Mario Tarradell

Steve Wariner doesn't mind admitting he's retired. But that comes with a caveat. While the country singer, songwriter and primo guitarist said goodbye to the major label, radio hits and constant touring after 2000's Faith in You, he's hardly lounging.

"I'm retired if you want to call it retired," says the 53-year-old artist by phone from his Nashville home. "I just spend my days writing songs. I got about five songs going right now and in the demo process. It's almost like playing chess. I got this song ... who can I give it to?"

Mr. Wariner can afford to pen the music and then find the interpreter who'll turn it into a mainstream hit. Since he's owned the publishing of every song he's written since 1976, the soft-spoken Indiana native enjoys a lucrative, um, retirement. Two No. 1 singles, Garth Brooks' "Longneck Bottle" and Clint Black's "Nothin' but the Taillights," are Wariner compositions. So is Keith Urban's top-five staple "Where the Blacktop Ends."

The cuts by Mr. Brooks and Mr. Urban are particularly good moneymakers since they've been included on multiple CD releases.

"If it wasn't for my publishing and writing, I'd still be out there playing every Podunk club just to make a living," he says. "When you see me playing somewhere, it's 'cause I want to be doing it."

Jim McGuire

'I feel like I have respect from my peers and my players. Musicians out there know who I am. That means a lot to me,' says Steve Wariner.

Such is the case with his rare concert Friday at Cowboys Red River.

"I just love playing. I miss it," Mr. Wariner says. "Every once in a while somebody tells me we'll pay you this kind of money to go play. That sounds good. So I get the guys together and we go play some music."

Dallas is a special market.

"It's like a homecoming of sorts for me," he says. "I've played there so much through the years."

Steve Noel Wariner, born on Christmas Day, broke through country radio in 1980 with the top 10 single "Your Memory." From 1984 to 1990 he scored 18 top-10 smashes, eight of which hit No. 1. In 1998, his timeless ballad "Holes in the Floor of Heaven" became a signature song. The beautifully sentimental number won the Country Music Association's awards for single and song of the year.

Yet great radio airplay rarely translated to record sales. He has a mere three gold albums in his 30-year career. Two of those came in the late '90s – 1998's Burnin' the Roadhouse Down and 1999's Two Teardrops.

So eight years ago, he left Capitol Records and decided to just write, produce and run his own imprint, Selectone Records. Through Selectone, he's released two studio albums, 2003's Steal Another Day and 2005's This Real Life. He is currently working on a tribute disc to the late Chet Atkins, the influential country music guitarist who served as a mentor to Mr. Wariner early in his career.

Plus, he was just inducted into the Music City Walk of Fame. Mr. Wariner feels honored, and he's realized that, given the chance, he wouldn't change his creative past.

"I feel like I have respect from my peers and my players," he says. "Musicians out there know who I am. That means a lot to me. I just wrote a song called 'I Am What I Am.' I don't think I would have changed much of anything. I would have loved to sell some records back in the day. But some things are meant to be. I feel pretty good about where I am, my place." Plan your life

Steve Wariner performs at 10:30 p.m. Friday at Cowboys Red River, 10310 Technology Blvd. Doors open at 7. $10 and $20. Ticketmaster.