Great writer of "grown men don't cry" .!

But since it's already been a number 1 hit by Tim McGraw... I just thought the contest was for songs that weren't already cut by a major artist (?)

Redwriter,

Actually we accept any song from any member. In the case of Steves song, we nominated it off his solo singer songwriter album and it was submitted to us before it was cut. The same thing happened back in 1998 when we got Susan Gibson's Wide Open Spaces before it was cut by the Dixie Chicks and it won Song of the Year after it had been released and became a hit.

We don't discriminate against any music for any reason, it all gets equal treatment whether your famous and success of just starting and unknown. This year we have several #1 artist/writers involved in the nominations right alongside entry level folks just getting started but who hit a home run on one of their songs. Isn't that the way it should be?

Ironically, I personally wasn't aware that Steve's song had been a hit even AFTER it was a hit for Tim Mcgraw. I had heard Steve play the song live at some of our shows and that was my only exposure to it. Steve also has another song he co-wrote that is nominated in the New Folk genre that hasn't been cut by anyone. And I got a great song from his this year called "Pictures" that has since been cut by John Michael Montgomery and will soon be a single. But it doesn't mean that song shouldn't get recognition next year if it rises to the top of the heap again.

Thanks for the feedback and the very legit question. I hope I have addressed it.

Brian

Thanks for clearing that up. Grown Men Don't Cry actually debuted on the charts 3/24/01.

Best of luck to all the writers (including Steve). (smile)