Born 71 Years Ago Today in Pennsylvania, the Country Music Songwriter and Vocalist Who Penned Hits for Ronnie Milsap, Patty Loveless, and Clay Walker

Despite releasing two solo albums, Curtis Wright does his best work with and for others. Born in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, on this day (June 6) in 1955, the country music artist has played with Reba McEntire and penned hits for artists like Ronnie Milsap.

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Curtis Wright Has Written for Patty Loveless, Rhonda Vincent, and More

Curtis Wright began his country music career as a member of a band called the Country Generation, which later became the Super Grit Cowboy Band. He played lead guitar for the latter, which landed on the country songs chart in 1971 with “If You Don’t Know Me by Now”.

Later, Wright performed as a backup signer and guitarist for country singer Vern Gosdin. During that time, Patty Loveless recorded “You Saved Me”, his first song cut by a major artist, in 1988.

The following year, he quit Gosdin’s band and wrote the song “A Woman in Love”, which Ronnie Milsap took to number one on the country charts.

The Trouble With His Own Solo Career

The same year he wrote “A Woman in Love”, Curtis Wright signed with Airborne Records and released “She’s Got a Man on Her Mind”, which climbed to number 38 on the country songs chart. He planned to release his solo debut, Slick Hick, in March 1990, but financial issues with the label barred its release.

“I am a man without a company, dead in the water,” Wright told an Ohio news outlet. “I’ve got some songs about real life out there that people will say, ‘Yeah, I feel like that.’”

Before releasing his self-titled debut album on another label in 1992, Wright co-wrote Shenandoah’s number-one hit “Next to You, Next to Me”. He would later join Shenandoah as its lead singer in the late 1990s before leaving in 2007 to tour with Reba McEntire’s band.

[RELATED: 4 Ronnie Milsap Songs That Prove He Is One of the Greatest Country Artists of All Time]

In 1994, Wright formed the country music duo Orrall & Wright with Robert Ellis Orrall. Releasing just one self-titled album later that year, the pair received a Duo of the Year nomination from the Country Music Association before resuming their solo careers.

Curtis Wright has also toured as a member of Pure Prairie League and as a a background vocalist for Tim McGraw, The Eagles, Darryl Worley and Billy Dean.

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