Dallas Davidson Launches His Own Music Publishing Company

Dallas Davidson -- the songwriter behind some of country music's biggest hits, including Trace Adkins' "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk," Blake Shelton's "All About Tonight" and Luke Bryan's "Country Girl (Shake It for Me)" -- has launched his own music publishing company, Play It Again, to help other songwriters find success as well.

"We feel like we’re all a family here, and we’re all after the same goal, and that goal is to make an impact on music," says Davidson, who is serving as the company's president and CEO. "We don’t have fences around this company. I don’t care if they write a rap song, a pop song or a country song. This is all about music at Play It Again. We’re not focused on one certain genre. I want our writers to feel as creative as they can."

Davidson founded the company with Austin Marshall, who will serve as executive vice president; Marshall has past experience in various aspects of the music business and is a drummer himself.

Play It Again has already signed four writers: Maggie Rose, Houston Phillips, Brian Kolb and Kyle Fishman.

"They've all got a sparkle on them," Davidson explains. "It’s fun getting to hear what they do. I've never been on this side before. I've always done my thing, and I’ve done it pretty damn good. But it’s always exciting to hear a song and go, 'Oh, hell yeah!' And here I am, I’m supposed to send Luke Bryan one of my songs, and I end up knocking it off and sending one of theirs instead."

Adds Marshall, "We put a lot of thought into how each writer was going to come together to round out this group. I think of it as a band because everybody’s got his or her own piece to really make it what it is. With co-writes, it’s like setting up my own all-star band. In a sense that’s what I get to do every day."

The year 2015 is promising to be a big one for Davidson. In addition to launching Play It Again, he and his wife Natalia welcomed their first child, Dallas Gerald Davidson Jr., into the world on Feb. 25.