Catch of the Day – Thomas Rhett – “Star of the Show” [AUDIO]

Today we turn our focus to a second-generation country artist, whose recent singles have stretched country music's boundaries. An artist that is no stranger to the life of a country music superstar, growing up with artists like Brooks and Dunn or Tim McGraw in his house, writing songs with father.

Thomas Rhett Akins, Jr. truly has country music in his blood. The son of singer and songwriter Rhett Akins, the younger Akins learned to play drums while in middle school. When he was old enough (and good enough) his dad would bring him up on stage to play with his band. This led to junior forming his first band in high school, the High Heeled Flip Flops. He knew early on music is where he wanted to dedicate his life, and even though he promised his parents he would earn his college degree, younger Akins would drop out of Nashville's Lipscomb University at age 20 to pursue his dream.

Soon after making the decision to make music his full time concentration, Thomas was playing in a small Nashville club when he was approached by an executive from Big Machine Records and offered a publishing contract. His first song to make it to an album was Jason Aldean's recording of "I Ain't Ready To Quit", which Aldean recorded for his 2010 album My Kinda Party. The song led to the Valory Music Group, a division of the Big Machine Group, offering Rhett a record contract.

Rhett released his debut single, "Something To Do With My Hands" in 2012, following it with "Beer With Jesus" later in the same year. Neither single cracked the top-30, but his third single, "It Goes Like This" shattered it, hit #1 on October 23, 2013, completing its 4 1/2 month climb, spending three weeks at the top of the mountain. The album's final two singles, "Get Me Some of That" and "Make Me Wanna" would hit #1 in 2014. 2014 would also include the #1 "Small Town Throwdown", from Brantley Gilbert's album Just As I Am, on which Rhett would guest along with Justin Moore.

While hitting the top of the charts as a performer, Rhett continued to also have success as a songwriter. In 2013, Jason Aldean recorded another Rhett written song, "1994", which would appear on the Georgian's Night Train album. 2013 also saw Lee Brice record the Rhett penned "Parking Lot Party" and Florida Georgia Line recorded Rhett's "Round Here". For the week of September 21st, 2013, five of the top-10 songs were either written, or co-written by younger Rhett and father Rhett.

Thomas Rhett's second album, 2015's Tangled Up, was led by the single "Crash and Burn", which became his fourth consecutive #1 hit. The album, which is soon to be released in a deluxe edition, which will include recently recorded songs, also contains the #1 hits "Die A Happy Man" and "T-Shirt". A fourth single from the album, "Vacation" was ignored by many country stations as its style was considered "too pop", and failed to crack the top-30.

The fifth single from the soon to be re-released Tangled Up is in our spotlight today. Thomas Rhett and "Star of the Show" is today's Catch of the Day, new music you haven't heard, but you'll wanna hear it again.