single of the Year by a New Artist.
Owen’s song is in the running for the single award with Lee Brice’s “A Woman Like You.” Brice has performed locally numerous times for charity fund raisers.
She has penned songs for a number of country music artists, including Natalie Grant, Martina McBride, Kenny Rogers, Ronnie Milsap, Rascal Flatts, Trace Adkins, JoDee Messina, Kelly Clarkson, Sons of Sylvia and Craig Morgan.
For the upcoming American Country Awards show, Luke Bryan leads all artists with seven nominations, followed by Lady Antebellum and the Zac Brown Band with six nominations each.
Country music fans can cast their vote once a day for their favorite American Country Awards nominees by going online to www.theacas.com/song.aspx. Voting will continue until Nov. 12 for all categories except for Artist of the Year, which closes Dec. 7.
The awards show is being billed as the show for the next generation of country music fans. It will be co-hosted by Emmy and Tony Award winner Kristin Chenoweth and Adkins, a multi-platinum recording artist.
Coleman said he left his job at Fed Ex earlier this year in order to pursue his passion as a songwriter. His wife is also working full-time on songwriting these days.
He explained it was a real honor just to be among the 10 nominees for Song of the Year, since the nominees were chosen by his fellow songwriters. These songwriters select the top 10 “Songs I Wish I’d Written” for their annual Songwriter Hall of Fame Awards. The list of 10 nominees in the category will be narrowed down to five nominees for the award show.
“I don’t expect to win,” a humble Coleman told The Messenger.
However, he did say his hit song has opened some doors and that he and his wife are enjoying their successes as songwriters.
“I’m getting more recognition now in Nashville,” said the songwriter, who also has a song — “All Kinds of Kinds” — on country superstar Miranda Lambert’s latest album.
Staff Reporter Kevin Bowden may be contacted by email at kmbowden@ucmessenger.com.
Published in The Messenger 10.29.12 |
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