Show to feature some country party music

From staff reports
Published: May 28, 2008

Between efforts to turn music pro, Trent Tomlinson parked cars and cleaned carpets. Then Sara Evans recorded one of his songs on her album, which led to a lasting record deal of his own.

In 2006, he released his debut album, “Country is My Rock.” His song, composed with Bobby Pinson, “One Wing in the Fire,” earned honors in the Nashville Songwriters’ Association International’s 2007 list of “Songs I Wish I’d Written” and made BMI’s list of most-performed songs, according to CMT.

Tomlinson is slated to take the stage May 31 at Cattle Annie’s.

Tomlinson — who grew up in Kennett, Mo., Sheryl Crow’s hometown — had a songwriting breakthrough a couple of years ago.

“I basically admitted the truth about who I am and what I am, my demons and insecurities — the ones that I run from on a day-to-day basis — and began putting them into my songs,” he says on his Web site, http://www.trenttomlinson.com.

The result is an effort to portray real-life situations against a background of some killer guitar.

“It’s ‘open a beer, sit in a lawn chair, let’s have a party’ country,” he says. “At the same time, the songs are saying, ‘I have the ability to love you, to understand,’ and at the end of the day all that matters is Mama and Daddy and going to heaven.

“That pretty much sums everything up.”