 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Actor, singer, and songwriter Jana Kramer was born December 3, 1983, and grew up with country music. |
 | | Songwriter and country singer Kacey Musgraves was born in East Texas, and made her stage debut at eight years old. |
 | | The country vocal quartet Little Big Town began with Kimberly Roads and Karen Fairchild, two Georgia natives who began singing together in college. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
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 | | 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. |
 | | Formed in 2006 by Charles Kelley (brother of singer/songwriter Josh Kelley), Hillary Scott (daughter of Grammy-winning country artist Linda Davis), and Dave Haywood, Lady Antebellum make contemporary country music that relies on the trio's rich harmonies and impeccable instrumental skills. |
 | | As the frontman of Hootie & the Blowfish, Darius Rucker was one of the most popular frontmen in mainstream pop/rock during the mid-'90s. |
 | | The runner-up on the 2011 season of Fox's American Idol, Lauren Alaina is a Southern singer with a bent toward contemporary country-pop. |
 | | Cut from the same cloth as fiery crooners Jana Kramer, Miranda Lambert, and Carrie Underwood, country singer Maggie Rose was born Margaret Rose Durante in 1988 in Potomac, Maryland. |
 | | In 2005, singer Kellie Pickler landed a spot in the fifth season of American Idol. Though she finished sixth, the former waitress and Miss North Carolina contestant charmed American audiences with her Southern twang and blonde ambition, resulting in a contract with BNA Records that yielded her debut album, Small Town Girl, in the fall of 2006 and an eponymous sophomore release in 2008, which yielded Pickler's first Top Ten hit, “Best Days of Your Life,” a song she co-wrote with Taylor Swift. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | In 2004, Michelle Branch took a break from her successful solo career to team with friend and touring backup singer Jessica Harp in a new project called the Wreckers. |
 | | 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. |
 | | A female country traditionalist during a time when they were quite rare around Nashville, Sara Evans gained her RCA contract in 1996 after her rendition of Buck Owens' perennial chestnut "I've Got a Tiger by the Tail" impressed its songwriter, Harlan Howard, so much that he considered himself duty-bound to help her. |
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 | | A country-pop-folk trio with roots in Arkansas, Edens Edge are comprised of Hannah Blaylock (lead vocals), Dean Berner (harmony vocals, guitar, Dobro), and Cherrill Green (harmony vocals, mandolin, banjo, guitar). |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | The winner of American Idol’'s tenth season, country crooner Scotty McCreery began singing as a child in Garner, North Carolina. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Singer, mandolin player, and ace fiddler Susie Brown and singer and guitarist Danelle Leverett were each pursuing their own solo musical careers when they were introduced to each other by songwriter Kris Bergsnes after one of Brown's sets at a Nashville club. |
 | | Florida Georgia Line is the country singer and songwriter duo of Tyler Hubbard (from Monroe, Georgia) and Brian Kelley (from Ormand Beach, Florida). |
 | | The first country singer to win American Idol, Carrie Underwood grew up in the small town of Checotah, Oklahoma, and began singing with her church at the tender age of three. |
 | | 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 plans for a professional golfing career were derailed by an injury, country songwriter Jake Owen picked up a guitar and never looked back. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Greg Bates was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, the heart, soul, and center of country music. |
 | | Country singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Charlie Worsham was born September 1, 1985 in Jackson, Mississippi, and music became his main interest at a young age. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Jamie O'Neal first struck Music City gold as a sought-after songwriter; it was only later that her own singing career blossomed. |
 | | By all Nash Vegas accounts, North Carolina singer/songwriter Jimmy Wayne comes from the wrong side of the tracks. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Country singer and songwriter Jon Pardi, born May 20, 1985, and raised in Dixon, California, discovered his love of country music early, thanks in no small part to his grandfather's country karaoke machine. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
![The Band Perry [EP] Album Cover](http://images.slacker.com/isv1/album/v1/1658765/aol/1/center/5,0/70.jpg "The Band Perry [EP] Album Cover")
