Jack White | Nashville | Robert Marvin | friend and future producer

Mat Kearney has found his place -- musically and spiritually -- in Nashville. His sophomore album, an ode to the city, proves he’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

“I MADE A JOKE that if I got offered a record deal, I wouldn’t go back,” says singer-songwriter Mat Kearney in talking about the move he made to Nashville in 2001 from his birthplace, Eugene, Oregon. “I came for the summer, and eight years later, I’m still here.”

And for good reason. Since embarking on that fateful road trip to help relocate his friend and future producer Robert Marvin, Kearney has seen his star rise in Nashville and internationally with the release of his 2006 debut album, Nothing Left to Lose, which has sold over 370,000 copies. This month, the 30-year-old musician releases a follow-up titled City of Black & White.

Kearney and producer Marvin recorded the 11 tracks on City at the famed Blackbird Studio, where recent residents include My Morning Jacket, Kings of Leon, and Jack White. Though namedropping of notable musicians is a common occurrence on records these days, Kearney found collaborators for his new album in some seemingly unlikely places. Among those who joined the endeavor are “one of my neighbors, a guy I traveled with, a guy who worked at a coffee shop, and a woman who’s a writer. I had heard her play and loved her stuff,” he says. “[City] wasn’t birthed out of a Last Waltz type of thing. It was more out of a ‘have a glass of wine in your living room and someone grabs a guitar’ thing. I think that was really this kind of ‘city of black and white’ thing, this community thing that brought this record together.”