Gordon Francis Sampson (born July 30, 1971) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and producer from Big Pond, Nova Scotia.
Beginning his career as a performer on his hometown island of Cape Breton, both in bands and on his own, Sampson has gone on to achieve international success as a songwriter in Nashville.
He has written songs for Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Faith Hill, LeAnn Rimes, Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, and Rascal Flatts.
[6] After that, in the early 1990s, he was invited to join the Nova Scotia band Realworld with brothers Jamie and Matthew Foulds.
[6] After Realworld disbanded, Sampson found himself increasingly interested in exploring the traditional Celtic music for which Cape Breton is well known.
[12] Within a year, Sampson had co-written "Jesus, Take the Wheel", former American Idol winner Carrie Underwood had recorded it, and the song was number one on the Billboard country music chart for six weeks.
Sampson has said that the song was inspired by the death of an acquaintance in a car accident on a highway in Nova Scotia two years earlier.
"[12] He has since written songs which have been recorded by Faith Hill, Keith Urban, Trace Adkins, LeAnn Rimes, Martina McBride, Willie Nelson, and many other well-known country performers.
Sampson produced the CD and played the majority of the instruments on the album, including guitars, bass, drums and piano.