Glad to see that Mike D. jumped in there. He is one of our resident "experts" and successful Nashville guys. I am not a mentor or expert, but I can still give advice (just remember it doesn't carry much weight).

My first piece of advice is to practice and practice the art of song craft and the delivery of your songs. I sampled every one of your songs at MySpace and here are my initial thoughts. You have a good voice and you know how to put songs together. The majority of your songs are thoughtful, introspective song on life and struggles. Nashville and country music seems to like uptempo songs with twists and potentially positive, upbeat messages. So let's say you have 10 songs at MySpace (i forgot to count). Maybe three of those could fall into the mid-tempo to up-tempo category (with more production) and 7 or so were slower. You need to turn that ratio around.

I would also work on improving the production quality of your guitar/vocals. You could sound really good with just slightly better recording techniques.

I would post a tune on the MP3 forum with lyrics and let our friendly members critique you. They will say nice things and then point out things that can be improved.

Lastly, I would point out that the odds are stacked way against you, so I wouldn't spend too much money on anything until you are much further along (OK maybe a couple of hundred dollars at Christmas time for mic and recording software). Guess what? The odds were stacked way against Taylor Swift, also.

So, work on song craft, work on recording, have your songs critiqued, expand your fan base and then see how it goes. Music can be a real money pit where demo shops can prey upon those with no experience. Don't spend a cent on those things until you have the go ahead from your team (Mike D is big on teams). JPF members can be part of your team, too.

Best of luck!

Kevin

"Good science comes in peer reviewed journals. Conspiracy theories come in YouTube videos. "
Kevin @ bandcamp: Crows Say Vee-Eh