Josh Thompson's simple tunes ring true

Staying out so late that you have to make your way home early in the morning can make a good plot for a country song. For Josh Thompson, that’s what it recently took to write one.

The performer may take a bow after he shares songs from his well-received debut CD, “Way Out Here,” during Saturday night’s show at the Jefferson Theater, but the writer’s work is never done.

When he seized a chance to write with some songwriting partners one evening last week, “it was 5:30 in the morning when we finished up,” Thompson said during a telephone interview a mere five hours later. “But we ended up doing a song and a half.”

Country fans turn to Thompson for “Beer on the Table,” his top-20 debut single, as well as his current tune, “Won’t Be Lonely Long,” and the title track from his album. Country singers also like what they hear, which is why Jason Aldean recorded his “Church Pew or Bar Stool,” Brad Paisley chose his “A Man Don’t Have to Die” and Jason Michael Carroll even made “Growing Up is Getting Old” a CD title track.

To succeed as a writer, Thompson said, he has to think like a listener. That part’s easy — he’s a country fan through and through.

“I think, especially in country music, and with me, it’s important to have that connection to people and to everyday people,” Thompson said. “That’s what it’s all about to me.”

In a good song, “the melody’s definitely right,” Thompson said. “But if there’s any discrepancy lyrics-wise, that’s it. I like true, honest words that are really simple and aren’t wrapped up in bubble gum to make a point.

“It isn’t trying too hard. It isn’t cheesy.”

And the good songs don’t wait too long to let you know that you’ve penned a winner, he said.

“Ninety percent of the time, you know when you’re writing,” he said. “Sometimes, you don’t know until you get in the studio.”

Thompson’s laser-like focus on his writing is paying off in Nashville, Tenn. It’s such a talent-packed town that it’s easy to assemble just the band you want for your CD, but standing out in a sea of gifted songwriters requires burning through plenty of determination and midnight oil.

“It really is a mecca for uber-talented musicians,” he said. “It kind of makes you want to throw up.”

In Thompson’s current single, “Won’t Be Lonely Long,” an optimistic young man realizes that getting dumped at 7 p.m. on a Friday night is a beer-glass-half-full scenario. In a similar fashion, Thompson has learned how to listen to what’s out there and then offer a bright little slice of something refreshingly different.

Genuine sentiments that ring true with listeners are essential, but there’s no escaping the magic of great timing. So when the airwaves are crowded with love songs, it’s time to crack open a can of something a little less filling. People embraced Thompson’s first hit because they could relate to its cheerful tale of being grateful for life’s simple pleasures after a hard week of work.

“With my first single, ‘Beer on the Table,’ it was about time for people to hear that — a song about working hard and drinking beer,” Thompson said. “I think it was the change of scenery, so to speak, that drew people in.

“There are so many other aspects of life. Love songs are great, but once the market is flooded, it’s not so great.”