It's been a decade since country music audiences first met Shy Carter. At 25 he helped write Sugarland's Top 5 hit "Stuck Like Glue," a song remarkable for Jennifer Nettles' rap break.
Later he'd partner for Billy Currington to write "It Don't Hurt Like It Used To" and add a rap break on the hitmaker's cover of "Banana Pancakes," a Jack Johnson cover.
"That was definitely a stretch of the genre," Carter says, smiling (always smiling) as he reflects on his early pursuits as a singer and songwriter. "Putting the soulful melodies in there, it was so well embraced that as time went on, Florida Georgia Line came out, and Sam Hunt, and all these people that were stretching the genre.”