Gary,

I would say that Jeffery's success is much the same as Wiesman, Rutherford, and almost everyone else in the game. He is able to find a way to say things differently than most people out there. He will be the first to tell you a lot of his hits started with mediocre ideas. It was his ability to find the ordinary part of that and make it extrodinary.

It was passed on to him from the co-writing process and he now passes it on. For years, a guy named Chris Wallin was around town working hard and writing songs. But he didn't have anything that quite "cut through above the other things out there."
Then he got together with Anthony Smith and Jeffery, they wrote "I'm Tryin'" for Trace Atkins and that opened up a huge stream of hits.

Did he have the "stuff" before? Probably. but something needed to unlock it and put it in the "right place, right song, right time." The co-writing process, coupled with the right demo process, and the right connections, are all needed to unlock that in anyone.

Usually there are "pivot" points that add to that process and from there it seems like nothing that writer can do is wrong. A lot is perception, but perception is often reality.

I think I got this thread hijacked from the original intent, the "demo quality,"but it is actually related. If a wrriter has well written songs accompinied by a strong ralatable demo, it "ups the level of his or her's odds."

Without a great demo, it limits the places that song can go. But without a very strong or great song, the greatest demo in the world is not going to be able to save it.

MAB