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

With all that emotion going into his songs, he admits he's a guy who's always looking for the happy ending. "This is a confession – I'm a man of many extremes, whether working or playing," he says. "I'm a songwriter, so I'm a sensitive guy. I long for the storybook life."

And it's produced a lot of good material. "I think the really great singers and writers are able to dig a little deeper and find that other level of emotion," David says. "And I think that's what makes them better than the rest. I always pride myself on trying to find that place with every song."

And it's that moment of raw emotional connection that David hopes to pass on to listeners. "I'm more or less just trying to join the fray of good music," he says. "People ask me all the time how I'd describe my music and I say 'Well, I hope it's good.' Hopefully people will just enjoy it for being good music and take from it whatever it makes them feel."

Hard knocks and heartache, good times and bad, small towns and big cities – it's all in his music. "They're all aspects of life," he says. "I'm still growing as both a person and artist, and will hopefully continue getting better in regards to both."