Declan McGarry

About: Declan McGarry

"For me, hope was never really a strategy," says the 25-year-old singer and songwriter Declan McGarry. For McGarry, that new approach meant leaving dreams of pop stardom laid stagnant in Los Angeles, Nashville and Memphis, and going back to his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, to embark on an ambitious business plan to build a music career from the ground up and on his own terms. His self-titled record, released on his own LT Records in 2010, is only the first stage of that plan coming to fruition, but it's the culmination of 10 years of a love of songs and songwriting.

McGarry set about building the team that would make his dream a reality. McGarry teamed up with Nashville manager, producer and songwriter Nick Pellegrino (Walt Wilkins, Jason Meadows, Chely Wright).

Pellegrino and McGarry quickly dug into McGarry's catalog, looking for the songs that would make up his first full-length release. The result is eleven carefully crafted slices of pop, rock and Americana, all written or co-written by McGarry, many with Pellegrino, and one (the hook-laden "Love Like Water") with celebrated songwriter and frequent Jon Bon Jovi collaborator Billy Falcon. Backing McGarry's mature-beyond-his-years and raggedly warm tenor is a cast of Nashville's finest, among them guitar player George Marinelli (Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Hornsby and the Range, James Taylor), drummer Vince Santoro (Shania Twain, Edgar Winter, Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris) keyboard player Dennis Wage (T.Graham Brown)and bass player Robbie Harrington (Dierks Bentley, Lowen & Navarro). Academy of Country Music Engineer of the Year recipient Steve Marcantonio worked the boards; Pellegrino produced.

"It's a bit of a daunting experience to come to Nashville and be a songwriter," he says. "And while hope may not be a strategy, being hopeful and having faith in yourself and your abilities is an essential ingredient in any business plan. Especially when that plan involves the pursuit of a dream."