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At 16, an age when most of us are trying to remember our locker combinations, singer-songwriter and Holland, Mass. native Joel Crouse was down in Nashville, having his songs picked apart by industry vets.

After his first songwriting session, “I remember coming back to the hotel room feeling absolutely defeated,” Crouse told CTNow. “I said to my dad, ‘I think I’m in the wrong line of work’.”

Not true. Crouse, who’s now still only 22, has performed in arenas, stadiums and amphitheaters. He’s toured with Taylor Swift, the Band Perry, Toby Keith and Darius Rucker. Crouse’s debut album, “Even the River Runs,” a sturdy collection of 10 radio-ready songs co-written with producer Jamie Houston (and some of those same industry vets), was released two weeks ago and is gaining traction. Crouse even performed at the Grand Ole Opry last year.

Having a hand in all 10 songs — from the mid-tempo, start-stop verses of the title track, to the lovely ballad “Oh Juliet,” or in “You Could Break a Heart Like That,” which is vaguely reminiscent of the Eagles’ “New Kid in Town” — is no small feat. But Crouse, who grew up listening to singer-songwriters, insists on telling his own story. “I’ve been songwriting ever since I was 13, and I didn’t know artists don’t write their own songs for the longest time,” he said. “I thought everyone wrote their own tunes. That’s what I wanted to do.”

Crouse opens for Darius Rucker at the Big E in West Springfield on Sunday, Sept. 14. It’ll be a homecoming of sorts. “I went to the Big E from when I was three months to 16 or 17, every year,” he said.

Signed to a major label deal at 19, Crouse is now one of a handful of performers — along with Swift, Rucker, Thomas Rhett, Dan Shay and Eric Church — who writes his own stuff. The release of “Even the River Runs” is a huge milestone for Crouse, who wrote some of the songs up to five years ago. Those early setbacks stung, sure, but he bounced back.

“I was 16 or 17, and I’m writing with people in their 40s and 50s who have been doing this for a long time,” Crouse said. “So I guess what I did is I surrounded myself with people who are crazy-more talented than I am, and eventually it just made me a better writer, a better guitar player. I learned a lot from the first guy I wrote with, and they were patient with me.” Nowadays, Crouse said, “I play a really big part in the whole process. In the beginning, there were a few ideas I threw out there that got shot down, and looking back on them, they should have gotten shot down.”

As a young teen in Holland, Crouse gained some regional attention for his strong vocals and guitar playing. (Joe Simpson, the father of Ashlee and Jessica, offered to manage him, but Crouse declined.) After an audition with Epic Records VP Brandon Creed, who suggested he try his luck in Nashville. “My dad would take me down for a few months at a time, and we’d stay in these really awful motels, really depressing motels,” Crouse said. Eventually Crouse met Houston, and they hit it off. “We just started writing all these songs. There was obviously a connection there.” (“You Could Break a Heart Like That,” Crouse said, was among the first three songs they wrote.)

After years in bars and smaller venues, opening for the likes of Rucker, Keith and Swift was a crash-course in how to work larger rooms, which are undoubtedly in Crouse’s future.

“When you’re on a tour, you can’t help but take in your surroundings and see how the operation runs,” Crouse said. “My first amphitheatre was with Toby Keith, and I won’t forget that moment. My first arena was in Phoenix with Taylor Swift, and I won’t forget that moment. Really what all these tours did for me was to give me more and more experience with stage presence, how to connect with a bigger audience, how to not just connect with the people in the front row but the people in the back. As the opener of a show, it’s like, ‘Okay, you’ve got 30 minutes. Show these people who you are and get them pumped up for the next act.’ That’s what your job is.”

JOEL CROUSE opens for Darius Rucker at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 14, at the Big E, which runs Sept. 11 to 28 at the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. Tickets for the concert are $39. Admission, hours and more information on the Big E at here.