Rhett Akins

By Dean Poling

VDT View — VALDOSTA — If you think you haven’t heard country star and Valdosta native Rhett Akins on the radio in while, you’d be wrong. And you’ll likely hear more Rhett Akins on the radio in the coming months.

However, you likely won’t hear even a whisper of his voice.

Akins wrote the Brooks & Dunn hit “Put a Girl in It.” Meanwhile, two of Akins’ songs are scheduled to play on Blake Shelton’s coming CD, two more on Joe Nichols’ album, a song on Jack Ingram’s CD, another for Rodney Atkins, one for Montgomery Gentry, one for Jake Owens.

In the last two years, Rhett Akins has concentrated on his songwriting. He spends part of every day writing lyrics, composing songs, and making those songs available for other musicians’ consideration.

“I have 10 to 11 songs coming out over the next several months,” Akins says in a recent phone interview. “It’s a long process. You write a song. You get it out there. You wait for the right person to hear it and then hope they record it. Then you wait for the album to come out. It can take two years from writing a song until the time it’s released.”

Akins knows the process from both sides.

A Lowndes High School graduate with family still living in the Valdosta area, Akins struck country gold with his first album, 1995’s “Thousand Memories.” This album propelled Akins to radio play with hits like “That Ain’t My Truck.” The early albums and songs kept him traveling non-stop, playing 200-300 shows a year.

This schedule left him little time for his South Georgia passions for hunting and fishing, a growing desire to spend more time with his wife and children, and working with his charity Country Goes Hunting.

Now, hits come figuratively and literally with successful songs discovered on the Internet. Internet tunes such as his “Kiss My Country Ass” have kept Akins popular with a younger generation of fans. Meanwhile, he spends weekends performing shows such as a series of concerts that include a performance in nearby Jasper, Fla.

Spending less time on the road and more time in the woods and with family, the majority of country-music time is committed to the discipline of songwriting. While he must sit down to literally write these songs, he can realize a song while waiting in a deer stand or sitting in a fishing boat.

Handing over a song to another singer didn’t come easy for the performer in Akins.

“It was tough giving them away at first,” Akins says. “But it’s a progression you make. ... It’s like being a football player who’s played for years and is ready to coach a little bit. I feel like Brett Favre.”

Hearing someone else sing his words has become a new career high.

“Now, it’s a thrill to hear someone else sing a song you wrote,” Akins says. “It’s a lot cooler hearing Brooks & Dunn, or Montgomery Gentry, or Blake Shelton sing my songs. If someone else wants to sing your songs, it must be good. ... You always know that your mama and yourself are going to like anything you write so for someone else to like it means it must be good.”

Songwriting keeps him relevant, too.

“A lot of guys who were big when I started in country music are gone,” Akins says. The Internet has kept his performing career relevant in college towns throughout the South. Songwriting keeps him working in Nashville.

Songwriting also gives him more to perform. As the guy who wrote “Put a Girl in It,” Akins can perform the song by simply saying, here’s a little something I wrote for Brooks & Dunn.

He can either perform his songs made famous by other musicians or not. He doesn’t have to perform them. He can sing them as the mood strikes. Unlike his biggest hit.

“If I didn’t play ‘That Ain’t My Truck,’ the audience would kill me.”



SHOWTIME

Rhett Akins returns close to home.

Where: Hamilton Jai Alai & Poker, Jasper, Fla.

When: Doors open 5:30 p.m., March 21, with a local band, 7 p.m.; Eric Durrance, 8 p.m.; Rhett Akins, 9:30 p.m.

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