Phil Vassar's stubborn streak has served him well.

Refusing to give in or give up has led the Arista Nashville recording artist to enjoy accolades for his third album, Shaken Not Stirred, a new two-week No. 1 single, "In A Real Love," and sold-out shows from coast to coast.

"I always had the belief that it could work," Vassar said. "I don't take 'no' for an answer very well."

Vassar, a Lynchburg, Va., native who had a way with words and a nice touch on the piano, moved to Nashville in the late 1980s. Once in Music City, the young singer-songwriter found himself in the midst of the music industry's hat act years, where the majority of Country Music's best sellers donned cowboy hats.

"I heard 'Do you play guitar? Do you wear a hat?' I do wear a hat when I want to, but not because it's part of my uniform," he said.

Vassar unsuccessfully shopped a demo packed with songs including "I'm Alright," "Carlene," "Bye Bye," "My Next 30 Years" and "Little Red Rodeo."

"Nobody saw any future in those songs whatsoever," he said. "It's all about timing. ...The industry was not ready at that time. I'm a pianist, uptempo, rocking kind of artist."

During the next decade, Vassar's perseverance began paying off and by the late 1990s, he was a successful and highly sought after Nashville songwriter and was twice named ASCAP Songwriter of the Year.

"People were digging through my catalog like crazy," he said, adding that many early demo tracks went on to be big hits a decade later for BlackHawk ("Postmarked Birmingham"), Alan Jackson ("Right on the Money"), Tim McGraw ("My Next Thirty Years" and "For a Little While"), Jo Dee Messina ("Bye,Bye" and "I'm Alright"), Collin Raye ("Little Red Rodeo") and Vassar himself.

By the time the millennium rolled around, Vassar was finally doing what he had always intended. His first self-titled album went Gold and spawned four Top 10 hits: "Just Another Day in Paradise," which went to No. 1, "Carlene," "Six-Pack Summer" and "That's When I Love You."

Vassar's second release, in 2002, American Child, produced two Top 15 singles: the title track and "This is God."

Although it may seem as if Vassar had found his groove, actually, it was Country Music that finally had gotten in sync with Vassar, embracing his straight-ahead, high-energy music.

When the time came for a third album, Vassar - always looking for a way to shake things up - changed the formula.

Producing the album coincided with the birth of his second daughter, Presley, so the proud papa took time off the road last winter, his first substantial break in five years.

Immersed in a relaxing home routine, Vassar decided to keep things comfortable by bringing in his road band to work on his new album.

"It seemed kind of funny to me that you get this great rapport with these guys on the road and then you head it off with these studio guys and let them do their thing," Vassar said. "It doesn't seem fair sometimes."

Making an album with his band has been his most gratifying recording experience, Vassar said.

"We write together. We hang out together. They are like my brothers. We laugh a lot in the studio. It doesn't feel like you're under the gun," Vassar said. "It was just fun. I had a good time, I really did.

"I even wrote some of these tracks with our bus driver, who's actually a great songwriter," Vassar said.

Shaken Not Stirred was released in late September and debuted in the Top 10 of the Billboard Country albums chart.

The first single, "In A Real Love," co-written with Craig Wiseman, went No. 1. The second single, "I'll Take That As A Yes (The Hot Tub Song)," is rising on the charts. The song's video features Vassar playing his trademark piano in a swimming pool, of all places.

Vassar made several rounds of media appearances to promote his new album including "CMT Insider," "Extra," as Storme Warren's co-host on GAC's "Country Music Across America," "Good Day Atlanta," "Hannity & Colmes," "PGA Golf Sunday," Sirius Satellite Radio, PBS's the "Tavis Smiley Show" and the syndicated G. Gordon Liddy radio show.

The entertainer has a busy tour schedule through the end of the year. On Christmas Day, he'll sing the national anthem at a Tennessee Titans football game in Nashville.

His career is working out just as he'd hoped, Vassar said.

"I'm a performer first," he said. "I was always the one to get on stage and play," he said.

Songwriting is a very close second, he says. Every day he observes situations that seem to be begging to be turned into songs.

"The key," Vassar said, "is to come up with something that interests you and is also interesting to somebody else, (something) that makes them feel like 'Dude, you're looking in my window. That's my life.'"                

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