 | | When plans for a professional golfing career were derailed by an injury, country songwriter Jake Owen picked up a guitar and never looked back. |
 | | Singer and songwriter Luke Bryan comes by his country influences naturally: he grew up in Leesburg, Georgia, a small town 100 miles from the Alabama border where his father grew peanuts and sold fertilizer for a living. |
 | | 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 singer/songwriter/guitarist Eric Church grew up in Granite Falls, North Carolina, and began singing as a child. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Although it’s tempting to call Brantley Gilbert a country artist -- he certainly embraces the outlaw country side of things -- in many ways his music is closer to the heartland sentiments of artists like John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, and perhaps most apt, Steve Earle. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Oklahoma native Blake Shelton moved to Nashville in 1994, two weeks after his high school graduation, to launch a songwriting career that would eventually make him one of the leading males in contemporary country music. |
 | | Country singer/songwriter Billy Currington was raised in Rincon, GA. Following high school, he made a couple attempts at relocating to Nashville in the hopes of getting a career in music off the ground, finally landing a job there at a concrete company, while still finding time to play at clubs on the side and work on song demos. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Zac Brown is a country singer, songwriter, and bandleader, one of the brightest stars in a generation of performers set on changing the paradigm of the country music business. |
 | | 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. |
 | | When he was four years old, Chris Cagle moved from Louisiana to the outskirts of Houston, where he grew up. |
 | | 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. |
 | | As the frontman of Hootie & the Blowfish, Darius Rucker was one of the most popular frontmen in mainstream pop/rock during the mid-'90s. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Florida Georgia Line is the country singer and songwriter duo of Tyler Hubbard (from Monroe, Georgia) and Brian Kelley (from Ormand Beach, Florida). |
 | | The country vocal quartet Little Big Town began with Kimberly Roads and Karen Fairchild, two Georgia natives who began singing together in college. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Contemporary country singer/songwriter Brad Paisley was born October 28, 1972, in Glen Dale, West Virginia; given his first guitar at age eight, he delivered his first public performance at church two years later. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Contemporary country star Kenny Chesney didn't have the immediate breakout success that many of his peers enjoyed upon signing with major labels, but gradually built up a significant following via hard work, pop-friendly ballads, and a likable, "Average Joe" persona. |
 | | Before becoming one of country music's most popular females, songwriter Miranda Lambert grew up in Lindale, Texas, a small town 80 miles east of Dallas. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Pop-country trio Love and Theft fell into place in Nashville when singers and songwriters Eric Gunderson, Stephen Barker Liles, and Brian Bandas threw in together, taking turns singing lead while the other two sang gorgeous backing harmonies. |
 | | Although born in New Zealand and raised in nearby Australia, Keith Urban made his biggest splash in Nashville, where he helped rewrite the rules of contemporary country music. |
 | | 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. |
 | | When Tim McGraw debuted in the early '90s, few would have predicted that he would eventually take over Garth Brooks' position as the most popular male singer in country music. |
 | | When he was just 19 years old, Hunter Hayes became one of the hottest new stars in country music, having signed with a major label and attracted plenty of press attention and airplay, but despite his youth, this wasn't really new for Hayes -- he was playing for paying audiences at the age of five and cut his first album when he was only nine. |
 | | Actor, singer, and songwriter Jana Kramer was born December 3, 1983, and grew up with country music. |
 | | Toby Keith spent the '90s as a solid, workmanlike country star who met with considerable chart success, yet never quite broke free of the neo-traditionalist pack to become a household name like Garth Brooks or Alan Jackson. |
 | | Merging country, pop, and rock elements into a sharp contemporary sound, the Band Perry is comprised of siblings Kimberly Perry (lead vocals, guitar, and piano), Reid Perry (bass guitar), and Neil Perry (drums, mandolin, and accordion). |
 | | Joe Nichols took the roundabout way to country success, scoring his first major hit six years after landing his initial record deal. |
 | | A country trio known primarily for its pleasing harmony and Grammy-winning songcraft, Rascal Flatts are comprised of Gary LeVox, Jay Demarcus, and Joe Don Rooney. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Sugarland, the platinum-selling contemporary country act, began as a trio of songwriters from the Atlanta area, each of whom had enjoyed some level of renown as a solo country artist. |
 | | Songwriter and country singer Kacey Musgraves was born in East Texas, and made her stage debut at eight 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | The winner of American Idol’'s tenth season, country crooner Scotty McCreery began singing as a child in Garner, North Carolina. |
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 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
