Occupation:

Songwriter - CEO

Company Name:

Writers In House Music Publishing

About Me:

Mark Houser, President and CEO of Writers In-House Music, started the company in 1988 in his hometown of Livingston, Tennessee in order to record and release an album of some of his original songs. Houser's first cut was in 1983 by Jim Bowman. It inspired Houser to release a LP in 1988. The title cut of that collection “The Big Picture” was picked up by the motion picture “NO JUSTICE” as the movie’s closing theme in 1989.
In 1990 Houser met Jimmy Bilbrey and would began a co-writer partnership.The two of them then met a young singer-songwriter Rodney Atkins and the three begin sharing ideas. Houser wrote many songs with Atkins including six on the developmental project that landed Atkins a major label recording contract on Curb Records. The song ‘God Only Knows” written by Houser, Atkins, and Ted Hewitt was released by Curb in 1999. Houser continued to forge ahead and has co-written songs with a host of Nashville’s finest talent, including Rodney Atkins, Casey Beathard, Karyn Rochelle, Kendall Marvel, Sherrie Austin, Randy Houser, Brian Gowan, Ted Hewitt, David Kent, Arlo Gilliam, Reed Neilsen, Mark D. Conklin, Mark Schaffel, Mark Carson, J. D. Dohnal, Anthony Krizan, David Adam Byrnes, Jay Brunswick, Marty Brown, Bobby Boyd, Phil O’Donnelll, Cooper Boone and many others. The list continues to grow including most recently legendary blues and jazz singer-songwriter A.J.Croce and country artists Kenneth Duncan and Heidi Raye.
In May of 2002 Writers-In House Music, by then an incorporated entity moved its base of operation to Nashville’s Music Row.
In November of 2003 Grand Ole Opry legend Jack Greene released a Houser- Bilbrey- Candy Carpenter collaboration entitled “Red, White, and Blue Christmas” and performed the song to a standing ovation at the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium during the Holiday season of 2003. In 2006 Houser had a single released in Australia called “It’s Time”, sung by native Australian Scott Dann, which reached #43 on the Australian Independent Chart. Also in late 2006 the bluegrass song “Seven Miles From Wichita” was released and eventually reached #1 on Sirius Radio Bluegrass chart,The song was sung by Carrie Hassler & Hard Rain and also on the album was the song Hard Rain written by Houser and Jimmy Bilbrey. In 2009 Houser had a video released of Sometimes I Just Feel Like That by Memarie Gayle who also became a contestant on Can You Duet. That song along with She’s All That from Cooper Boone’s CD received write-ups in Country Music Weekly. Arlo Gilliam’s two solo CD’s included 7 Houser co-written songs with Gilliam, known from his bass guitar on ther band Emerson Drive.
David Adam’s Brynes CD Premium Country relelased in late 2010 included the songs Maybe She Won’t Go and That’s What I Tell Myself. While Russell Hitckcock’s CD to be released in January 2011 incldues the Houser co-write It’s Okay.
80 songs recorded in his career after the spring release by Jessica Kilroy’s new CD COLD featuring 3 Houser songs.. Included in the number are one major label cut, one motion picture release and one bluegrass chart single.
Houser is currently working on a bluegrass LP.“Making my second album after 23 years of simply trying to write for others has been fun. I hope others can relate to the songs.”
Houser has a B.S. Degree from Tennessee Tech University. and is a former assistant football coach at White County High School (1980) and Livingston Academy (1993-98 and 2007) and currently coaches at Jackson County (2006, 2008-10). He is the Field Office Manager for the Tennessee Department of Health, Division of General Environmental Health. He served as two-time President of the Tennessee Environmental Health Association and was named the Lynn B. Hearn Tennessee Environmentalist of the Year in 2008.

Website:

http://writersinhouse.info

Number of years working in Nashville area:

over 20

Number of years in the music business:

Since 1983