Watch Dave McElroy onstage. What do you see? An amazing show? Of course. He’s a terrific performer. But he’s more than that. You see, quite simply, Dave McElroy — not so much what he does, more of who he is.

It’s also about being true to himself. He’s a frequent visitor to Nashville, for writing dates, recording sessions and rehearsals with his band. Yet home has been in the North Star State since he began his studies and played football at the University of Minnesota. Countless other artists pulled up stakes and moved to Nashville to seek their fortunes in music. For Dave, it’s always been more important to stay closer to his roots — a quality you can hear in every note he sings.

“I love Nashville to pieces,” he emphasizes. “Great people, great music, great food. I miss it when I’m gone. But my church, my friends and my family are in the Midwest. I love being on my little piece of the world, where I get to watch deer walking by every day and listen to the frogs as I go to sleep at night. This is where my heart is.”

Faith and family, respect for hard work and a love for music were the foundation for Dave’s upbringing in Wisconsin. “When I was 9 years old I started helping with my dad’s business,” he recalls. “At 5:30 every morning he’d knock on my door — I’d get three taps, which meant, ‘I need you in half an hour.’ I’d get up, shower, eat my breakfast, pack my lunch and be out the door with him as he made his rounds, selling equipment, chemicals and fertilizers to farmers.”

Two memories remain vivid from those early years: the aroma of coffee and the classic country tapes his dad would play on the truck’s eight-track as they drove. Other types of music affected him as well, especially Louis Armstrong’s gravelly vocals, which seemed to suit his own timbre and phrasing. In high school Dave covered every musical base: choir, swing choir, band, swing band and orchestra, playing trombone and violin. He also played the lead part in the annual musical in both his junior and senior years — a feat never accomplished at that school before or since — while finding time to letter in four sports as well.

But music took a backseat after high school. Though he enjoyed sitting in and recording with a band called Something Fierce in college, Dave concentrated after graduation on doing landscaping, construction and irrigation. Through ups and downs he eventually steered his company onto a steady, profitable course.

“It was highly successful,” he says. “But after a while I felt I had to come back to music again. I didn’t know why, so I prayed on it. I was like, “OK, Lord, if You really want this to happen, You’ve got to break out a two-by-four and let me know.’ And He did. He gave me a good whack.”

Within three weeks of that epiphany, Dave had written 20 songs. Quickly he cut two of them as demos. A month after that, he was cutting tracks in Nashville with celebrated producer “Lil Ronnie” Jackson. One of them, “Tangled Up,” shot into the Music Row Top 40 without any promotion — purely by word of mouth — and helped win McElroy “Breakout Honors Of The Year” honors after appearing at the 2016 CMA Festival.

It’s been a rocket ride since then: opening on concert stages for Keith Urban, Little Big Town, Joe Nichols, Old Dominion and other superstars. More singles on the Billboard Hot 100 Country and Indicator, Music Row and TRACtion charts. And on the day that “Trucker Hat” dropped, Billboard flagged it as the fifth most added single on country stations. Three days later, Music Row clocked it in as the second most added.

With all that he has achieved and greater opportunities yet to come, Dave makes it a point to share his good fortune with an array of charities. He has supported the Children’s Miracle Network, Sharing And Caring Hands, St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and Minnesota Viking legend Chad Greenway’s Lead The Way Foundation on behalf of children battling cancer and other diseases. “The children, the elderly and the military are so important to me,” he says. “And I always make sure that 95 percent or more of the money I give to a charity doesn’t get lost in the bureaucracy but goes directly to those in need.”

Back home in Minnesota, Dave looked back and then summed up the essence of his story, as an artist, a husband and a family man. “It’s never been about ‘me, me, me.’ Everything I do is about us — all of us. It’s about community. It’s about people who love each other but know how to have fun. That’s what I’m about. I’m country to the core.”