Lynchburg-born country songwriter Phil Vassar has penned tunes for Tim McGraw and Alan Jackson since his ascent in the 90’s, but had started to draw CMT megastars like Kenny Chesney and Martina McBride into his own records by the early aughts. (Wait, so should we actually start calling them that now? Sorry, must have missed that memo if there was ever a consensus.) But the man still remembers where he came from — his December release, Traveling Circus, is packaged entirely using artwork created by his former high school art teacher. (Speaking of which, did anybody out there have a Mr. Erwin?)