“You’ve seen everything.” I sighed and felt my shoulders slumping forward. “I’ve been trying to work on some new stuff, but I don’t have a complete song yet.”
“We could try to get some songwriters in here to work on some stuff for you, but it won’t be your voice. People want the heart
broken girl that was sitting on the edge of her bed. They don’t want the product we’ve tried to create.” He pointed at the surveys. “That tells the whole story.”
“Maybe they just liked hearing it for free and they don’t want to pay for it.” I sighed again. “Or maybe I’m just a one-hit wonder without an actual hit.”
“No, I’m not ready to give up quite yet.” He shook his head back and forth. “Let’s bring in some songwriters to record some stuff in the interim, and you keep writing. Maybe we’ll find a hit somewhere in between.”
“Okay.” I nodded and shrugged. “Whatever you think is best, you’re the expert.”
I said my goodbyes to Sawyer and called my parents as soon as I walked into the lobby. I tried to keep them updated, even when things weren’t going great. They were supportive and wished me the best, even if they didn’t exactly like the fact I gave up on school to move to Nashville. It was nice not being a complete leech, but the modest signing bonus I got wasn’t going to pay the bills forever. I had already been forced to take a retail job on the side to stretch the money out. Luckily, I had a lot of experience moving merchandise, so it was an easy job. I finished up the conversation with my parents, told them that I missed seeing them, and then headed towards my car. When I got close to the door, it opened and a man walked in wearing a cowboy hat and a tight flannel shirt.
“Well howdy, miss.” He spoke with an accent that would have made a Texan jealous and flashed a smile that made my stomach churn—in a good way.
“Hey, don’t I know you?” I tilted my head to the side.
“You might.” He nodded and kept the smile plastered on his face. “I’m Brendan Tanner.”
“Oh my god!” I almost jumped, and my eyes got wide with surprise. “You sing that new song I love—Barstools at Midnight!”
“Yeah.” He chuckled. “That’s me.”
“Does Sawyer represent you?” I looked over my shoulder towards Sawyer’s office and back to Brendan.
“Yeah.” He nodded again. “Are you a singer too?”
“I am.” I extended my hand. “I’m Lauren Williams.”
“Oh yeah…” He took my hand and narrowed his eyes. “The YouTube girl.”
“Yeah.” I felt the smile drain from my face. “That’s me.”
“Well hey, if Sawyer represents us both, maybe I’ll see you around.” He brought my hand to his lips and lightly kissed my second knuckle.
Brendan walked towards Sawyer’s office and I felt my head spin. He was absolutely gorgeous underneath his Stetson hat. I had seen his face on my satellite radio when his song played, but it barely did him justice. He was easily six foot seven with muscles that his shirt could barely contain. I really liked his new song. It made me want to visit a bar in the late hours of the night and fall in love. It was similar to a lot of other songs that tried to mix the old style twang of country legends with the upbeat new style that had become popular, but his way of doing it was amazing. I couldn’t believe Sawyer represented us both.
Meeting Brandon filled me with a little bit of hope. I drove to the studio, but instead of sitting down behind the microphone, I started writing a new song. It didn’t have a title yet, but the first thing that popped in my head was His Stetson Hat. Over the course of several hours, I wrote a love ballad that I was proud of, and by the time it was done, I had practically named our babies. I read through it and started to get nervous. I really didn’t want Brendan to think I was some sort of obsessed fan that wrote a love ballad about our first meeting. I tucked the song into my notebook and looked at my watch.
Crap, I’m going to be late for my shift.
There was something about meeting Brendan that inspired me. Knowing that he was a new artist signed with the same agent that brought me to Nashville filled me with hope. Brendan had already started to get notoriety and he was probably going to win the Rising Star Award later in the year if the articles I read were right. I wrote several more songs over the next few weeks and started recording them. I felt like I finally had the foundation for my album in place. The only thing that was missing was a radio single. None of the new songs I wrote compared to the one tucked away in my notebook, so when Sawyer came to the studio, I pulled it out and started singing. When the last line of His Stetson Hat was sung, I looked up and saw a smile on Sawyer’s face.
“Wow, that’s really good.” Sawyer pushed open the door of the soundproof studio and shook his head in disbelief. “When did you write that?”
“A few weeks ago.” I smiled and nodded. “I’ve been working it out in my head since then.”
“Well, Ms. Williams.” His smile got wider. “I think we’ve found the follow up to Shattered Heart. It’s got a new feeling to it and I think the audience will connect. There’s one thing missing, though…”
“What’s that?” I blinked in surprise and stared at him.
“Let me think on it, but I’ve got an idea. Come see me tomorrow.” He walked back towards the door. “Don’t change anything. The song is perfect, but we need to figure out the right marketing to make it into a hit.”
I recorded a few more cuts of His Stetson Hat to make sure we had some options to go with. I played guitar, but they would mix it with drums, bass, and a few other various instruments to make it sound right. I hoped the produced version wouldn’t take too much away from what I had recorded. That seemed to be the problem with the professional version of Shattered Heart. It just wasn’t gritty enough once they added all the background noise.
The next day, I headed to see Sawyer. I wasn’t sure what he had in mind, but I was eager to find out. If he could get the song on the radio and people liked it, then there was a good chance that I would be well on my way to a successful career in country music.
“Welcome!” Sawyer stood and motioned for me to enter his office when I arrived. “Please, have a seat.”