This song was the cornerstone of the album. Billy sent it to me at the end of 2006 as an example of some of the things he had been doing in the studio. I liked it right away, and as I kept listening I fell in love with the song. The writer is a really talented young artist, Shaun Barker. We spent weeks working on a demo and used it to sell the whole idea for the album.

This is a new song from an upcoming musical of AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN. I didn't want to have anything from the Broadway world on this album, but we heard the pop song in this one. We asked for another verse and played with the timing a little and created a perfect little country/pop song that sounds like it's been around for years.

I have been holding on to this original song for a few years now. I did perform it some in the beginning, but the arrangement was never right. It's tricky. But when I decided to do a pop/country album, suddenly the arrangement came together and the song came "home." I love it.

"If I Could"

I have been singing this song for a while now and it never fails to get me emotional. I can also hear the audience reacting. It's just a tear jerker no matter how you slice it. This arrangement is a little different to help it fit the format of the record, but I sing it basically the same. I have gotten a lot of e-mails from people asking for this one.

This was my original title track. I thought it fit the way I feel about my life right now. I have had sort of a rebirth. I changed a lot of things, and I've changed in many ways over the last four years. I'm a different person and I like where I am. I've been helped by Craig and I've been helped by this music. I don't feel afraid to be the real me. I'm not afraid that it's not good enough or big enough. It's just honest.

"The Other Side Of Me"
This was not the original title track, but as the months went on I thought it just fit. I really am showing people a different side of my music. I've hinted at it on past albums but never stripped down to the bare bones before. So this track just felt right.

I wanted to write something for the album so I came up with this song. I also wanted something a little harder edged on the record and after I played the song for Billy the first time, he suggested we make this the "grunge track." So I threw out my original verse and wrote a new one to fit the funky grove that Duke Levine created on the guitar. Billy was just goofing on the rap section when we were tracking ideas at his studio, but I thought it fit so I wrote him some words to rap instead of the "eating chicken fried rice and broccoli" gibberish he had originally said. We have kept that version in the vault for our own fun, however.

I found this song on Shaun Barker's album. I thought it would fit our format. I pushed this one the most country by asking for the banjo to kick it off. Billy does an amazing piano solo in the break, and we all had a ball singing the out choruses. It's just a good old time!

I had the idea to do this song as a duet in the show I do with Michael, and I also sing it with Clint in my regular show. We adapted it yet again for this album by taking the key up. In much of the song I duet with myself, but there is also a lot of Shaun Barker singing with me. I think it's a really cool arrangement.

This one is for our kids. It has a beautiful simple message and we got our little people involved. Billy's six-year-old stepdaughter and his one-year-old daughter and my eight-year-old son helped us out at the end. It took some coaxing and effort, but you hear each one sing a phrase in the last few measures ending with the adorable giggle.

I think this song has beautiful poetry. I had never heard it before and was really surprised by how great it is. It's not easy to make fine poetry sing in a pop format without sounding too precious. This one walks the line really well.

Billy and Shaun wrote this song for the record and it is one of my favorites. It took the efforts of all three of us to massage it into the right shape, but I love how it turned out. There were music changes, several lyric changes, pushing, prodding, coaxing, tweaking, and I think the end result has a bit of a Fleetwood Mac vibe. Love it!