New Orleans, La. -
A New Orleans native and Nashville songwriter is celebrating a huge career milestone
After a decade of writing songs for some big country music names, Jim McCormick, a Jesuit and UNO alum, pens a number one hit.
Born and raised in New Orleans, McCormick has music in his blood..
He's performed at French Quarter Fest, Jazz Fest and festivals all over the country.
As a professional songwriter for the past decade, his hits have been recorded by big name performers like Trisha Yearwood, Tim McGraw and Randy Travis.
McCormick says like so many other songwriters, he struggled to break into the Nashville music market, and stay in the business.
McCormick says, "I think as a songwriter you get used to disappointment for so long. You get accustomed to getting your teeth kicked in and smiling the whole time that it's happening."
Now, his smile is from ear to ear and it's for real.
"There's been a lot of moments, like holy cow, this is really happening!" says McCormick.
While most songwriters never even land a song on the country charts, McCormick recently had two songs enter the charts at the same time..
Finally, the week of July 14, "You don't know her like I do" by Brantley Gilbert hit number one.
McCormick says it was meant to be.
"I couldn't have been any luckier," says McCormick. " He was living this song on that day of the week. This was issue weighing on his mind. Lucky me, I got to write it with him."
This week, BMI, Broadcast Music Inc., celebrated the chart-topping success with a party for McCormick, Gilbert, the publishers, producers and music label in Nashville.
McCormick is both honored and humbled: "Getting a chance to have a number one single, gives me a chance to look back and think about all the people who helped along the way. I certainly didn't do it alone. There's a long list of people who deserve thanks," he says. "What I hope is maybe a few doors will open that weren't so easily opening before and we can get through them and maybe have a few more reasons to celebrate."
McCormick received a special black BMI acoustic guitar for his career milestone..
Just after "You Don't Know Her Like I Do" hit number one, another song McCormick helped write, released as a single by country rock mega-star Jason Aldean....
"Take a Little Ride" quickly soared past pop hits to number one on I-tunes all-genre singles chart.
