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Where a lot of people see a girl in a too-tight top that doesn't quite cover a roll of belly fat and snicker, Mark "Butter" Fortney of the band Trailer Choir sees the same girl and swoons.

Seriously. So much so, he told The Daily Times during a recent interview, that he wrote a song about it -- "Rockin' the Beer Gut," which gave his group its first Top 40 country single.

"I wrote that song by myself in Nashville when I was at this club one summer," Fortney said. "You see it at fairs and festivals everywhere -- girls who walk by in a bikini top, beautiful girls with just a little extra love. Somebody saw one and said, 'Gosh, that girl's rocking the beer gut,' and it kind of stuck. I logged it, and about a month later, I sat down and wrote the song in about 45 minutes.

"We get many, many girls who love that song, and it extends past just them. Moms and little boys love that song; we constantly have fans coming up who say, 'My little 6-year-old loves singing 'Rockin' the Beer Gut' on the way to school.' We've met some criticism for it, but never have I seen anybody not have fun with it."

"Fun" is an adjective that gets thrown into the mix a lot when Trailer Choir is involved. The band released a six-song EP in June ("Rockin' the Beer Gut" is one of the songs on it), and critics have lauded the band's upbeat brand of country pop that doesn't take itself too seriously but gets the job done musically.

The band started with Fortney, who grew up in Ohio as a class clown and a baseball player. Winning a school talent show, however, uncovered a devotion to music, and a move to Nashville introduced him to "Big" Vinny Hickerson. Fortney was in a band at the time, but his chemistry with Hickerson led him to part ways with that group and begin Trailer Choir with the jovial, husky singer.

But the band wasn't quite complete.

"We had some different set-ups, trying some different things, and nothing really felt right," Fortney said. "We had a fiddle player for a while, and we had two or three girl singers at once. But then we were at 12th and Porter (a Nashville club) playing 'Rockin' the Beer Gut,' and Crystal came up and jumped on stage one night.

"She basically said, 'I'm in y'all's band now,' and me and Vinny said, 'Yes, you are!' I had known her before, but once she started playing with us, we knew that was what we needed."

Crystal Hoyt is a Louisiana native whose determination and passion brought a much-needed kick-in-the-pants to the band, as well as a touch of class and a whole lot of good looks. With Hoyt on board, Trailer Choir began concentrating on getting better, Fortney said.

"We had never really rehearsed, and Crystal wanted to get together and learn the songs," he said. "We started writing and performing together, and it just all started from there. She's professional to a T and a great singer -- and she did make Trailer Choir much more beautiful and attractive. Of course, she's always got built-in security with Vinny up there beside her."

It would take a stroke of luck in the form of a country superstar to catapult Trailer Choir to the next level, however. Toby Keith was in the house that fateful night, and after Trailer Choir's performance, he asked to meet the band.

"We were starting to feel pretty closed up, but after Crystal had played about two shows with us, that's when Toby showed up to one of our shows," Fortney said. "We had no idea he was there, and there have been five or six stories about why he ended up there that night. I do know we'd started creating a little buzz and some label people had started showing up, but we didn't know he was coming.

"We never even saw him, but when we were done, Billy (Block, the host of the "Billy Block's Western Beats" showcase at various Nashville venues) came to the front of the stage and said Toby was in the back of the bar and wanted to meet us. At first, I didn't believe him, because he likes to joke."

As it turns out, Block was serious. The first thing out of Keith's mouth, Fortney remembers, was a question -- did the band members write their own material? The answer was yes; Keith was impressed. He offered them a deal on his label, Show Dog Nashville; they signed on a Tuesday and hit the road two days later, headed for opening dates on Keith's "Big Dog Daddy" tour.

"Toby told us that he didn't know what the plan was, but he knew he wanted us," Fortney said. "One of the things we did well was just go with the flow. On that tour, we would take it out into the parking lot and plug in a PA system in the back of a golf cart. If we weren't playing that night on stage, we'd go put on shows in the parking lot.

"There's always been a fun hustle to what we do, and we never stopped doing what got us to the point where Toby showed up. At the root of everything, we love people and our music is built around people."