Phil Naish: a Grammy-winning Nashville producer, imported

Sweetwater Studios' executive producer — the Steven Curtis Chapman records

Seven albums, three Grammys: Phil Naish was raised in Florida — a cellist in the South Florida Youth Symphony before a scholarship took him to Belmont College in Nashville — and built his career in Nashville's studios: first as a session keyboardist for Sandi Patty, Steve Green, Boz Scaggs, and Dolly Parton, then as one of the defining producers of 1990s Christian pop. His seven-album production run with Steven Curtis Chapman carried three Grammy Awards and numerous Dove Awards, and his producer credits run across the genre's roster — Point of Grace, Carman, Jaci Velasquez, Steve Green, Michael Card, David Phelps, the Martins, Jonathan Pierce, Wes King, and Geoff Moore and the Distance.

His Fort Wayne chapter is the Sweetwater chapter: by the late 2010s Naish had joined Sweetwater Studios as its executive producer and producer-arranger — "a Grammy-winning producer and 37-year Nashville vet," in the trade press's phrase — where he is credited as executive producer of Marcus Scott's Back 2 Da Soul (2019) and leads the studio's songwriting contest sessions and workshops, arranging and producing the winning writers' songs in the Fort Wayne rooms. He and Hornsby, Nashville men both, are the pair of hands Sweetwater put on the board — the clearest case in this record of Fort Wayne producing by importation.

Sources:

1. Phil Naish biography (philnaish.com, carried by Beyond a Song/PRX and the Christian Music Archive) — the Florida upbringing and Belmont; session work for Sandi Patty, Steve Green, Boz Scaggs, and Dolly Parton; the seven-album relationship with Steven Curtis Chapman, "during which three Grammy Awards were won plus numerous Dove Awards"; the produced roster, Point of Grace through Geoff Moore and the Distance.
2. American Songwriter, 17 September 2021 — Naish "now serves as the executive producer for Sweetwater Studios"; a forty-year career with Grammy-winning production credits and appearances on tracks by Kenny Chesney, Kenny Rogers, and Elton John.
3. Recording Magazine / Mix, 17 November 2021 — Sweetwater Studios' producer/arranger Phil Naish; the songwriting contest winners to "arrange, produce, and record their winning entries with" him; "a Grammy-winning producer and 37-year Nashville vet."
4. Vents Magazine, 30 September 2019 — Naish as Sweetwater Studios Executive Producer of Back 2 Da Soul.