HOMETOWN LIVING AT I TS BEST 49
deal was not a straight line. When
Mitch graduated from TCHS, he
said, “I kind of had in my mind that
I was going to teach school and keep
farming.” After graduating from
Georgia Southern with a degree in
Technology Education, Mitch started
teaching technology at Treutlen
Middle and High School in Soperton,
Georgia. After a year of teaching, he
began singing full time and developed
a good following locally as well as up
and down the east coast.
Mitch moved to Nashville around
2000 to further pursue his music
career. Whether he was performing
or listening to other performers sing,
it was all a part of the learning. The
music industry was a tough place to
break into, but he was no stranger
to hard work. He put his hand to the
plow and kept working at perfecting
his skill as a singer/songwriter.
The program director of Z-94 in
Baxley, Georgia, once told Mitch that
if he ever made a recording, he would
play it. On Christmas Eve of 2002,
Mitch took a song he’d recorded called
“I Want Us Back” to the station. After
a quick listen, the program director
was impressed. On the way home,
Mitch heard his voice on the radio for
the first time. A few weeks later, he
got a call from Z-94. “The guy said,
‘Mitch, I’ve counted the requests
three times, and you’ve got the most
requested song in South Georgia!’”
The song stayed at the top for three
weeks running. Rick Paul and Leith
Canty with the WXRS Morning show
were also instrumental in making “I
Want Us Back” a hit. “When Pat and
Triste from the Y 96 Classic Country
Jukebox picked up ‘I Want Us Back’
and ‘That Was Us’, both songs became
big hits.”
In 2004, Mitch held back to back
sold out shows at STC in Vidalia.
Back in Nashville, he was teaching
computer skills to middle school
students by day and singing at the
bars on Broadway by night. In 2006,
he got his first publishing deal. A guy
named Troy Woodis from Muscle