CMT News

Phil Vassar celebrated his latest No. 1 hit as a songwriter, the Tim McGraw cut "My Next Thirty Years," with a party Monday (Jan. 29) at the Music Row offices of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). Although his songwriting and performing careers are going well, Vassar also has taken on producing. He co-wrote and co-produced "Live It Up" for new act Marshall Dyllon, and now he may be heading into the studio with Chely Wright. "I'm working with her on a couple of songs. It's hard -- you've got two artists trying to coordinate schedules," Vassar tells country.com. "We've been passing each other in buses on the road somewhere." The Vassar-Wright collaborations would be for Wright's next MCA album, which has no official release date. In between songwriting and touring, Vassar says he hopes to do more producing. He'll be back in the studio in March and April working on his second album, which Vassar says probably won't be released until next year.