Brian McComas

Aspiring musicians: you know that age-old cliché about never meeting your heroes? Don't buy into it. Brian McComas is living proof that fandom can pay off. He waited by country singer Paul Overstreet's bus with a demo in hand, and while his musical hero wouldn't take the tape, he did point him in the direction of a publishing company that might. To McComas' surprise, the publisher called him back and requested more material, inspiring him to keep on keeping on. (Although McComas was only 14 years old, he had the drive and ambition of a career-oriented adult.) To appease his family, he went to college for a year, but his obsession with teaching himself to play guitar and write better songs pointed him toward Nashville, where he moved after a year of school and eventually landed a deal. McComas originally envisioned other people singing the songs he wrote, but if you listen to his self-titled debut, it's obvious that the young man was clearly meant to sing his own creations. His music is the perfect blend of old and new: parlor pianos, banjos, fiddles and other traditional instruments paint his pop songs in thick New Traditional tones, while his songwriting is as catchy as anything Clear Channel feeds to teenagers.