Don Cook

Most songwriters drift into songwriting from singing, or playing guitar or keyboard. San Antonio-born Don Cook was one of those rare birds who never wanted to be anything but a songwriter.

"I started writing songs at the age of twelve and did my first demo at fourteen," he remembers. "By then I was convinced that songwriting was going to be my career." He was living in Houston by then, and soon Houston coffeehouses were playing host to Don's acoustic folk group. "By the time I was in college," he recalls, "I was aware of a great publishing company in Nashville called Tree, thanks to a friend of mine who had attended Vanderbilt." Focused as he was, Don Cook graduated from the University of Texas and three days later showed up in Nashville ready to roll. Not long after he arrived, he met Don Gant, who signed him to a deal at Acuff-Rose.

"Gant was the greatest songwriter mentor I ever saw," Don recalls. "He made you feel like you were good until you actually had enough experience to be good." Don spent four years at Acuff-Rose, and had his first chart record as a songwriter. Then Gant moved over to Tree and shortly thereafter suggested that Cook follow. "That was the best move I ever made," he says. His first year at Tree he had eleven cuts including "Tonight," a top five hit for Barbara Mandrell, and "Lady Lay Down," which was recorded by John Conlee and became Don's first number one.

More than a decade of hits followed, then came 1990, which Don calls "the most discouraging year of my career because I had so many cuts and so little chart action. That was the year I questioned whether or not I wanted to stay in the music business." Then came an unexpected chain of events that transformed his career. "Kix Brooks and I had been writing together at a time when he was coming out of his deal at Capitol. I had a home studio and Kix asked me if I would cut some demos on him. I had no aspirations to be a record producer. It was more an effort to help my friend get a new record deal." Paul Worley took the sessions to Tim DuBois at Arista, Tim liked what he heard, got Kix to team up with Ronnie Dunn and the net result was the Brooks and Dunn debut album "Brand New Man," which sold six million copies. Don had eight songs on the album, including the title cut. "1990 turned out to be a great writing year for me," he says now. "Five or six songs I wrote during that period became number 1's. It's funny the way difficult times can bring out the creativity in a writer."

Starting in 1991 his career turned legendary. He has co-produced thirteen Brooks and Dunn number one singles and also produced successful albums on The Mavericks, Alabama, Olivia Newton-John, Shenandoah, Lonestar, Tracy Lawrence, Joe Diffie, Mark Collie, David Ball, Rick Trevino, Conway Twitty, and others. His songwriting hits include "It’s Getting Better All The Time,‿ "Only In America,‿ "Brand New Man," "My Next Broken Heart," "That Ain't No Way To Go," "You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone," and "She Used To Be Mine," by Brooks & Dunn, "Even The Man In The Moon Is Crying" and "Born To Love You" by Mark Collie, "What I Meant To Say" and "On A Good Night," by Wade Hayes, "Now I Know" by Lari White and "Small Town Girl' by Steve Wariner, in addition to cuts by Conway Twitty, George Strait, Keith Whitley, Vince Gill, Alabama, Waylon Jennings and many others.

In 1994, he was named Senior Vice-President at SONY/ATV Tree and four years later received the title of Chief Creative Officer, unprecedented honors for any active songwriter anywhere. In 2004, he retired from the business side of publishing to focus on his family and songwriting.