Singled Out: Tommy Shaw

"The Next Right Thing" was actually a part of a phrase, our mantra, when we started creating this album. Brad (Brad Davis, one of the producers of the album) and I were looking at how we might frame the entire project. What kinds of parameters should we follow?

Because it was my first time creating a body of bluegrass songs, I wanted to be respectful to the form, not be the Rock Guy coming in like a bull in a China shop and saying "Let me show y'all how this is done�" So early on I said, "If we just keep doing the next right thing, we can't go wrong."

We said it every day. It wasn't long before I realized, "This is the title to a song." Not long after that, as luck would have it, I picked up a guitar and out came the verse, then the chorus. Serendipity.

Oh, and that voice you hear singing with me on the chorus? That's Dwight Yoakam.