Nashville also brought that first recording contract, that first album and her husband, Rodney Good. The couple married in August 2000, barely two months before the release of O'Neal's first album, Shiver. The next few years were a whirlwind.
O'Neal nabbed a pair of #1 hits "There Is No Arizona" and "When I Think About Angels" and both of those titles earned her Grammy nominations as a songwriter for "Country Song of the Year." In addition, "Arizona" brought a third Grammy nod for "Best Female Country Vocal Performance." The Academy of Country Music named her the Top New Female Vocalist, she sang on the soundtracks of Bridget Jones's Diary and When We Were Soldiers, appeared on the Grand Ole Opry, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Late Show with David Letterman. She toured with Reba McEntire and Martina McBride, opened for Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney and Toby Keith.
When she decided to take a break from the road, to have her baby and be a mommy for a little while, O'Neal continued to write songs, including the hit "How Far," recorded by Martina McBride. But she kept most of those new songs for herself, standing at the ready for the moment when she returned to the studio to make Brave. "The goal in making this album was to allow the audience to know me better," she says. "You only have 11 songs to show what you're all about, and I feel like the first album was just the tip of the iceberg. So I wanted to dig a little deeper."
The tortured "When Did You Know" summons all of her vocal strength just to face a difficult future; while "Naive'" uses Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The U.S.A." to recall those teen years when our futures looked easy to predict. Maturity and the strength it brings infuse "Ready When It Comes" and "Brave," two songs about facing a dark, unknown future. "Devil On The Left," a murky tale of a stripper with bigger expectations, gives O'Neal her own "Fancy" while "Trying To Find Atlantis," the first single, playfully rues the struggle involved in finding the perfect man. "Somebody's Hero" and "I Love This Life" uniquely celebrate O'Neal's new perspective as a mom.
And in fine family fashion, after recording with multi-award winning producer Keith Stegall during the day, she worked with husband Rodney Good at their home studio to finalize all the vocal parts for the album, cementing their partnership in the process. "Working with Keith Stegall is such a comfortable experience for me. He always brings out the best in me and I trust his judgement 100% on my voice and song choices. The only person I trust as much as Keith with my vocals is my husband Rodney Good."
"We would be up, just the two of us, me in my robe, working at two o'clock in the morning, and it was awesome," she smiles. "We're both getting to do what we love. We're getting to do it at home, our baby's on the monitor, we're feeling like we have everything that we ever wanted."
