Small-town girl becomes big country star

Two years ago, Danielle Peck was just a girl from a small town in Ohio, waiting on tables in Nashville, Tenn., restaurants.

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Now, her single I Don't is the first release on country singer Toby Keith's new Big Machine Records label, and some are predicting Ms. Peck will be the next big country sensation.

Augusta country fans who have tickets for the sold-out WKXC-FM (99.5) Million Pennies for Kids Guitar Pull on Tuesday at Bell Auditorium will get to hear her when she performs with Billy Currington, Trick Pony, Pat Green, Mark Miller (of Sawyer Brown) and Chely Wright.

"You know, it happened more quickly than I expected when I think about it," she said in a telephone interview. "Things take a really long time to hit me, and this is just hitting me now. It's so exciting to have people hear my song."

Judging from the positive reaction her single has received from critics and radio program directors, Ms. Peck doesn't have to ask Mr. Keith's musical question, "How do you like me now?"

She is making her debut on the Grand Ole Opry on Friday. Her first album is being wrapped up this month with its release set for Valentine's Day.

Her song I Don't is a classic country weeper about love gone wrong. She co-wrote it with Clay Mills and Burton Collins. It has the memorable hook lines, "You say I should stay with you. That Jesus forgives you. You pray, I will, but I won't. The difference is Jesus loves you. I don't."

Ms. Peck was born in Jacksonville, N.C., and grew up in Coshocton, Ohio, where the first song she learned was Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues.

While attending River View High School in Coshocton in 1997, she signed with a small Nashville record company called Torch Records that didn't light any fire to her music career.

Ms. Peck moved to Nashville in 2000 and waited on tables at the West End Cooker for nine months and at Virago restaurant for seven months.

One night in Virago, she was waiting on DreamWorks Records executive Scott Borchetta and his friends.

"I didn't let it be known to my customers that I was trying to make it in the music business," she said. "In passing conversation one night, Scott said, 'I bet you're in the music business.' I said something like, 'Aren't we all who are waiting on tables here in Nashville, Tenn.?'

"He asked me to sing something, and I did a verse of Jo Dee Messina's Heads Carolina, Tails California," Ms. Peck said.

"He shook my hand and said, 'I want to work with you.' He later got me signed to DreamWorks, and we actually finished a record. Then before it came out, DreamWorks was sold to Universal, and I lost my deal."

This story has a happy ending with Mr. Borchetta's helping Mr. Keith launch Big Machine Records and with Mr. Borchetta'snot forgetting how good Ms. Peck sounds.

Big Machine Records is starting to grind out hit singles. Ms. Peck's is the first and, we hope, not the last.

Don Rhodes has written about country music for 35 years. He can be reached at (706) 823-3214 or at don.rhodes@morris.com.