‘Catch of the Day’ – Chuck Wicks – “Whole Damn Thing” [AUDIO]

Today we turn our attentions to an artist who started out on a music reality show that most people may never heard of, a program that was cancelled well before a champion could be crowned. He is also an artist who has taken a day job, as part of one of the top morning shows in country radio.

Chuck Wicks was raised on a potato farm outside of Smyrna, Delaware, a town of about 10,000 people, about 20 miles south of the state capital of Dover. He moved to Nashville in 2000 after dropping out of Florida Southern College just 2 classes short of his degree. Looking to pursue his country music dreams, he became one of the most prolific songwriters in Music City, writing more than a hundred songs a year at one point. When Steve Holy recorded Wicks' "Lead Me On" for his 2006 album Brand New Girlfriend, Wicks' hard work began to pay off.

RCA Records signed him to a recording contract in 2007, and while he was pulling songs together for a debut album, it was announced that Wicks had been selected to be a cast member on the Fox reality singing program Nashville. The show was not received well, and after two episodes the network cancelled it. Wicks went back to work on his debut album, Starting Now, and in August of 2007, he debuted the lead single, "Stealing Cinderella" at a Grand Ole Opry performance.

The song became the biggest debut single of 2007, peaking at #5 on the country singles charts, and becoming the fastest rising single of the year. A second single from the album, "All I Ever Wanted" peaked at #14, while the album's third release "Man of the House" would top out at #27. In 2009 Wicks announced he was working on a second album. In anticipation two singles were released, with neither cracking the top-40. Wicks would depart RCA Nashville in 2010 without ever releasing the second album.

Wicks would self-release the EP Rough in 2013, signing with Blaster Records later in the year. Three singles were released from the project, with "Us Again" becoming Wicks' first top-40 charting single since 2009. Currently the co-host of the syndicated Nash-FM's America's Morning Show with Ty Bentli and Kelly Ford, Wicks released his first album, Turning Point, for Blaster in February of last year, with two singles, 2015's "I Don't Do Lonely Well" and 2016's "She's Gone" failing to land on the Billboard Country Singles chart.

The third single from the album is in our spotlight today. Chuck Wicks and "Whole Damn Thing" is today's Catch of the Day, new music you haven't heard, but you'll want to hear it again.