Steve Bogard has written ten number one country songs including George Strait's, "Carried Away” and “Carrying Your Love with Me," and Rascal Flatts' career breaker, "Prayin' For Daylight." Total sales of albums containing Bogard songs are well over one hundred fifty million units. Bogard has won twenty-two ASCAP, BMI and SESAC awards with hits and cuts by artists as diverse as Reba, Tanya, Patty Loveless, Etta James, The Four Tops, Sinead O’Connor, Jack Ingram, and Restless Heart. He has had two Grammy nominations for Best Country Song with Dierks Bentley and has produced nine major-label album projects for Arista, Virgin, Lyric Street and Sony. Recent cuts include song recorded by Gary Alan, Kristian Bush, and Restless Road.  Bogard has had at least one #1 song in each of the last 4 decades! After successful early forays in the music markets of Memphis and Miami, working with legendary producers Jerry Wexler and Tom Dowd, and playing on the road with Charlie Rich and The Bill Black Combo, Steve was drawn to Nashville, when in 1983, an eleven-year-old Bogard song, "Touch Me with Magic" became a top ten hit for Marty Robbins. He spent over twenty years as a staff writer at Warner Chappell Music, has owned his own publishing company and independent record label, and is currently a staff writer at Amped Entertainment. Over fifteen years ago Steve was elected to the board of the Nashville Songwriter’s Association International and served an unprecedented seven years as NSAI’s Board President. During that time, he worked closely with the NMPA, DiMA, the RIAA, BMI, ASCAP and SESAC on legislation affecting songwriters’ rights and income in the digital space, covering subscription services, interactive streaming, satellite radio, and future digital uses of music. Steve is the only witness to represent songwriters at both the 2006 and the 2016 Copyright Royalty Board rate setting proceeding. In 2017 he was re-elected NSAI Board President and continues to serve in that position now. Bogard is a former Board Member of the CMA and the Academy of Country Music and is a 1995 graduate of Leadership Music. He served on ASCAP's Southern Writer's Advisory Board and has hosted the ASCAP Song Seminar and founded the Copyright Forum at Belmont University.  He is a member of both the Producers and Engineers and the Composers Wing of NARAS, The Recording Academy.

Deric Ruttan is an ACM and Grammy-nominated, Nashville-based singer/songwriter and Canadian country music artist.  The writer of nine Billboard Top 10 radio charting singles - including five #1 country songs - Deric Ruttan has had over 150 of his songs recorded.  His songs have appeared on 20 million albums, and have been streamed over 2 billion times.  Deric was raised just outside Bracebridge, Ontario, on the same land his great-grandfather made moonshine on in the 1930’s.  It was the perfect backdrop for the singer/songwriter, who grew up listening to everything from CCR to Gordon Lightfoot to Van Halen.  After touring with several country bar bands, Deric moved to Nashville, where his unique outlook and delivery attracted the attention and praise of songwriters Don Schlitz, Steve Earle, and Steve Bogard.  Deric’s songs have been recorded by Eric Church, Blake Shelton, Jason Aldean, Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, Tim McGraw, Dierks Bentley and others.  Bentley’s chart-toppers “What Was I Thinkin’” and “Lot Of Leavin’ Left To Do” are Ruttan co-writes, as are the Eric Church hits,  “Guys Like Me” and “Hell On The Heart”.  In 2013, Deric celebrated a multi-week #1 song with “Mine Would Be You”, recorded by Blake Shelton.  “Mine Would Be You” was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Country Song, and an ACM Award for Song Of The Year.  A short while later, Deric celebrated his second Blake Shelton #1 hit with the introspective “Came Here To Forget”.  In 2017 country music superstar Jason Aldean took Deric’s song “Any Ol’ Barstool” to the top of the charts to become the songwriter’s 4th #1 country single, and in 2020,  “Die From A Broken Heart”, by Mercury Nashville duo Maddie & Tae, climbed the charts to become Deric’s 5th #1 song.  As an artist, Deric Ruttan has released 4 studio albums and one live album (recorded at the world-renowned Calgary Stampede), headlined 4 of his own coast-to-coast tours, and celebrated eleven Top 10 songs at country radio in Canada.  His debut single “When You Come Around” was ranked #10 on Canadian country radio’s ‘Most Played Songs Of The Decade, 2000-2009’ list.  An ASCAP (10x), SOCAN (11x), CCMA (Canadian Country Music Association) (2x) award winner, and the recipient of 3 Nashville Songwriter’s Association International “Top 10 Songs I Wish I’d Written” Awards (for “What Was I Thinkin’”, “Mine Would Be You” and “Die From A Broken Heart”), Deric and his wife Margaret make their home just outside Nashville, Tennessee.

A brilliant writer, an innovative producer, a dynamic on-stage presence, and a mentor to emerging writers, Gordie’s musical genius and generosity is applauded by audiences and industry players alike.  Raised in the community of Big Pond (pop. 47), near the rugged, edge-of-the-world coastlines of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Sampson’s songwriting has taken him across the globe. But besides the island he hails from, there might be no place in his story more important than Nashville, Tennessee, where he lives now with his family. He moved to Music City in 2005, and in less than a year Carrie Underwood had recorded his own “Jesus, Take The Wheel,” which wound up at number one on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for six weeks in a row and earned Gordie a Grammy for Best Country Song of the Year. Since then, Sampson’s songs have been cut by a long list of established artists that includes Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan, Rascal Flatts, Dan + Shay, Hunter Hayes and Caitlyn Smith and by young up-and-comers like Carly Pearce, Caylee Hammack and Tenille Townes.  It was a winding road to get here. He tore up the stage in high school and afterwards with his early bands, did time playing and producing for fiddlin’ phenom Ashley MacIsaac, toured with The Rankin Family, and was part of Canadian folk music icon Rita MacNeil’s group on her weekly CBC show Rita and Friends. Sampson’s straight-to-the-heart tunes benefit from the weight of his expressive voice on his own records, - his 1999 album Stones garnered a Juno Award nomination for Best Roots & Traditional Album and he has won numerous East Coast Music Awards.   Although he doesn’t often take on outside projects, he has appeared as a producer for records by The East Pointers and Port Cities.  Gordie heads back home to Canada every summer to spend time with family and friends in his beloved Cape Breton and to perform in the Maritimes, where enthusiastic audiences welcome him, year after year.  From 2010-2019 he ran The Gordie Sampson Songcamp, a retreat that gives young songwriters the opportunity to develop their skills and build relationships with their peers, and promotes learning in pursuit of artistic excellence. Numerous Songcampers, including Mo Kenney, the members of roots/pop group Port Cities, Dave Sampson and Kyle Mischiek (Sunsetto)  have gone on to build their own successful musical careers.