Rick Carnes

Hit songwriter & workshop leader

All in all, Nashville songwriter Rick Carnes has 21 million records sold with tunes he has written or co-written on them.

Rick, president of the Songwriters Guild of America, moved from his native Memphis to Nashville in 1978 with his wife, Janis, and the duo signed their first record deal with RCA, then Elektra Asylum, Warner Bros. and MCA.

Rick had a single on Steve Wariner and Garth Brooks called "Burnin' the Roadhouse Down", the title cut off Steve's last album. Another co-writing effort with Steve has been recorded by Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood. In 1983, Rick wrote Reba McEntire's first number one hit "I Can't Even Get The Blues No More" and co-wrote with his wife Janis and Chip Harding three top ten hits for The Whites "You Put The Blue In Me," Hangin' Around" and "Pins and Needles".

Rick also had success with album cuts on such artists as Conway Twitty, Karen Brooks, Loretta Lynn, Lacy J. Dalton, Johnny Rodriguez, Janie Fricke, Ronnie McDowell, T.G. Shepard, Pam Tillis and the Garth Brooks single "Long Neck Bottle" has been certified 12 platinum.