 | | Joe Nichols took the roundabout way to country success, scoring his first major hit six years after landing his initial record deal. |
 | | Though country singer Rodney Atkins didn't get his first guitar until one Christmas in high school, he took to the instrument instantly and was soon playing anywhere he could around his Cumberland Gap, Tennessee, home. |
 | | Rock-influenced country singer Bucky Covington first rose to fame in 2006 as a contestant on the televised talent hunt American Idol. |
 | | A country singer and songwriter with a Southern rock heart, James Otto was born into a military family at the Fort Louis Army Base in Washington and grew up all over the U. |
 | | Singer/songwriter Craig Morgan was an army brat before he opted for a career in music. Born and raised in Nashville, Morgan was already a country music fan with dreams of playing guitar and making it big. |
 | | A native of Hannah, South Carolina, country crooner Josh Turner burst onto the scene in 2003 with the powerful "Long Black Train," a song he'd written after listening to a Hank Williams box set. |
 | | Bass player and vocalist Ronnie Dunn (born Ronnie Gene Dunn) joined Louisiana-born Leon Eric "Kix" Brooks to create the most successful country music duo of the 1990s. |
 | | Women swoon every time hunky country heartthrob Keith Anderson takes the stage, but despite his good looks, Anderson's first big country music break was a behind-the-scenes job. |
 | | Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Greg Bates was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, the heart, soul, and center of country music. |
 | | Josh Gracin was born October 18, 1980, and grew up in Westland, Michigan. He performed at fairs, music competitions, and other venues as a young man, and did the vocal for a demo version of a song ("She Loves Me," written by Ken Salaets and Tim Barbor) in Nashville in 1996 when he was only 16 years old. |
 | | Working to the traditional side of contemporary country, singer, songwriter, pianist and Georgia native Craig Campbell is blessed with a deep, expressive voice, an awareness of the genre’s history and a no-gimmicks approach to performance that brings out the sincerity in his songs. |
 | | When he was four years old, Chris Cagle moved from Louisiana to the outskirts of Houston, where he grew up. |
 | | Country singer/songwriter Darryl Worley grew up in Pyburn, TN, the son of a father who left his job at a local paper company to become a Methodist preacher and a mother who was a featured singer in the church choir. |
 | | By all Nash Vegas accounts, North Carolina singer/songwriter Jimmy Wayne comes from the wrong side of the tracks. |
 | | Contemporary country singer Phil Vassar made his name as a chart-topping songwriter before landing a record deal and becoming a hitmaking artist in his own right. |
 | | Born and raised in rural Gilchrist County, Florida, Easton Corbin remembered wanting to be a country singer as early as three or four years old. |
 | | Born and raised in Dallas, TX, country vocalist Steve Holy was the youngest of eight children and entertained his grade school classmates with his imitations of Conway Twitty. |
 | | Country singer and songwriter Jerrod Niemann has penned songs for Garth Brooks, Neal McCoy, Jamey Johnson, and Zona Jones, among others, and has built a strong fan base as a performer of his own material as well. |
 | | Born and raised in Kennett, Missouri, country singer and songwriter David Nail was drawn at first to sports, particularly baseball, but found himself dreaming of a music career too, and as time went by, he put more and more of his time and energy in the direction of music. |
 | | Country singer and songwriter Randy Houser was born and raised in Lake, Mississippi, where his love of music was apparent even as a young child. |
 | | Country singer Jason Michael Carroll is a rootsy artist with a rocker's edge. Carroll was raised in a strict religious family in North Carolina and had little contact with secular country music. |
 | | Emerson Drive began in the western Alberta town of Grand Prairie, where singer Brad Mates, bassist Jeff Loberg, fiddler Pat Allingham, and keyboardist Chris Hartman began honing their sound as high-school talent-show competitors. |
 | | The grandson of onetime Louisiana Hayride performer Richard Yates, country singer/songwriter Chris Young hails from Murfreesboro, TN, and first drew the public's attention when he appeared on the Nashville Star television show in 2006. |
 | | Justin Moore hit Nashville in 2009 with a ready-made image. He was the good kid from a small town with a rowdy heart of gold who just happened to be able to sing about it. |
 | | When plans for a professional golfing career were derailed by an injury, country songwriter Jake Owen picked up a guitar and never looked back. |
 | | Growing up in a non-musical family in Phoenix, Arizona, country singer Dierks Bentley got his country music education on his own, listening to recordings. |
 | | Country duo Montgomery Gentry evokes the sound and spirit of Southern rockers like Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Marshall Tucker Band, and Charlie Daniels, painting themselves as rowdy redneck rebels who still hold small-town values. |
 | | A product of the Mississippi Delta region, Steve Azar was born April 11, 1964. After moving to Nashville to pursue a career in music, he released his debut album, Heartbreak Town, in 1996. |
 | | Fusing a young man's take on heartland rock with the tougher side of Texas country music and the cocky enthusiasm of alt-country firebrands, the Eli Young Band have become a potent draw in the Southwest on the strength of local airplay and extensive touring. |
 | | A pair of gonzo country showmen initially shunned by the Nashville mainstream but eventually becoming the face of the Music City as the 2000s drew to a close, Big & Rich were the most unlikely country success story of the new millennium. |
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 | | Trace Adkins helped keep country's traditionalist flame burning during the crossover-happy late '90s, mixing classic honky tonk with elements of gospel, blues, and rock & roll. |
 | | Country artist Josh Thompson kicked off his career in 2009, when the songwriter released his first single, “Beer on the Table,” and co-authored a song for Jason Michael Carroll’s Top Ten album Growing Up Is Getting Old. |
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 | | As the frontman of Hootie & the Blowfish, Darius Rucker was one of the most popular frontmen in mainstream pop/rock during the mid-'90s. |
 | | Although he didn't quite achieve the fame or sales of new country contemporaries as Tim McGraw or Clay Walker, Mark Wills earned a respectable following and strong reviews following the release of his eponymous 1996 debut album. |
 | | Gary Allan hit the honky tonk circuit in his native Southern California at the seasoned age of 12. Playing in and out of the smoky, sweaty bars with his dad's band led Allan to follow in his father's footsteps and start his own band. |
 | | Although originally known as the guy who, upon Kara Dioguardi’s request, stripped off his shirt during his American Idol audition, Casey James quickly became one of the show’s leading contestants, celebrated for both his guitar skills and bluesy vocals. |
 | | Before he became half of Brooks & Dunn, the most popular country duo of the '90s, Kix Brooks cut an unsuccessful solo album on the basis of a much more productive songwriting career. |
 | | The winner of American Idol’'s tenth season, country crooner Scotty McCreery began singing as a child in Garner, North Carolina. |
 | | A husband-and-wife country duo comprised of Keifer Thompson and Shawna Thompson, Thompson Square combine classic rock, country, and singer/songwriter strands into a sharp, pleasant country-pop mix. |
 | | With his first two singles reaching number one upon their release, Clay Walker immediately established himself as a commercial success. |
 | | Singer and songwriter Kip Moore mixes tight country narratives with a touch of heartland rock, and at his best, he fashions songs that led one reviewer to call him "a hillbilly Springsteen," although he's probably closer to a less feisty Steve Earle, say, with a focus on how love works and doesn't work between men and women in the blue-collar South. |
 | | Country singer and songwriter Lee Brice walks a path between traditional honky tonk sounds and contemporary rock & roll; as Brice puts it, his music sounds like what would happen if Hank Williams Jr. |
 | | In late May 2004, Gretchen Wilson's debut single, "Redneck Woman," became the first by a solo female singer to top the Billboard country singles chart in over two years; it also reached number one faster than any single in the previous decade. |
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 | | The country vocal group Gloriana began taking shape in 2007, when Tom Gossin and Mike Gossin -- two guitar-playing brothers who had been working as a duo in North Carolina -- moved to Nashville and met Rachel Reinert. |
 | | Country music singer and songwriter Dustin Lynch was born and raised in Tullahoma, Tennessee, and grew up influenced by what he calls "the class of '89," Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, and Clint Black, all of whom had their first national success in 1989. |
 | | A country singing duo who took the 21st century path of winning a television talent show (Can You Duet) to break into the public eye, Steel Magnolia consist of Meghan Linsey and Joshua Scott Jones. |
 | | Georgia-born singer/songwriter Thomas Rhett, the son of award-winning country crooner Rhett Akins, didn’t start seriously considering following in his father's footsteps until his senior year in high school. |