Russell Dickerson Shares “Yours” No. 1 With Co-Writers Casey Brown, Parker Welling

SESAC songwriter Casey Brown, BMI songwriter Russell Dickerson, BMI songwriter Parker Welling. Photo: Steve Lowry

“I was trying to be somebody else—Keith Urban or whoever else was cool—and the songs just weren’t working,” confessed Russell Dickerson of “Yours,” the song he wrote over four years ago with his Belmont University alumni. “You all know me because we’re family, and they didn’t let me write songs that weren’t me. It just clicked because you understand my artistry and believe in me…And it wasn’t until we wrote this song that anyone started to listen. I knew we had a No. 1 song from the bottom of my heart, and I wasn’t going to give up till this song went No. 1.”

The Triple Tigers recording artist’s success was a rarity, in that it was the first No. 1 for the label, first No. 1 for the artist, and first country No. 1 for each writer—Dickerson, Casey Brown and Parker Welling.

BMI’s Leslie Roberts presided over the No. 1 party, which was held at the offices of Nashville App developer Aloompa. Roberts presented her writers —Dickerson and Welling— with BMI No. 1 Taylor guitars.

SESAC’s ET Brown, also a Belmont graduate, was thrilled to congratulate his writer, on behalf of the PRO’s event sponsor Bose.

Welling teased her publisher Jeffrey Steele and Darrell Brown.

“I’m the lone female on a guy’s record,” said Welling. “Before this write four years ago, I prayed we would write something that changed the sound of country music. We wrote this love song about our spouses four years ago when country radio was a bunch of hookup songs.”

Brown was recognized by current BMG Nashville head Kos Weaver as the reason the publishing company signed Dickerson. Weaver brought up additional reps, including label GM Norbert Nix (David Macias could not attend) and Triple 8’s George Couri, Bruce Kalmick, in addition to manager John Dennis.

“Having suffered through the downturn in the music business, the digital revolution has brought more people from around the world to consume more music than they ever have,” noted Weaver. “So it’s great having a record company opening it’s doors and starting with a great artist. This song streamed at an amazing amount thanks to the effort from you and John Dennis.”

Pictured (L-R): Triple Tigers Records’ Bruce Kalmick, Dennis Entertainment’s John Dennis, Essential Music’s Terry Hemmings, SESAC’s ET Brown, Essential Music’s Holly Zabka, 3 Ring Circus’ Jeffrey Steele, BMI’s Leslie Roberts, 3 Ring Circus’ Darrell Franklin, Triple Tiger Records’ George Couri, Triple Tiger Records’ Norbert Nix and BMG’s Kos Weaver. Photo: Steve Lowry

Nix and Dickerson personally thanked John Marks, who began his support for Dickerson while at SiriusXM before moving to Spotify, where the song has streamed 95 million times.

“Russell put an EP together and was on the road for six years, slugging it out with John Dennis and agency CAA,” said Nix. “We started hearing these venues were selling out and we couldn’t figure it out. Then country radio jumped on it—this couldn’t have happened without radio.”

“John Dennis found me, I guess through CAA, because I signed with them in 2010,” said Dickerson. “We had nothing when Darrell [Franklin] signed me, not even this song. Thank you for trusting us to come up with something and taking a chance. Almost four years to the day we wrote this song, and it went No. 1. I want y’all to know we fought for this one song for four years from the day we wrote it, we listened to it 300 times that day and didn’t stop.”

Casey Brown, who also produced the track, was honored by his first publisher, Holly Zabka of Essential Music Publishing.

“I’m relly happy I asked you to write that one time,” confessed Brown to Dickerson. “I am never the guy to ask people to write. That’s the first time, and I’ll probably stop while I’m ahead.

“Parker, you’re at my house most days of the week. I’m really thankful this happened with friends. We hung out with each other before we were working together in any professional capacity.”

MusicRow‘s Sherod Robertson offered No. 1 Challenge Coins for the No. 1 success of “Yours” on the MusicRow CountryBreakout Chart. BMI’s financial partner for No. 1 parties is Pinnacle Bank, from which David Smith spoke. Brooke Sanders with CRB noted the song has recieved 297,000 spins, reaching a total audience of 1.39 billion through the airwaves. Country Aircheck‘s Lon Helton also spoke.