Jones covered another one of Yates's songs, "Choices", on his 1999 album Cold Hard Truth. According to Yates, he had written the song in 1994 with the intent of having Alan Jackson record it; when Jackson did not record it, Yates recommended it to Jones, who turned it down twice before deciding to record it. The song was a top-30 country hit for Jones and won him the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance in 1999. 2000–present: Columbia Records and independent In 2000, Yates signed with Columbia Records Nashville and charted one single, "What Do You Want from Me Now". It was his only released for the label before he left it in October 2001. Yates told Country Standard Time in 2003 that he chose to leave Columbia because he felt that label executives considered his style too neotraditional country in nature to be successful. Todd Sterling of AllMusic stated that Yates chose to leave Columbia due to a desire to record a more traditional sounding album, and that label executives agreed to release him from his contract after realizing that he did not wish to sign with a rival label. After exiting Columbia, Yates founded his own label called M.O.D., an abbreviation for "my own damn records". His first release on his own label was If I Could Go Back in 2001. The album's lead single was "Too Country and Proud of It". Bobby Peacock of Roughstock reviewed the album favorably, with a focus on Yates' singing voice and lyrics in particular. His next independent album was 2003's Country. According to an interview with Country Standard Time, the idea for the album's title track came to Yates in a dream. Another song on the album was "Smokin' Grass", which Yates co-wrote with Shannon Lawson. Lawson would later record the song himself and chart his version on Hot Country Songs in 2004. Two more independent albums, Anywhere but Nashville and Harmony Man, followed in 2004 and 2005 respectively. Peacock reviewed Anwyhere but Nashville favorably for Roughstock, stating that "By releasing his music entirely on his own, Yates found ways to improve on the fine neotraditionalist sound he'd already built up on his underrated debut." Brian Wahlert of Country Standard Time reviewed the same project positively, stating that it contained "traditional country songs that display keen insight into everyday trials and joys, with a healthy dose of fun mixed