You have to be crafty to do this. You need a meticulously plotted strategy, figuring out all the angles, anticipating the changes in taste, style and business practices. You have to pore over the research, examine the data. That's how you stay on top in a field as changeable as country music for twenty years. You must plan every step.

Or you can do it like Steve Wariner. "I just go where the music takes me," the award winning singer/songwriter/guitarist says with a shrug.

Twenty years after recording his first single, with more than a dozen #1 songs and 30 Top Ten singles under his belt, Wariner is hotter than Georgia asphalt. His guitar work and singing with Garth Brooks ("Longneck Bottle") and Anita Cochran ("What If I Said") helped those songs hit #1 on the country charts. Two songs that he wrote, "Nothing but the Taillights" and "One Small Miracle," have become huge hits for Clint Black and Bryan White, respectively. His total domination of the charts was solidified with the powerful ballad, "Holes In The Floor of Heaven," the first single from his new album, Burnin' The Roadhouse Down.

Though an immediate success upon release, "Holes In the Floor of Heaven" was written over a year ago. Wariner stepped back from performing and recording three years ago and focused his creative energy on his songwriting. Though he wrote songs from the start of his career, Wariner kept them for his own records. In 1995, he started pitching songs to other artists. "A few things started happening, I got some cuts on albums and then heard from people who wanted to write with me. I've never really experienced that side of the business before. I just dug in, made my studio at home where I could cut demos and the next thing I knew the Garth thing happened, the Clint thing happened and it all started to snowball."

Still, Steve Wariner has talents beyond songwriter, and he wanted to make an album. When it wasn't happening at his record label, Arista, Wariner asked to be released from his contract. The artist and the company parted amicably, and Wariner found himself courted by numerous labels. He signed with Capitol Records and immediately started work on Burnin' The Roadhouse Down.

"I tell people that I've been in pre-production on this record for three years," he says with a smile. During those years of songwriting, Wariner. set aside a few keepers, waiting for the day he could record them himself. "Holes In The Floor of Heaven" was one of those songs. "I've got stuff on this album that I just love," he says. "This is the most me album of anything that I've ever done." There are 12 songs on this album, and all but one was written or co-written by Wariner. He considers this album to be the culmination of everything he's learned through the years.

Wariner began his music career as a teenager, playing bass and singing in Dottie West's band at 17. By 1977, he had his first "singles" deal as a solo artist, thanks to Chet Atkins at RCA. "Chet was my first producer," says Wariner. "I was recording my first four songs and the session was crazy. It was the day after Elvis Presley died and of course, the TV networks all wanted to talk to Chet during my session. I'll never forget that day."

Wariner battled for airplay alongside such country legends as Merle Haggard, Charley Pride and Conway Twitty with his debut record, and remembers that the competition for radio airplay was fierce. "I was just trying to write the best songs that I could. I was around all these country music icons and I just tried to shut up and learn how to be an artist." By 1980, he scored his first Top Ten hit, "Your Memory." For the next decade, you couldn't read a record chart without seeing Steve Wariner's name at the top. He had moved from RCA Records to MCA, where he worked with producer Tony Brown, finding chart success with several self-penned hits.

"I started really learning how to write during that time," Wariner says. "I got married and we had children, and I was touring a lot. I grew up real fast, I'll say that much. A lot happened in that period of time, and my songs started getting a little deeper as I started to experience more."

After seven years and nine albums, Wariner went to Arista Records and the chance to work with Tim Dubois. His first album with that label, I Am Ready went gold and contained some of Wariner's top hits. It was just about this time that Wariner joined forces with Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs and Mark O'Connor on "Restless," a cut from the album Mark O'Connor and The New Nashville Cats. The song led to Wariner's first Grammy award, for Best Country Vocal Collaboration, in 1992.

After his next album, Drive, Wariner wanted to do something completely different. Known as one of the best guitarists in the business, he started work on an instrumental album, calling on artists like Chet Atkins, Richie Sambora, Leo Kottke and Vince Gill to appear on the album, called No More Mr. Nice Guy. "The main thing was to have fun," Wariner says about the 1996 album. "We just left the machines on and we were laughing and joking and playing. I told everyone up front that there was no pressure on this because I know it won't get on radio. So just play whatever you want to. I'm making this one for me."

The album was nominated for a Grammy. Unfortunately, one of the competitors in the category was Wariner's old friend, mentor and first producer, Chet Atkins. "I knew he would win," says Wariner. A week later, Atkins gave that Grammy award to Steve, saying that he was the one who really deserved it. "It was an incredible gesture. He gave me his Grammy, which I have right now in my house," says Wariner.

Today, all that he's learned as a performer, songwriter, producer and musician have come together in Burnin' The Roadhouse Down. Once again, he's going where the music takes him, and it's clear that he has come up with the most brilliant plan of all.