SpringfieldNewsSun.com

SPRINGFIELD — Cheley Tackett's big break was at hand — Lee Ann Womack had placed one of her songs on hold.

"It just means they're considering it," Tackett explained. "But in their heads, it means it shouldn't be pitched to other artists."

It was one of the few love songs Tackett had written since arriving in Nashville a decade ago, and Womack would've been a good fit for it.

Or so she thought.

Womack ended up releasing an entire album of heartbreak songs.

"Go figure," Tackett said. "It's all timing."

The singer-songwriter — a 1990 Northeastern High alum and the daughter of Clark County Commissioner Roger Tackett — has had similar close calls with Montgomery Gentry, Martina McBride, Jo Dee Messina, Billy Currington and Diamond Rio.

She's gotten close.

Just not close enough.

"I was definitely naive when I got here, fresh from college and ready to take on the world," Tackett said. "I knew it'd be hard. I didn't know how hard it would be."

Life for Tackett — and a few other Music City songwriters — might be getting a little easier thanks to a new startup label, Adroit Records.

The label, started by L.A. transplant Jim Tract, was created to give a select group of Nashville songwriters some visibility.

Tackett was picked to be on the label's first release, the compilation "Words & Music Nashville."

On the new comp, 10 Nashville songwriters give voice to their own songs.

"He's trying to get us exposure we don't usually get," Tackett said.

But not all of them are struggling.

Vince Melamed can be heard performing his song "Walkaway Joe" — a No. 2 hit for Trisha Yearwood in 1992.

Tract spotted Tackett by accident performing at Nashville's legendary Bluebird Cafe.

"It was astonishing," he said. "There are very few people that can quiet a room. Cheley's one of those people, where glasses come down and heads turn."

For Tract, Adroit Records is something of a dream come true.

He remixed the hit version of the Pointer Sisters' "I'm So Excited" back in 1984, but eventually got pigeonholed, he complained.

"What I really wanted to do was organic, true music," he said.

Same goes for Tackett.

She left Ohio for Nashville with hopes of being a singer-songwriter, and she's had promising breaks. In 2002, she followed in the footsteps of Lucinda Williams and Lyle Lovett by winning the New Folk award at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas.

She still writes for herself — she runs a cleaning service by day — but she also tries to write commercially for mainstream country artists.

"One of my worst fears is that I'll write some dumb song," she said, "and that'll be my biggest hit."

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0352 or amcginn@coxohio.com.