Ray,

It is because the company which is putting one point three million dollars into his career, paying for everything and calling the shots, say when you go in and record. The producer is producing Jason Aldeen and Trace Atkins. Those are proven money makers. It is pecking order. And because this is a business, not the business of friends. It is the business of music.
I remember Webb and all those guys. I am 51, and have been around a while. They used to drive all night to some 500 watt radio station to play their records too and sold half of them out of the trunk of their car. And the only record stores were places like Western Auto who sold records right beside the washers and dryers.
We can go all day on what used to be. That has no relevance to what is happening now. None. If you listen to Brian very few records at all sell more than 1000 copies. that is true. Even major stars are having hundreds of thousands of CD's downloaded from out from under them. It is the nature of the business and goes right back to why artists are writing all their own stuff. It is survival.
It doesn't matter who was the hit record last year or last month. Has no relevance to anything. What matters is what we all are doing now, tomorrow, the next day. You can't do anything about anything but yourself.

The rest has to take care of itself. All you can do is up the level of your odds.

MAB