Matt Jenkins

Not long ago, a recent high school basketball star, crazy about country music, was in Nashville with his father. It was six o'clock in the morning and they were sitting in their hotel room, dreaming. The reason they were in town had nothing to do with sports and everything to do with country music. The recent basketball star had grown up singing and playing guitar in the small theaters of the Texas “Opry” circuit and had immersed himself in the country music his father always had written and performed. That morning, they were contemplating listings in the Yellow Pages under the heading “Song Publishers.”