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Carrie Underwood - Cowboy Casanova |
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 Carrie Underwood, though an “Okie from Muskogee” by birth, was actually reared 23 miles south of there in Checotah, Oklahoma. She started singing in church when she was just three, and by the seventh grade people began to really notice her gifted voice at local talent shows. Proving she has more going for her than just a great voice, she graduated from Checotah High School in 2001 as salutatorian, graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a degree in journalism in 2006, and was runner-up for Miss NSU in 2004.
While she was a senior in college, she tried out for American Idol and decisively became the show’s fourth season winner in 2005. Since then, a seemingly endless string of accomplishments, accolades, awards, and honors have paved her road to superstardom. Beautiful, talented, and intelligent, she has become America’s darling, but is loved the world over. Carrie’s debut album, Some Hearts, was certified seven times platinum; every one of her nine singles released topped the charts at #1; she’s been inducted into the “Grand Ole Opry;” she is a multiple Grammy Award winner; and, she is the 2009 ACM Female Vocalist of the Year and Entertainer of the Year.
Her latest single is titled “Casanova Cowboy.” Written by Carrie, Brett James and Mike Elizondo, the pop-country edge has drive and sparkle somewhat reminiscent of Shania Twain. With a sultry touch, she passionately admonishes ladies to watch out for the “goodtime cowboy Casanova,” and describes him as “leaning up against the record machine…a devil in disguise, a snake with blue eyes...,” and warns “he’ll tell you nothin’ but lies.” The first release from her upcoming Play On, scheduled for release November 3, we expect it will be yet another smash #1 hit for Carrie. |
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Miranda Lambert - White Liar |
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 Miranda Lambert was born and reared in Lindale, Texas. She began singing in various talent contests, and by the age of sixteen she was making appearances on “Johnnie High’s Country Music Review” in Arlington, Texas. At age 17, Miranda formed a band named “Texas Pride” and landed her first professional singing engagement at the “Gypsy Tea Room” in the Deep Ellum district of Dallas. She also fronted the house band at the legendary “Reo Palm Isle Ballroom” in Longview while still in high school, and placed two songs on the local Texas charts from an independent, self-titled CD.
However, it was when she was just 19 years old that the veritable doors to stardom swung wide open for Miranda Lambert. In 2003, out of 8,000 initial contestants, she placed third in the finals on the “Nashville Star” talent contest. That led to a record deal with Sony, and her national debut album titled “Kerosene” was hot enough to go platinum. Her second album, titled “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” yielded her first top ten hit, “Gunpowder and Lead.”
Miranda has often voiced a desire to be different, and many are saying that drive is clearly reflected in her new album scheduled for release on September 29th, Revolution. Her second single from that album is titled, “White Liar,” and it wouldn’t need “ML” stamped on it for people to recognize it as a Miranda Lambert song. With strong country-bluegrass underpinnings, it is well produced. The vocal harmonies are excellent, and her voice has that same credible edge to it we heard in “Kerosene,” and “Gunpowder and Lead,” albeit with a little more subtlety. Confronting her lover with the multitude of “white” lies that she says slip off of his tongue “like turpentine,” she lets him in on a little secret…she’s been telling a few white lies of her own. If “White Liar” is any indication of the quality of music remaining to be revealed from her new album, all the hype and anticipation are well warranted. |
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 Born and raised in La Mirada, California, Gary Allan started performing in smoky honky-tonks with his father during his early teens, and at the urging of his parents turned down a record deal when he was just fifteen in order to finish school. After finishing school, he continued singing with his band, “The Honky-Tonk Wranglers.” To help ends meet, he also sold cars, and it was this endeavor that serendipitously opened the door to his first record deal. He left a demo in the glove box of a car purchased by a wealthy couple, and when they determined that he was the singer on the tape, they wrote him a check for $12,000.00. This afforded him the means to go to Nashville, where in 1995 he signed with Decca Records.
Since then, Gary’s success has not waned. He’s had seven studio albums, one compilation album, and 23 singles (with four of those topping the charts at #1). His last five albums and “Greatest Hits” were cut under the MCA Nashville label, and “Smoke Rings In The Dark,” “Alright Guy,” and “See If I Care” all certified platinum. Gary’s latest single release, titled “Today,” has all the earmarks of a soulful balladeer who has paid more than his due to the “school of hard knocks.” It’s a solemn song about a man who can only look on as his one true love marries another. It’s the “happiest day of her life,” but for him, it’s the day that he loses “everything he ever wanted.” Having just entered the countdown, it appears that “Today” may prove to be yet another winner for Gary Allan. |
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Montgomery Gentry - Long Line of Losers |
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 It was May 26, 2009, and Troy Gentry and Eddie Montgomery were at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville wowing listeners as usual with their distinctive “Southern-Rock-Country” sound when Charlie Daniels unexpectedly walked up on stage and wowed them…by personally inviting them to become members of the Grand Ole Opry. Less than one month later Marty Stuart and Little Jimmy Dickens conducted the formal induction ceremony.
That was perhaps the crowning moment amid many highlights marking the illustrious career of Montgomery Gentry, a true “dynamic duo” if ever there was one. Eddie Montgomery is the elder brother of John Michael Montgomery, and along with Troy Gentry, the three originally performed together in “Early Tymz,” a Lexington, Kentucky band. With the dissolution of that band, John Michael Montgomery left in the early 1990s to forge his solo career, leaving Eddie and Troy in prime condition to form their duo.
They initially began working under the name “Deuce.” However, after winning the “Jim Beam National Talent Contest” in 1994, Troy Gentry tried his own hand for a brief time as a solo artist. Although he opened for such acts as John Michael Montgomery, Patty Loveless, and Tracy Byrd, he gave it up and reunited with Eddie, and together they made their official debut as we now know them in 1999, billed as Montgomery Gentry.
That same year they released their first album titled “Tattoos & Scars,” which certified platinum. In 2000, they were named CMA’s “Duo Of The Year,” and they have gone on to release a total of six studio albums, and three compilation albums (the latest being the Cracker Barrel compilation titled “For Our Heroes,” a tribute to the armed forces with a portion of the proceeds going to help “The Wounded Warrior Project”).
Their combined albums have produced 23 chart singles, including five number ones. Their sixth studio album released in 2008, “Back When I Knew It All,” is still yielding hit singles. The latest, titled “Long Line Of Losers,” just entered our charts on August 8th.
Written by Kevin Fowler and Kim Tribble, the song starts off with some “swampy,” free form slide guitar work reminiscent of Ry Cooder, then it eases into a nice little groove that has a sharper country edge than you would normally expect from Montgomery Gentry… but it’s a good edge.
The vocals and harmonies are tight, and the lyrics are fun. The singer seems proud of the fact that his ancestors were losers, thereby apparently rendering him generationally predisposed to become a loser in his own right. This is a catchy and entertaining song, and all the indicators are that it should do well in our countdown. |
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Tim McGraw really needs no introduction to country music fans. Since his self-titled debut album released in 1993, his music has become a staple on the country charts “Indian Outlaw,” “I Like It, I Love It, “ Live Like You Were Dying”…those are just a few of the songs that have propelled him to superstardom. With album sales in excess of 40 million, he continues to churn out hit after hit, and the awards and rewards have been abundant.