Country music fans may not know Corey Crowder, but they know his music. The singer-songwriter has penned some of country music’s biggest hits, including Chris Young‘s “I’m Comin’ Over,” as well as his duet, “Think of You,” with Cassadee Pope, and Florida Georgia Line‘s “I Love My Country,” among others. But when he wrote “My Poor Mama,” with Jaren Johnston, James McNair, and Jordan Schmidt, he realized that this might be the one he was finally ready to release on his own.

“I moved to town as an artist,” Corey told Everything Nash. “I had a record deal and all that stuff. And one thing that I always had a problem with was kind of landing on an identity per se, as far as styles. Because I’m a songwriter, I like writing a lot of different kinds of stuff. And so I think for me, this kind of revamped where, I’m going to release music. Kind of the rule behind it was, I need to be having fun, or I’m not even going to do it. So I basically, I decided I’m going to put it out, I’m just going to put out the songs that I tend to listen to a ton that never got recorded.”

Some of the songs Corey plans to release, like “My Poor Mama,” have already been turned down by several artists, but he still believes in their potential to be a hit.

“I’m going to take those and say, ‘You know what? This song has had its shot around town, but it’s one of my favorite songs. I find myself jamming to this thing,'” he reflected. That’s really just because. that’s really my favorite type of songs right now, are those songs that are what I call a jam. They don’t take themselves too seriously. They’re good sitting by the pool, out at the lake, maybe makes you want to drink a beer. That’s my kind of song. And so my goal is just to maybe get some of these songs that I think are good, that never had a life in a little life.”

“My Poor Mama” certainly fits that bill. The song, which says in part, “My poor mama, man I put her through hell / She drained her savings account, keeping me out of jail / My poor mama, man I swear she’s a saint / She put in the overtime and never got paid / If saving my can was worth a million dollars / Nobody’d be richer than my poor mama,” isn’t entirely true to his own life, but Corey lived enough of the song to know what he is singing about.

‘It’s not meant to be autobiographical just because I’m a songwriter,” Corey noted. “So when I write, I’m writing to get the song recorded by someone else. So this song was just a song that I have loved since we wrote it. And it has never been recorded by anybody.

“So because of that, it’s not like the whole song is super true to me necessarily, but I have stories,” he added with a laugh.

Corey is releasing “My Poor Mama,” but doesn’t have plans to put out a full album –– at least not yet.

“I’m not really thinking in that term,” Corey said. “I’m just kind of thinking maybe I want to put four or five songs out a year at least. And just continue to give me an artistic outlet that I don’t necessarily get as the writer and producer. And then, and also give these songs a chance to get out there. I mean, it’s been really cool for me to see how much people love this song. And I’m like, ‘Man, this song sitting on my computer for two years.”