Casey Black

Casey Black 
I've Spent My Whole Life

 From Nashville, Columbia-University-educated, gravel-voiced, literary singer-songwriting son of Charlie Black, NSAI Hall of Fame songwriter of more than a dozen #1 country hits. Casey wrote his first song at twelve years old, released his first "record" three years later (a cassette of songs he recorded in his basement on his father's hand-me-down equipment), and signed with EMI Music Publishing Nashville at nineteen, making him one of the youngest staff songwriters on Music Row.
There he wrote with some of the Row's greatest writers, including his father, and according to Casey, got "all the cocky, prima-donna, young-artist stuff beaten out of me by people who actually knew how to write songs." While his craft improved, his muse became aloof during his three years at EMI, and so, in order to "be as poor and lost as other people my age–to have something true to write about," Casey moved to Los Angeles