Brice plays The Outlaw Saloon in Ogden with his full band on Saturday. He has played Southern Utah, but this is his first time at the club, a Texas-style dance hall.

"Sounds like our kind of place. You bring them dancing boots in, and we'll get them moving," said Brice.

Good writing

Live music is what hooked Brice on the idea of performing.

"I watched a lot of great gospel concerts when I was young," he said. "And then I saw a really good show by Shenandoah. But when I got to see Garth (Brooks) when I was 17, that one was the icing. That one put it over the top."

When Brice left college a few years later, he headed to Nashville under the advisement of Doug Johnson. Johnson is a country-music mover and shaker who has engineered, produced, and recruited and developed artists for some of Nashville's biggest labels -- and has also written five hit records of his own.

When Johnson became the head of artists and repertoire at Curb Records, he signed Brice to a publishing contract. Some of Brice's songs were soon recorded by hitmakers Jason Aldean, Cowboy Crush and Keith Gattis.

But Brice's biggest break as a songsmith came in 2007, when Garth Brooks recorded his song "More Than a Memory."

"I was the luckiest guy on the planet," said Brice. "He was absolutely one of my heroes, and I was able to be a part of that. It really changed my life. Songs are just like babies, and you hope they get treated good. And I was so proud of what Garth did. It was awesome."

However, Brice still had his eye on recording his own stuff. His success in getting other big names scoring hits with his songs started opening those doors for him.

"I came here as a guy who wrote songs, and sang them, but I just happened to get a little more success as a writer first. It helped catapult me as an artist, because people respect you if you write your own stuff. It is a bigger deal."

Brice said he got his performance legs under him playing clubs and showcases with a few friends.

"We would grab our acoustic guitars and go to bars and jam out." He laughed. "We kind of terrorized Nashville in our own way, but it worked."

Get the picture

Brice worked on his debut album, "Love Like Crazy," for a number of years, while he was writing for others and assembling his own band. Several of the songs were released as singles along the way, with the entire collection arriving earlier this year.

"I originally kind of started the album a few years ago, and named it 'Picture of Me' -- that is the first track on the record. But when the label put 'Love Like Crazy' out as a single, they wanted to name the album that."

Naming the album "Picture of Me" felt good to Brice, both because of the song's name and the overall concept of the record.

"It is a good way to look at the album, which talks about where I am from, who I have loved, stuff I have been through. When I first started writing and thinking about the album, I thought, 'You know, these people don't know me. I should explain myself a little.' So I started thinking about that, and with the song 'Picture of Me,' I said, 'Let's write a song literally about me.' That song is one of my favorites -- for what it says and the musicality of it both. It has a cool rock thing going on, yet it is country -- all of the above."

Brice said he has been fortunate to have a fairly consistent lineup in his band since about 2007. Only the bass player is new to the group. Thus, the sound -- featuring Texas-style electric/blues guitar and the lush velvet funkiness of a B-3 organ -- is solid.

Brice is anxious for people to hear these songs and the album that took him so long to present as a full-on package.

"It's taken a long time to get it out, but at least we have released some singles along the way, and so people know us a little bit. I am really proud and happy about having it out there now, so people can hear the music. And now we can start making another one."

Watch "Love Like Crazy"