Who I Am

Album: Who i Am (2001)
Charted: 28
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Songfacts®:

  • This Brett James and Troy Verges penned song was recorded by the Huntingdon, Tennessee born Country singer Jessica Andrews. It was released as the first single from her album of the same name and became her biggest hit topping the country charts for three weeks as well as peaking at #28 on the Hot 100.
  • The song's narrator is moving forward confident that whatever happens in her life she will feel good about herself as she has the support of her peers. Andrews was just 17-years-old when she recorded the tune and she explained in a 2001 interview that it echoed her own self-confidence as she faced the challenges of the music industry: "Everything is so true in that song, except that my grandmother's name is not Rosemary," she said. "It's about believing in yourself and being supported by those around you. No matter how many mistakes you make, your friends and family will be there for you."
  • This was used as the theme song for the Pax Network police drama Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye, which was about a deaf FBI officer who lands a position in an FBI Surveillance team, thanks to her lip reading talents.
  • The song was covered by Danielle Bradbery on NBC's The Voice in 2013. Her version landed at #78 on the Hot 100 after the Texan teenager sung it in the semi-finals.
  • This was the first #1 single for both Troy Verges and Brett James. "Brett was living in Oklahoma at the time, going to medical school," Verges recalled to Roughstock: "Neither one of us had any cuts or any singles that we could speak of, but we were writing stuff that we loved. I went out there four or five days at a time and wrote in-between Brett's classes. Then I would come back to Nashville and demo the songs. That song was one of the first or second trips. We wrote it in-between him going to classes. In that same day, we wrote another song called 'Telluride' that Tim McGraw cut and one more song that got cut in the same little week."

    "We were literally writing in his parents' kitchen," Verges continued with a smile. "He was going to study whatever he was studying - emergency medicine - right before and right after we wrote. Once we had our idea mapped out, the rest of the songs and lyrics just came pouring out of us that day."

    "This song is real special to the both of us ... And I'm glad Brett is not a doctor," Verges added with a laugh. "He is a much better songwriter than I think he would've been a doctor [laughs]!"

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