Often in country demos, a pedal steel or fiddle is added for effect. Occasionally, a stripped down demo is done for ballads. This will help save a lot of time and effort in the studio in case you rewrite the lyric and want to re-demo the song. Once the demo is completed, the songplugger at the publishing company hits the streets with the song hoping to get it recorded by an artist. They then try to schedule meetings with someone connected to the project.
Some songs go on hold right away while other songs, take months or years.
Many never make it to the hold stage. He liked the song and said that he would send it to John Michael Montgomery who was on the road at the time. This is what he did with any songs he thought John Michael might be interested in recording. We didn't get overly excited at this stage, since there was still a long way to go. The Hold - A hold can be very confusing.