Whitney Duncan photo by Jeff Lipsky, courtesy of Warner Bros. Nashville.

Whitney, who needed just two classes her senior year to graduate and who was given latitude to pursue her career by her principal, would stay at her manager's house and use her days to write with some of Nashville's best. She began attracting label notice and by her senior year, she had landed a record deal. She cut several sides, including a duet with country legend Kenny Rogers, whom she joined on tour, but ultimately she and the label parted ways about the time she met Bright.

"I was really young and wasn't sure of the musical direction to take," she says. Her writing had been improving steadily, though, and that was key to her progress.

"I began writing with Chris Tompkins, who has become one of my best friends. He really influenced my writing a lot and helped make me better. In fact, it was some of the stuff we wrote together that helped get Mark interested."

It wasn't long after she joined forces with Bright and Shanks that she gained interest from Warner Bros., and an acoustic showcase helped seal the deal.

"Afterward, they said, 'Go make the record,'" she says. They began recording in the fall of 2007.

The result, Right Road Now, sums up the journey, and Whitney is certain it captures her essence.

"I can honestly say there's nothing I would change about it," she says.

Bright concurs, and adds, "Making the record with her felt like Christmas every day. We were honestly sad to finish it." If the right relationships, like the one she has developed with Bright, have provided the road, her own persistence has kept her moving along it. It's a trait she's had since she was tiny.

"I went to preschool with 13 little boys," she says with a laugh. "I was the only girl, so I acted like them. I would fight with them and I'd be in the naughty chair every day. Being stubborn and headstrong was a good thing when it came to music. You've got to know what you want to do in this business and hope eventually it will pay off."

For the young woman from Scotts Hill, it certainly has.