We kick off our Listening Room Series with the first of four writers rounds we will be hosting at one of the premier music venues in Nashville, The Listening Room Café. Three of our songwriters — Pete Sallis, Jamie Floyd and AJ Kross — will share some of their favorites songs they have written with Operation Song participants. Tickets are only $20.
AJ Kross
AJ Kross
Born and raised in a small town just outside of Bend, Oregon, AJ Kross began his music career at a very young age playing in a band with his mother and father. At age 3 AJ had already sang lead vocals on a national children’s album. By age of 10, AJ had branched out and started his own band that helped shape the artist that he is today.
After spending a decade traveling around the Northwest AJ made the move to Nashville in pursuit of a career in Country music. During his first few years in Nashville he worked passionately on perfecting his craft as a songwriter making a goal to write at least two songs a day with hundreds of songwriters around town.
Currently AJ is known as one of the top session singers in Nashville. He passionately writes songs and pursues bigger stages traveling with his band.
AJ has been influenced his entire career by such artists as: Dierks Bentley, Blake Shelton and Johnny Cash. His voice has everything you would expect from a true Country artist and has been described by fellow songwriters as “honey poured over thunder”. Keep an eye open for AJ Kross as he continues to make a name for himself in Music City. Head over to iTunes, Spotify and AJKross.com to check out some of his music.
Jamie Floyd
Jamie Floyd
Jamie Floyd is a Nashville based two time Grammy-nominated independent songwriter & recording artist. She has written songs recorded by Kelly Clarkson, Kesha, Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, Miranda Lambert, Ronnie Dunn, Sturgill Simpson, Ingrid Andress, Brian McKnight, Wrabel, Kalie Shorr, Ty Herndon, Ashley Monroe, Madi Diaz, Jake Hoot, Cassadee Pope, Hayden Panettiere, Kellie Picker, Lucie Silvas and more.
New releases include “The Blade,” co-written by Jamie and recorded by the legendary Ronnie Dunn for his new #1 album “100 Proof Neon.” Jamie also co-wrote 4 songs for the new Ty Herndon album “JACOB.” One of the tunes is a duet Floyd sings with Herndon, and she co-wrote the debut single from the album, “Till You Get There,” which impacted country radio in the summer of 2022 and is charting on the Mediabase charts and climbing as of November 2022. Other notable credits include having co-written “Anything But Love” with new country star Ingrid Andress, which appears on Ingrid’s Grammy nominated album, “Lady Like,” and cowriting the last single from Kelly Clarkson & Jake Hoot (Winner of The Voice Season 17), a duet called “I Would’ve Loved You.” The song has amassed more than 12 million views and 5 million streams. She also has songs included on the newest albums by Wrabel (Nettwerk/Big Gay Records), Cassadee Pope, Kalie Shorr (TMWRK) and several songs on the new Madi Diaz album “History Of A Feeling” (ANTI).
Jamie has written extensively for film and television, including writing and performing “Oh Darlin,'" the only original song featured in Theresa Rebeck’s Glimpse, a new thriller shot entirely on an iPhone in 2020. The film made its debut in early 2022 and features an all-star cast including Michael Emerson, Alysia Reiner, Raul Esparza and Janet McTeer. She also wrote and recorded “Let it Shine,” which closes out the final scene of the new movie Dakota. Her other credits include writing the finale for Dolly Parton’s A Country Christmas Story and writing and performing the entire 12 song soundtrack for Burt Reynolds’ award winning final film The Last Movie Star. She also appeared in the critically acclaimed documentary The Last Songwriter alongside Garth Brooks and Jason Isbell.
As a composer & lyricist, Jamie has written all the original music, 20+ songs, for an upcoming new musical in development, “The King’s Wife.” The musical recently had its first 29 hour reading with the prestigious Playwrights Horizons in NYC. The piece is produced by Emmy and Tony-nominated and Drama Desk winning producer Jennifer Kranz in association with multi-Tony-nominated Rosalind Productions (Broadway’s The Prom, Funny Girl, Three Tall Women, King Lear), with book and story by playwright Mêlisa Annis, directed by Tamilla Woodard (Hadestown) and with Music Direction by Ethan Popp (“The Greatest Showman,” Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, School of Rock). Jamie was also tapped to write the theme song “Little Christmas Miracles,” for Off Broadway Christmas play, of the same name. She penned the song by herself, especially for the show, and made her off Broadway debut as both a songwriter and a performer at The Actors Temple Theater in New York when she closed the show with her performance of the song on opening night.
As a touring artist, Floyd has toured nationally, including playing Stagecoach and headlining at The Washington State Fair with her band. After the independent release of her EP “New Girl,” debuted at #6 on the iTunes Country Album charts, Jamie made her Grand Ole Opry debut, opening for Metallica & Three Days Grace. The show aired in 300 cities/drive-ins across the United States and Canada as part of the Encore Drive In Nights concert series. She was awarded 2021’s “Rising Star Award” by the Concert For Love & Acceptance, a televised charitable event organized by Ty Herndon’s Foundation for Love & Acceptance and CMT.
Skip Black
Skip Black
North Carolina native and 2018 CCMA Songwriter of the Year, Skip Black has been making waves in Nashville since 2007. Most recently, Black landed a #1 in Canada with Aaron Goodvin’s “Boy Like Me” which is currently up for CCMA single of the year and is now impacting US Radio stations. He has 3 cuts with Craig Morgan including his current single, "How You Make A Man" impacting radio now as well as other notable cuts including “High As I Ever Been”- Gary Allan, "Hello Goodbye"- Tyler Farr, “Keep On Fallin’”- Eric Paslay, “Love Drunk”- LOCASH, “What I Love About Your Love”- Jana Kramer, “Lonely Drum” - Aaron Goodvin, “All She Wrote” - Christie Lamb (2 weeks at #1 in Australia), and the top 20 Billboard hit "Amen"- Edens Edge! Skip is not only an incredible writer, but a sought after producer, producing the entire Kalie Shorr record “Awake” and writing two of the songs on her EP “I Got Here by Accident” that was featured in Rolling Stone.
Pete Sallis