Troy Verges grew up in Louisiana, and when he got his first guitar at age 10, his first impulse wasn’t to learn other people’s songs but to make up his own. He played in bands from age 14 and listened to everything from 1960s folk to punk rock to traditional Cajun music. After high school, he was able to satisfy both his parents and a desire to pursue a music career by aiming for a music business degree. With no such program available in Louisiana, he moved to Murfreesboro to attend Middle Tennessee State University and then to Nashville to finish out his degree at Belmont. It was during those college years that Verges first encountered professional songwriters. When he was learning the craft of songwriting, Verges instinctively knew how important it was to listen. While still in college at Belmont University’s school of music business, Verges secured an internship at Patrick Joseph Music, one of Music Row’s strongest publishers. His favorite job was working in the tape library listening to every song that came in including hits from Matraca Berg, Tim Mensy, Kim Carnes and Gary Harrison. His internship led to a few single-song deals and finally a publishing contract a few weeks before he graduated. Those early years weren’t easy, especially for somebody who won his first publishing deal before college graduation, but Verges stuck to his own vision. While the 32-year-old paid hard dues, landing only a handful of cuts in his first three years, he’s now as in demand as any writer in Nashville. After he placed “Love Is A Sweet Thing” on Faith Hill’s “Breathe” album, a line formed to be the first to listen to Verges songs. Verges has emerged as one of UMPG Nashville’s greatest success stories. Within a year of the Faith Hill record, he scored #1 songs on Jessica Andrews’ “Who I Am” and Martina McBride’s “Blessed,” from her Greatest Hits collection. He then followed with a trio of Top 5 hits on Trisha Yearwood’s “I Would’ve Loved You Anwyway,” Lonestar’s “With Me,” and Andy Griggs “Tonight I Wanna Be Your Man.” In 2002 Verges was named BMI Country Songwriter of the Year and the NSAI Songwriter of the Year. His songs have been cut by Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Bon Jovi, Paulina Rubio Trisha Yearwood, Sara Evans, LeAnn Rimes, Terri Clark and many more. In the past year alone, his song were released by a diversity of artists including Celine Dion, Il Divo, and Lindsay Lohan. Initially Verges focused on songwriting full time, with aspirations of producing “I look forward to cutting songs as much as I do writing them,” he says. “I love the fact that you can take a song and make it sound so many different ways.” A fan of Daniel Lanois, Verges hoped to introduce more organic, rough-edged, and complex sounds into radio music. “I like to have little tastes of things coming at you from way behind your ears that you might not notice on the first listen,” he says. As Troy says, “It’s really a very simple relationship. I love sound.” And these early successes are evidence of that love. *For more information on Troy Verges contact Whitney Williams at UMPG Nashville.