More Than a Songwriter: Jessie Jo Dillon on Crafting Country’s Future and Her First CMA Nomination

Revered producer and music industry figure Frank Liddell has a saying when it comes to what makes a good country song:

Throughout her storied career, which has seen her pen some of the biggest and most memorable songs in modern country music, Jessie Jo Dillon has held on to this piece of sage wisdom, letting it guide her to eight No. 1 singles at country radio, writing sessions with the who's who of the genre and countless award nominations, ranging from Grammys, ACMs, AIMP Nashville Awards and, most recently, her very first CMA.

“I think a lot of great country songs from over the years have come from living, whether that's Hank Williams, Charley Pride, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless or whoever. It's all just the truth, what you've lived and what you've seen," Dillon explains. "I think that's always really relatable because we're all kind of the same at the end of the day.”

Growing up under the same roof as one of the most decorated songwriters in the genre's history, her father Dean Dillon, Jessie Jo has lived and seen her fair share, only serving to inform her craft and give her plenty of her own truths to tell.

"As a kid, I didn't really understand what it meant to be a songwriter," she shares. "My childhood was kind of chaotic, but I feel like music was always an escape for me. I've always just been so in love with music and those songs, even as a kid, that you would hear and think, 'I feel like this person really understands me.' Music has always just been a retreat and a soft place to land."

Taking to music from a young age, her first love in the country world came by way of a writer named Bob McDill. With 31 No. 1 hits to hit name, McDill penned songs for everyone from Alan Jackson and Pam Tillis to The Grateful Dead and Ray Charles.

“I loved how many different types of songs he could write, from 'Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On' and 'Good Ole' Boys Like Me,' to something so poetic and heavy," Dillon recalls. "I just remember thinking that I would love to have a career where I could kind of chameleon and do all different types of songs and wasn't just known for one kind of song."

Wanting to prove her mettle without her father's legacy hanging over her, Dillon relocated to California for a year, wading knee deep into LA's glittery music industry and creative community. Crossing paths with Sony's Kathleen Carey, she wrote a flurry of songs that year and used Carey as her living breathing sounding board.

"One day she said, 'You need to go home. You write country music and you're good at it. Go home and try to do this.'" Heading back home to Nashville to cut her teeth among the greats, she explains, "I started writing with my boyfriend at the time and other friends and started making the rounds. I told my dad I was doing all of this and he asked if I would write a song with him. We started writing some together and George Strait ended up cutting one of those songs called 'The Breath You Take.'"

That little Grammy-nominated song that could opened up the floodgates for Dillon, who has since gone on to be one of the most in-demand songwriters in Music City, as well as throughout the whole of the country genre. In just a few short years, she's penned chart-topping songs like Cole Swindell's 'Break Up In The End,' Old Dominion's 'Memory Lane,' Jelly Roll's 'Halfway To Hell,' Tyler Hubbard's 'Back Then Right Now' and Morgan Wallen's 'Lies, Lies, Lies,' as well as multi-week No. 1s like Russell Dickerson's 'Happen To Me' and Dan + Shay's Justin Bieber-graced '10,000 Hours.'

And those are just the ones that scaled to the top of the country charts.

Elsewhere in her sprawling songwriting resume, you'll find some of your favorite songs from artists like Kelsea Ballerini, Keith Urban, Maren Morris, Post Malone, HARDY, Miranda Lambert, Luke Bryan, Jon Pardi, Tim McGraw, Brothers Osborne, Darius Rucker and countless others as she's become one of the ultimate chameleons in country music.

Ranging from heartfelt, vulnerable ballads to in-your-face, arena ready rompers, Dillon's golden pen has cut deep. Her eclectic songbook speaks for itself, as she's found familiar and frequent collaborators in some of the genre's biggest personalities and its loudest voices like Jelly Roll, HARDY and, of special note, Megan Moroney.

"Megan is my absolute dog," Dillon says with a smile. "She is, bar none, one of the best artists I've ever had the pleasure of working with. She's so dialed into her heart, her brand and her fans... She's someone that I hope I work with until we both hang it up because I think we see songs similarly and we're very similar people, too."

That shared vision has resulted in a smattering of songs–mostly unreleased as of yet–that the pair have written together, including the long-teased 'Beautiful Things' and Dillon's first CMA nominated tune, 'Am I Okay?'

Vying for the crown alongside Lainey Wilson ('4x4xU'), Zach Top ('I Never Lie'), Blake Shelton ('Texas') and Riley Green & Ella Langley ('you look like you love me') on November 19, the CMA nomination completes Dillon's award nomination grand slam, but according to her, this one easily takes the cake.

Born in the midst of one of Moroney's relationships when she had previously been "real down–like full emo cowgirl," the Georgia native came to Dillon and Luke Laird with that title ready to roll. "We all thought it would be cool to do that as a love song instead of a ballad, which is what the title reads like. We really wanted to make it uptempo and in the first verse approach it like, 'What's wrong with me?' Then make it into a love song."

Written in the span of just three hours, the masterclass misdirect tune has gone on to become one of Moroney's most recognizable hits. The lead single and title track to her lauded sophomore album released in July of 2024, it boasts a shiny 2x Platinum certification from the RIAA and nearly 150 million streams on Spotify alone.

"It's so cool to have with Megan because it's my first CMA nomination," Dillon gushes. "It feels really good to be recognized by the CMA and Nashville in that way."

Dillon isn't just a force in Music City when it comes to being a songwriter, though.

A committed advocate to the next generation of artists and storytellers, as well as the industry at large, 2025 has seen Dillon take on the bespoke position of Song Buddy at MCA and launch her own Gatsby Records imprint under the label with flagship artist Carter Faith.

"Dave Cobb [Chief Creative Officer at MCA] called me one day and was like, 'Hey, I have this crazy idea,'" Dillon recalls, explaining that the impetus for Song Buddy came from wanting the record label to be closer with the songwriting community. "I've always done this job, just not with an official title. I'm getting into the thick of albums with artists in town–whether it's artwork, connecting artists with people or plugging songs for artists that I heard from a friend."

Expanding on that artist-forward mentality, launched Gatsby Records back in August and recently celebrated its first release with Faith's critically-acclaimed debut album, Cherry Valley. With only Faith signed to the label thus far, Dillon explains that she has plenty of dreams for the label and what they can do if they "believe in the green light," referencing the label's namesake.

"I have no desire to try and sign a bunch of shit. I care too much, so it's going to be a big decision to sign other people, which we definitely will," Dillon notes. "I never want to tell the artists who to be or what to do. I just want to find people that are pretty solid in who they are because I don't think you can teach somebody that or tell them what their North Star is."

"I want to find people that are a little different and understand themselves, and hopefully help them achieve their dreams." She adds with a smile, "I just want to help them shoot for the moon."

A once-in-a-generation talent, Jessie Jo Dillon has paved one hell of a road down Music Row over the last decade or so–beyond merely the songs she's written. If we had to guess, she's just getting started.

––

For more on Jessie Jo Dillon, see below: