David Nail photo by Andrew Southam, courtesy of UMG Nashville.

Returning to Nashville two years later, David became frustrated once again in early 2005 with the lack of movement of his music career. David spent the next two summers helping an old college buddy coach the Twitty City Knights, a select group of some of Nashville's best baseball talent. "I did it just to get away from the reality of what my career had become at that time, and it was being around those kids that recharged my batteries. It reminded me how free and easy life is at 17 and 18 years old and how truly blessed I'd been, both growing up, and now, being able to chase my dream. I will forever look back on that time and those kids for getting me back on track."

Shortly thereafter, mutual friend Brian Wright, who'd recently become V.P., A&R, for both the MCA and Mercury Nashville labels, introduced David to producer Frank Liddell, who 10 years earlier had produced one of David's all-time favorite records, Chris Knight's self-titled Decca debut.

Through the ups and downs of a life in the music business, David was persistent – and his dream became a realization with I'm About To Come Alive, a collection of songs that captures the highs and lows and the hometown flavor of his own experiences. "I wanted to take something from the people who've inspired me," he says. "But also put myself in there, and just make something I could be proud of. It's definitely a moody record, there's definitely going to be some heartbreak in there, definitely going to be some dark times. But there's music you listen to when you're feeling good, and music you listen to when you're down and out, and I think this is a record that satisfies both needs."

From the second he started recording, David was determined to bridge the gap between traditional country and the soulful stylings of a Lionel Ritchie and Ray Charles. "I've got to have a piano player with a lot of fire, a little more recklessness!" he says. Liddell (Miranda Lambert) offered up legendary player Chuck Leavell, who brought his inspired piano into the mix with David's smooth, yet soulful vocals to create magic on tracks like "Mississippi." "It's a very reflective ballad about a guy from a small town who's in the city," David says. "It's very moody and Ray Charles-esque. Chuck went in there and started playing the intro and suddenly I felt as if I was back in those early days of recording. His playing sent me to another level of singing."

"Turning Home" has that same soulful emotion and drew David's attention as a demo. "When I first heard it, it was a lot of what I was feeling at the time. I just kept listening to it over and over. I felt like I had always been searching for a song I could really sing, put some emotion, pain and hurt into, and then here was this song," he said. The result is a perfect match between singer and song, with that same church-meets-honky-tonk piano on the side, and vocals reminiscent of another one of David's big influences, Vince Gill.

David wrote five of the 11 I'm About To Come Alive tracks, including "Missouri." "I was in the middle of a two-year bout with depression," said David. "It's without a doubt the most honest and personal song I've written. I'd been in a relationship for a year or so and could sense something was wrong with me. It was more or less me crying out, pleading for her to leave me because I didn't have the courage to do it myself." Along with Scooter Carusoe ("Anything But Mine") David also wrote "Clouds," which he explains is about one of his most recent misses at romance. "The best songs I've ever written just kind of come to me. You don't have a choice in the matter, they just more or less pour out. Both 'Missouri' and 'Clouds' were like that."