THOM 8 | Spring / Summer 2017

MUSICMAKER
spirit. Southerners, for better or worse, are very
headstrong, very confident. Nobody tells us we can’t.
And I was brought up in that culture.”
Jo believed in herself. Now, she needed to find
someone else to.
Enter Nashville wunderkind Shane McAnally. The
Grammy-winning producer and writer has worked
with every major talent in country music, including
Kacey Musgraves, Kenny Chesney and Luke Bryan.
“I had met Shane years before, very briefly,” Jo says. “I
remember, in that soul-crushing period after leaving
my deal, thinking I needed to set some clearly
defined goals for what I wanted to do. More than
anything, I needed a soulmate of a producer.”
She saw Shane in the crowd at a K.T. Oslin show
(“one of my favorite singers and biggest influences”).
“I didn’t speak to him there, but it just started to nag
at me. I thought, if he is here at this show, he’s going to
get what it is that I’m trying to do.
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