Biography by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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Morgan Evans began his professional career in his native Australia in 2012, releasing his eponymous debut album in 2014. His sleek country-pop found a wider audience in 2017, after he signed an international record deal that brought him his first American release in the form of the single "Kiss Somebody," and after he became known as the fiancée of country-pop star Kelsea Ballerini.

Born in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia on April 24, 1985, Evans started playing music early on, inspired by the music of fellow Australian country star Keith Urban. He formed his first band when he was 13 years old, but he rose to prominence when he won the 2007 edition of the competition Telstra Road to Tamworth. Following his victory, he released his first single, "Big Skies," in September 2007. By 2012, he'd signed with the Australasia branch of Warner Music, releasing the EP Live Each Day in January of that year, quickly followed by While We're Young that August. Evans' profile continued to rise as he took supporting roles on notable tours, including Alan Jackson, and Taylor Swift's Australian tour supporting her album Red.

Evans recorded his eponymous debut with producer Jedd Hughes in Nashville, Tennessee. Arriving in March 2014, Morgan Evans would top the Australian country charts and reach 20 on its pop albums chart, thanks to the singles "One Eye for an Eye" and "Like a Tornado." Evans' next move was the international market. The album also helped him garner a number of Country Music Channel Awards in 2014, including Oz Artist of the Year, and his burgeoning fame led to several television appearances, including host the 2016 CMC Music Awards with American country star Kelsea Ballerini; the pair subsequently became romantically involved. In 2015, he moved to Nashville and began working with producer Chris DeStefano on his first album designed for an international market. In July 2017, he released "Kiss Somebody," which was the first single from his first album released in either America or England.

Artist Biography by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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Tennessee's Kane Brown is a contemporary country singer/songwriter blessed with a rich baritone voice. Raised by a single mom, Brown grew up in Redbank, Tennessee, where he first became interested in music while in high school. Initially attracted to R&B, Brown decided to focus on country after winning an 11th grade talent contest with his rendition of Chris Young's "Gettin' You Home (The Black Dress Song)." Buoyed by that success, Brown began posting videos online of covers of songs by Brantley Gilbert, Alan Jackson, and others. He quickly developed a loyal following of viewers, a fan base that helped his own single, "Don't Go City on Me," go viral upon its release in 2014. In 2015, Brown released his debut EP, Closer, which reached the Top Ten of the Billboard Country Albums chart. Following Closer, he also released the stand-alone single "Used to Love You Sober." In early 2016, Brown signed a recording contract with RCA/Sony Music Nashville. That December, he returned with his eponymous full-length debut, Kane Brown, featuring the singles "Ain't No Stopping Us Now" and "Thunder in the Rain." The album debuted at number one on the country charts and peaked at number ten on the Billboard 200. A third single, "What Ifs," featuring Lauren Alaina, appeared in 2017.

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Named as the only Country act on Shazam’s “Emerging Artists of 2017,” Brett Young has captured the hearts of fans everywhere through his honest lyrics and West Coast-meets-Southern sound, aptly dubbed “Caliville” style. “Destined for mass appeal” (Rolling Stone Country), the ACM Awards New Male Vocalist of the Yearnominee released his self-titled, debut album on BMLG Records earlier this year. The album was recorded in Nashville with producer Dann Huff (Keith Urban, Thomas Rhett, Steven Tyler) and features 11 of the 12 tracks co-written by Brett, including his current single “Like I Loved You” and the No. 1 GOLD-certified debut “Sleep Without You.”

The follow-up single, a Billboard and Mediabase No. 1 hit “In Case You Didn’t Know,” solidified Brett as the first Country artist to hit the PLATINUM-certification sales mark with a song released in 2017. The video was No. 1 on Vevo’s Country Chart for six consecutive weeks and is currently the only Country song on Vevo’s list of Top 10 Videos of 2017. “In Case You Didn’t Know” is currently nominated for a Teen Choice Award forChoice Country Song and was also nominated for Breakthrough Video of the Year at the 2017 CMT Music Awards. Brett was also nominated for two Association of Independent Music Publisher (AIMP) Awards for Writer of the Year and Song of the Year for “Sleep Without You.”

In addition to his own headlining dates, the California native is currently on the road with Lady Antebellum’s YOU LOOK GOOD WORLD TOUR 2017 after joining Luke Bryan’s KILL THE LIGHTS TOUR earlier this year. 

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One band. Ten albums. Sixteen Number One hits.

Over 23 million records and 10 million tickets sold.

With statistics like that, the numbers pile up so high it’s easy to get lost on top of the heap and forget why you wanted to be there in the first place. But not Rascal Flatts. Time and success have only put them closer to their core on Back to Us, their tenth LP that’s both a return to form and a proclamation of everything that this trio has come to represent over nearly two decades. And that’s expert musicianship, razor-sharp vocals and songs that have shaped lives, loves and the genre of country music itself. They’ve won over 40 awards, graced stages around the world and put time into charity organizations that have touched so many lives. But when it came to make their tenth album, they decided to focus on their roots, letting DeMarcus take the primary production reigns, anchored by Rooney’s world class guitar work. And not only did they pick the best songs and work with the best songwriters, they had a hand in writing many of the tracks themselves. That approach is just one of the reasons the music of Rascal Flatts has become a part of the story – those nuptials, graduations, family road trips – of so many.

Back to Us is loaded with those moments that will weave themselves forever into the fabric of the lives of their fans. “I Know You Won’t,” a gorgeous piano-based ballad whose intro conjures up John Lennon’s “Imagine,” is sure to become a timeless melody for anyone facing heartbreak – and a reminder of how LeVox’s voice is not only one of the best in the genre, but beyond. “Love What You’ve Done With the Place” could be a bride and groom’s first dance and “Dance,” the moment when they kick of the wedding shoes and get down. And the album’s gorgeous closing anthem, “Our Night To Shine,” with its spine-tingling chorus, could be as poignant at a prom or on the ear buds of someone out for a run or a job interview, proving that Rascal Flatts have a way of transcending generations like few others. Back To Us is the follow-up to Rewind, the band’s fourth album for Big Machine Records, which gave them their 15th and 16th No. 1 hits with the progressive title cut “Rewind” and the undeniably infectious “I like The Sound Of That.” With tracks produced by both Jay DeMarcus and Howard Benson, they pushed their music to innovative places under the leadership of Big Machine Records President/CEO Scott Borchetta.

Rascal Flatts is also proud of the charity work they have been able to engage in over the years, whether in supporting music education in public schools or raising almost $4 million for Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt where the Rascal Flatts Pediatric Surgery Center was named in recognition of the trio’s long-standing involvement, which also includes an annual fundraising dinner. The trio’s most recent endeavor is working with the Make A Wish Foundation and NFL quarterback’s Tim Tebow Foundation’s “Night to Shine” experience, which hosts proms around the world for special needs students. It’s something they look forward to doing as they support Back to Us, and even put a memento on the record itself: that striking chorus on “Our Night to Shine” features participants from the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities.

Seventeen years from where they began, it’s a sonically thrilling, heart-moving, genre-propelling proclamation that Rascal Flatts are here to stay. They may have mastered their art, but they’re still singing and playing with the same, immovable passion.

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Broken Bow Records artist Dustin Lynch occupies a unique place in today’s country music. Thanks to his classic sensibilities, he’s been heralded as the heir to George Strait’s throne. Yet with one listen to, “Where It’s At,” it’s obvious the young Tennessee native knows how to combine his traditional influences with an edgy intensity that places him at the vanguard of today’s contemporary country scene.

It’s that ability to fuse his country roots with a progressive musical vision that makes Lynch one of today’s most successful young artists. His self-titled debut hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart – making him the only new male artist to achieve such a feat that year. The album’s lead single, “Cowboys and Angels,” exceeded platinum sales status while earning Lynch a legion of devoted fans. “Cowboys and Angels” became a modern day country classic, ending the year as one Billboard’s Top 5 Country Songs of 2012.

Since releasing “Cowboys and Angels,” Dustin Lynch has launched on to the country music scene. Racking up over 25 million views on YouTube/VEVO, soaring to #1 on the MTV Music Meter and selling 2.4 million digital singles, the Tennessee native brings a fresh combination of traditional influences and edgy intensity to the genre. Producers Mickey Jack Cones, Brett Beavers and Luke Wooten showcase his progressive sound throughout his sophomore album, WHERE IT’S AT (Broken Bow Records), which debuted at #1 on the iTunes Country Albums Chart and has tallied over 750,000 tracks sold to date. Fueled by the scorching Top 25-and-rising single “Hell Of A Night” and multi-week #1, GOLD-certified smash “Where It’s At,” the buzz-worthy album has earned well over 23.6 million streams on Spotify. Previously opening for Keith Urban, Lynch is igniting crowds nationwide on Luke Bryan’s 2015 KICK THE DUST UP TOUR. With recent shout-outs from superstar Reba and CBS’ The Talk co-hosts, media critics have taken notice of the rising newcomer. He was praised in ROLLING STONE COUNTRY’s “The Best Things We Saw at CMA Music Fest 2014” and ROLLING STONE’s 2013 Best of Rock Issue; named ELLE’s “Best New Country Music Artist of 2013,” and picked for both PEOPLE COUNTRY and US WEEKLY’s “2014 Sexiest Men of Country.”

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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. Gilbert was born in the small town of Jefferson, Georgia, just outside of Athens. He grew up hearing country music, but he also listened to a lot of Athens rock bands like R.E.M. and the B-52's, plus the swaggering Southern rock of bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd; at his best, Gilbert blends all of these various strains together in his music. It was a near-fatal car accident when he was 19 years old that spurred him to give music his all, and he started writing songs in earnest, playing mostly solo acoustic gigs before forming a band that could bring his vision of a hard-stomping country/rock/soul show to fruition.

A  Modern Day Prodigal Son Moving to Nashville, he signed with Warner Chappell Publishing (his songs have been recorded by the likes of Jason Aldean and Colt Ford) and began working toward completing an album. Modern Day Prodigal Son finally appeared in 2009 from Average Joe's, which also released the follow-up, Halfway to Heaven, in 2010. Gilbert signed with Big Machine's Valory Music imprint in 2011 and the label reissued Halfway to Heaven. With Valory's support, the album took off: "Country Must Be Country Wide" and "You Don't Know Her Like I Do" both topped the U.S. country chart on their way to being certified platinum. Two other singles were pulled from the record in 2012 -- "Kick It in the Sticks" and "More Than Miles," both peaking in the country Top 20 -- and then in 2013, Gilbert began working on a new studio project with producer Dann Huff.

Just as I Am "Bottoms Up," the first single issued from these sessions, turned into Gilbert's biggest hit to date in early 2014, reaching number one on the charts on its way to selling over a million copies. Its success whetted the appetite for Just as I Am, which saw release in May 2014. Just as I Am went to number one on the Billboard country chart and number two on the Top 200, eventually getting certified platinum thanks to the hit singles "Small Town Throwdown," "One Hell of an Amen," and "Stone Cold Sober." In the summer of 2016 he released "The Weekend," the first taste from his third major-label album, The Devil Don't Sleep. After "The Weekend" made it into the Billboard country Top 20, The Devil Don't Sleep followed in January of 2017.

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When plans for a professional golfing career were derailed by an injury, country songwriter Jake Owen picked up a guitar and never looked back. A native of Vero Beach, Florida, Owen and his fraternal twin Jarrod grew up in the Florida sun playing sports like baseball and football before Jake turned to golf and Jarrod to tennis. They continued their respective sports together as students at Florida State University, until a water-skiing accident resulted in reconstructive surgery for Jake. Off the golf team and struggling with depression, he borrowed a neighbor's guitar and passed the time teaching himself to play by listening to childhood favorites like Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Vern Gosdin, and Keith Whitley.

Ambitious but inexperienced, with good looks and a smooth baritone, Owen was soon to be found playing country covers in campus bars for free beer and a few bucks. Growing tired of covers, he began penning his own songs, which were met with a positive response. This motivated him even more to follow his new dream of becoming a singer, eventually causing him to skip out on his remaining college classes -- only nine credit hours remained on his English and political science degree -- and head to Nashville. He constantly wrote songs in his Bellevue apartment, and a chance lunch meeting found producer Jimmy Ritchey (Clay Walker, Mark Chesnutt) befriending the young musician. For over a year, the two wrote songs together, including a track called "Ghost" (also co-written by Chuck Jones) that Kenny Chesney almost wound up recording -- the track would later be included on Owen's own album.

Startin' with Me Eventually, his friendship with Ritchey led to a meeting with Sony/BMG Nashville and resulted in a record contract for the determined 24-year-old, who already had his album basically finished. His debut, Startin' with Me, appeared in summer 2006 on RCA, spearheaded by the single "Yee Haw." As the song climbed higher in the charts, Owen supported the record on the road by opening for Kenny Chesney. In 2007, the title track ballad became the album's second single, reaching number six and spending a whopping 35-plus weeks on the Billboard country chart. "Don't Think I Can't Love You" appeared in the summer of 2008, heralding the release of his second full-length, Easy Does It, in February of 2009. Easy Does It spawned a number two hit in "Don't Think I Can't Love You," and "Eight Second Ride" peaked at number 11 in early 2010.

Barefoot Blue Jean Night He delivered his third album, Barefoot Blue Jean Night, in the summer of 2011. Barefoot Blue Jean Night was his biggest hit to date, launching number one country singles in its title track and "Alone with You." As the summer of 2012 wound to its end, he released the Endless Summer EP; the collection of four new songs came out that September. Owen returned in December of 2013 with his fourth studio album, the Joey Moi-produced Days of Gold; it was preceded by its title track lead single, which only reached 19 on the charts. The album's next single, "Beachin'," did much better, reaching number one on Billboard's country chart and earning a platinum certification; "What We Ain't Got" closed out the album's cycle by making it to 19.

American LoveOwen started to unveil new material in the summer of 2015 with "Real Life," a single that went to 17 on Billboard. This single didn't appear on Owen's fifth full-length album but his next single, "American Country Love Song," came out in early 2016 and provided the anchor for American Love, which arrived in July of that year.

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Country Music Star Paisley made his debut as a solo artist after signing to Arista. He released his first album, Who Needs Pictures, in 1999. The record produced the No. 1 hit "He Didn't Have to Be," followed by the chart-topping single, "We Danced." The album sold more than 1 million copies, and catapulted Paisley to fame. The next year, the Academy of Country Music (ACM) named Paisley the year's Best New Male Vocalist, and the Country Music Association (CMA) granted him the prestigious Horizon Award.

In February 2001, Paisley was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry's Hall of Fame. Several months later, he received his first Grammy Award nomination for Best New Artist. He also released his second album, Part II (2001), which featured his cheeky and unforgettable No. 1 single "I'm Gonna Miss Her (The Fishing Song)." Three other songs on the album, "I Wish You'd Stay," "Wrapped Around" and "Two People Fell in Love," also made it into the Top 10 on the country charts.

His next album, Mud on the Tires (2003), was equally, if not more successful, hitting No. 1 on the Billboard chart, and featuring an acclaimed duet with Alison Krauss called "Whiskey Lullaby." The video for his collaboration with Krauss won several awards, and the single made it to No. 3 on the Hot Country charts.

Paisley's 2005 effort, Time Well Wasted, came on the heels of his sold-out Two Hats and Redhead Tour with Reba McEntire and Terri Clark. The album included another notable collaboration, "When I Get Where I'm Going" with Dolly Parton, which won the CMA Award for Musical Event of the Year in 2006. The album also scored Paisley both ACM and CMA Awards for Best Album. That same year, Paisley embarked on a successful tour, with rising country star Carrie Underwood serving as his opening act.

Teaming up to record together, Paisley and Underwood sang a duet, "Oh Love," on his next release, 5th Gear (2007). Reaching the top spot on the country album charts, the album featured several No. 1 hit singles, including "Online," "Letter to Me" and "I'm Still a Guy." Paisley also took home several major awards that same year, winning the ACM Award for Top Male Vocalist and the CMA Award for Male Vocalist of the Year. He also won his first Grammy Award for the instrumental track "Throttleneck."

His next album, Play: The Guitar Album, hit stores in November 2008, featuring collaborations with musicians such as Keith Urban, Vince Gill and B.B. King. Paisley and Urban received 2008 Entertainer of the Year nominations at the CMAs for their duet. Although their performance didn't snag the award, Paisley walked away from the ceremony with other honors—this time for Male Vocalist of the Year and Music Video of the Year.

In 2009, Paisley released his American Saturday Night album. The first single off the album, a song called "Then," became Paisley's 14th No. 1 hit. Thanks to his album, Paisley was nominated for seven CMA Awards that year, including Entertainer of the Year. He also co-hosted the event alongside Underwood. The duo would go on to have the honor of hosting the CMAs several times.

Paisley's next studio effort, This Is Country Music (2011), featured a duet with Underwood on "Remind Me." He also performed with the group Alabama for the track "Old Alabama." With 2013's Wheelhouse, Paisley found himself under fire for the song "Accidental Racist." The album debuted at the top of the Billboard country charts, but it quickly lost momentum. In 2014, Paisley returned to more lighthearted country fare with Moonshine in the Trunk.

The summer of 2015 brought the news that Paisley would serve as a mentor for Blake Shelton's team on Season 9 of The Voice. Paisley also performed in a concert to celebrate the 90th birthday of the Grand Ole Opry, with footage scheduled to be released in a documentary at the end of the year.

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COLE SWINDELL 

Bronwood, Georgia's Cole Swindell is a country singer and songwriter who often adds touches of rock, pop, and hip-hop to his songs. Swindell was a member of the same Sigma Chi fraternity at Georgia Southern University as fellow Georgian Luke Bryan; the two often played shows together, and after Bryan made his move to Nashville, Swindell followed. Six of the songs on Bryan's Spring Break... Here to Party album were written by Swindell; he also contributed songs to albums by Scotty McCreery, Chris Young, and Florida Georgia Line. Swindell's success as a songwriter opened up an opportunity to pursue a career as a performer. Swindell released the single "Chillin' It" independently in 2013, and it generated enough attention to get the singer signed to Warner Nashville by the end of the year. Warner Nashville re-released the single and it hit number one on the Billboard Country chart on its way to an eventual gold certification.
Swindell released his self-titled debut on February 18, 2014. It debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and produced two more Top Ten Country singles, "Hope You Get Lonely Tonight" and "Ain't Worth the Whiskey." By the end of 2014, Swindell had dropped an EP for Warner Bros., The Down Home Sessions, which was released in conjunction with his first headlining tour. In 2015, Swindell was touring with Jason Aldean and preparing a new release, but Swindell's debut album hadn't stopped spawning hits, and another track from the full-length, "Let Me See Ya, Girl," broke out and rose to number two on the Country Airplay chart. As "Let Me See Ya, Girl" was continuing to dominate country radio, Swindell released another EP, The Down Home Sessions II, in November 2015. "You Should Be Here," the first single from his second album, reached number one on Billboard's Hot Country chart prior to the release of the full-length You Should Be Here in May of 2016. ~ Steve Leggett & Mark Deming, Rovi

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Delivering a bright, polished sound that owes as much to contemporary pop as anything in the classic country handbook, Dan + Shay is the country singing and songwriting duo of Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney. Both began playing music as teenagers, with Smyers (born and raised in Wexford, Pennsylvania) discovering songwriting at the age of 14, then learning the guitar at the age of 16, and Mooney (born and raised in Natural Dam, Arkansas) writing and playing music from the age of 12. The pair met in Nashville in December of 2012 and immediately began writing songs and performing together. Developing a bright and contemporary country-pop sound, the duo was signed to Warner Bros. Nashville, which released an infectious debut single, "19 You + Me," a song the duo wrote with Danny Orton, in the summer of 2013. "19 You + Me" peaked at seven on Billboard's Country chart. In the spring of 2014, Dan + Shay dropped their debut album, Where It All Began, which included "19 You + Me." "Show You Off" went to 29 in 2014 and, after the seasonal single "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," it was followed by "Nothin' Like You," a single that peaked at 5 on the Country chart. It set the stage for Dan + Shay's next album, Obsessed. Released in June of 2016, it was preceded by the single "From the Ground Up," which reached nine on the Billboard Country charts earlier that year. 

~ Steve Leggett, Rovi

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Maren Morris is a singer and songwriter whose music bridges the gap between hard country, classic rock, and hip-hop-influenced pop, and has enjoyed success both as a tunesmith and as a performer. Maren Morris was born in Dallas, Texas on April 10, 1990, and she grew up with a love of music, saying she was always willing to belt out a tune on the family's karaoke machine by age ten. By the time Morris was 14, she had learned to play guitar and began playing professionally, self-releasing a debut album, Walk On. Morris had struck a deal with Smith Music Group when she dropped her second album, 2007's All That It Takes; Morris' songwriting was strong enough that she either wrote or co-wrote eight of the album's 13 tracks. Morris graduated high school and was attending the University of North Texas when she self-released her third full-length, 2011's Live Wire. A year later, she left Texas for Nashville, determined to shift her career into high gear. After winning an "Artist on the Verge" prize at the New Music Seminar, Morris first got her foot in the door as a songwriter, signing a publishing deal with Yellow Dog and writing tunes for Tim McGraw ("Last Turn Home") and Kelly Clarkson ("Second Wind"). In addition, Morris ramped up her touring schedule, sharing stages with artists as diverse as Pat Green, Radney Foster, and Marty Stuart, and performing for artists in Europe and the United Kingdom as well as the United States. In 2015, Morris released a digital single about the close connection between music and driving titled "My Church." The song became a viral hit, generating over 2.5 million streams in a bit longer than a month. The major labels in Music City took notice, and Morris signed a deal with Sony Music Nashville, who dropped a five-song EP featuring "My Church" in November 2015. Sony serviced "My Church" to country radio in anticipation of Morris' full-length debut Hero, which appeared in June of 2016. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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DARIUS RUCKER 

Rucker continued to tour and perform with Hootie & The Blowfish while working on his sophomore solo effort, a country album called Learn to Live. The album's first single, "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" jumped to to Top 20 on the Billboard charts in July of 2008, making Rucker the first African-American singer to reach the top of the country charts since Charley Pride in 1988. Rucker's newfound fame in the country realm also earned him an invitation to the Grand Ole Opry later that year, and his performance earned a standing ovation.

Rucker's single eventually hit number one on the country charts, and the album received platinum status in 2009. The album's next two singles "It Won't Be Like This For Long" and "Alright" also hit the top of the charts, making Rucker the first country music singer to have his first three singles reach number one since Wynona Judd in 1992. Rucker's album also gained the attention of critics, and earned him two Country Music Association award nominations in 2009, including Male Vocalist of the Year. 

Continuing to thrive as a country music artist, Rucker released Charleston, SC 1966 in 2010, which topped the country album chart and featured the hit "This." His next record, True Believers (2013), helped him add another Grammy to his collection. The song "Wagon Wheel" earned him a win in the best country solo performance category in 2013. His most recent effort, 2015's Southern Style, was another success, lifted up by such songs as the title track and "Homegrown Honey."

In his private life, Rucker enjoys football, and hanging out with close friends Brad Paisley and Tiger Woods. He married long-time girlfriend Beth Leonard in 2000. The couple resides in Charleston, South Carolina, with their two children. Rucker also has a child with a former girlfriend.

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LITTLE BIG TOWN 

Country vocal quartet Little Big Town began with Kimberly Roads and Karen Fairchild, two Georgia natives who began singing together in college. Arkansas-born and Alabama-raised Jimi Westbrook, a friend of Fairchild's husband, joined them to make a trio, and the group was completed by the addition of Arkansan Phil Sweet in 1998.

From the outset, Little Big Town devoted their sound to harmony and multiple lead vocals, a combination that made the band a hard sell at first. They finally landed a deal at Mercury Records, but it fell through due to disagreements about musical direction. In the wake of the success of the Dixie Chicks, however, Little Big Town suddenly seemed a more likely commercial proposition, and they were taken up by the Dixie Chicks' label, Monument Records, in 2000. Recording sessions lasted longer than usual for a country release, but Monument finally issued the band's debut single, "Don't Waste My Time," in the winter of 2002. The song was on its way up the charts when its accompanying album, Little Big Town, arrived in May. Although the debut produced several minor hits, Little Big Town didn't become a superstar act until 2005, when The Road to Here yielded four Top 20 singles (including the ballad "Bring It on Home") and earned the group its first platinum record.

A Place to Land followed in 2007 and netted three singles, none of which made it into the Top 30, but the band's profile continued to grow due to incessant touring and supporting acts from Sugarland to Carrie Underwood. Fairchild also guested with John Mellencamp on his album Life Death Love and Freedom. In May of 2010 "Little White Church" appeared as a single that peaked at number 14 on the Billboard country chart; in August of that year, Little Big Town's fourth studio album, The Reason Why, was released by Capitol. 
 

The band returned in 2012 with the single "Pontoon," which wound up topping Billboard's country chart. The band's fifth full-length album, Tornado, followed in September 2012. It was their first release to be produced by ex-In Pursuit member Jay Joyce, and it became their highest-placed album on the Billboard 200 up to that point, reaching number two. Joyce was retained for their next album's sessions and the resulting record, Pain Killer, appeared in October 2014, preceded by the single "Day Drinking." That single went to four on Billboard's Hot Country chart but it was soon overshadowed by the ballad "Girl Crush," which topped the Hot Country chart and crossed over into the pop Top 20 on its way toward winning two Grammy Awards in 2015. Little Big Town capitalized on this crossover by collaborating with Pharrell Williams for Wanderlust, a brief album that appeared upon short notice in June 2016. Little Big Town returned to country in early 2017 with The Breaker, an album that was preceded by the Taylor Swift-written single "Better Man." ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi

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Dierks Bentley’s career in country music could be taught in music business classes because of its rare balance of commercial success and artistic breadth. Most young Nashville newcomers who gravitate to the Station Inn and the city’s bluegrass heritage are not the ones who wind up on arena stages. The city’s not programmed that way, even if it should be. But Dierks made some savvy choices, soaking up sound and wisdom on Tuesday night bluegrass shows and on Wednesday nights on Lower Broadway with the twanging, electrifying Jamie Hartford Band. In those same days, his day job at The Nashville Network’s tape vault gave him access to a library of classic country music performances, which he soaked up like a sponge. 

Under these many influences, he wrote and recorded songs that honored the past and the heritage while saying something fresh. Early songs like “I Wish It Would Break” and “Bartenders, Barstools and Barmaids” suggested this was a writer/artist who could add something to the country tradition while speaking a contemporary language. That promise was fulfilled upon teaming up with Capitol with the shocking No. 1 debut “What Was I Thinkin’?” It continued with indelible hits, including “Settle For A Slowdown” and “Every Mile A Memory.” 

The tone for Dierks’s career was truly set in 2005. He won the CMA’s Horizon Award for most exceptional emerging artist. And his passion for and stewardship of classic country music earned him membership in the Grand Ole Opry, where he was the third youngest artist ever to be inducted. The first Grammy Award nominations came in 2007 and they quickly became routine. Through the critically acclaimed Up On The Ridge album, he’s earned ten Grammy nods. And throughout, Dierks has pursued a broad-based strategy on the road, juggling arena dates supporting George Strait with club and college shows and now balancing headliner status in country music settings with gritty, jammy tours of rock venues. 

“I walk a different path,” Dierks says. “Because of my love of acoustic music, I have opportunities to do different musical things. It’s not just one type of show, which I really think would be a lot easier!” Reflecting on a career that’s sent him from the bars of Lower Broadway to the top of country music, Dierks is a mix of amazement, gratitude and determination. “I don’t know what the next ten years holds but I think I’ve put myself in a position where I can satisfy all of the different things that I love about music.” 

Throughout this journey (and critical to it), Dierks has sought out and made use of technologies that could help erase the distance between himself and his fans. The website that went up before the release of Home is perhaps the most audacious expression of that yet. The album’s cover is rendered as a mosaic of miniscule images farmed form Dierks’s nearly 200,000 Twitter followers. Drag over it, and the faces pop out in a magnifier. Click on any tile, and up pops what they’ve been saying – to Dierks and each other. It’s like a microcosm of everything Dierks has cultivated in his fan base: connectivity and immediacy. 

He’s done things his own way, satisfied his own muses and done all he can do to bring all kinds of fans along with him. There’s every reason to think they’ll follow him Home too.

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Blake Shelton may have been an unlikely candidate for superstardom but that's hardly due to a lack of charisma. Shelton possessed a warm, masculine ease that lent his rowdier numbers a sense of sly humor but this relaxed touch also made him an effective crooner of ballads, the ace in the hole that helped him cross over from country to the mainstream in the 2010s. His transition to being a household name certainly was assisted by his starring role as a judge on NBC's hit musical competition The Voice, but by that point Shelton had racked up plenty of number one country hits, beginning with his 2001 debut "Austin" and running through "Some Beach," "Home," "Doin' What She Likes," "She Wouldn't Be Gone," "Hillbilly Bone," "All About Tonight," and "Honey Bee," the 2011 single that went triple platinum around the time The Voice hit the airwaves. 

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Billy Currington was born on November 19, 1973 in Rincon, Georgia. His first single, "Walk a Little Straighter," was released in 2003, and drew heavily on Currington's experiences with an alcoholic father (the chorus for the song was actually written when Currington was only 12 years old.) A debut album, Billy Currington, was released on Mercury Records in 2003. Currington returned to action in 2013, releasing the single "Hey Girl" in March and then delivering the full-length We Are Tonight that September. The album debuted at five on the Billboard Country charts. In 2015, Currington returned with Summer Forever, an album preceded by the single "Don't It" -- a song that reached number four on the U.S. Hot Country Songs chart.

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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. By embracing drum loops and elements of Top 40 pop, Urban wrote songs that appealed to a wide audience, effectively satisfying his Nashville fans without alienating those more accustomed to pop music. He also became a genuine celebrity, known for his good looks, his marriage to Nicole Kidman, and his outspoken battle with alcoholism. Even so, it was the music that maintained Urban's career, from his work with the Ranch during the late '90s to the acclaimed solo albums that followed.

Australian country music was primed for a revolution at the start of the '90s, and Keith Urban -- young, brash, and blonde, with a guitar style that owed heavily to rock & roll -- was part of that transformation. After signing with the Australian branch of EMI Records, he issued his first album and scored several number one hits in his home country. Even so, Urban's sights remained set on Nashville, Tennessee, which he considered to be the birthplace of the music he loved. Having already taken trips to Nashville to forge career bridges, he soon decided to base himself in the city.

Urban was invited to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry by Vince Gill in April 2012; he accepted and was inducted later that month. In September, he joined American Idol as a judge. Urban continued to work on his album through all of this activity. Inspired to create something new, he worked with producer Nathan Chapman to add subtle funk and hip-hop elements to his country-pop sound.

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Samuel Timothy McGraw was born in Delhi, Louisiana on May 1, 1967. Though he didn't know it until years later, his father was baseball player Tug McGraw, a star relief pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets who'd had a brief affair with McGraw's mother. He was raised mostly in the small town of Start, Louisiana, near Monroe, and grew up listening to a variety of music: country, pop, rock, and R&B. He attended Northeast Louisiana University on a baseball scholarship, studying sports medicine, and it was only then that he started playing guitar to accompany his singing. He played the local club circuit and dropped out of school in 1989, heading to Nashville on the same day his hero Keith Whitley passed away. He sang in Nashville clubs for a couple of years and landed a deal with Curb in 1992. His debut single, the minor hit "Welcome to the Club," was released later that year, and his self-titled debut album appeared in 1993 but failed to make the charts.

McGraw's fortunes changed with the lead single from his 1994 sophomore effort, Not a Moment Too Soon. "Indian Outlaw" was embraced as a lighthearted, old-fashioned novelty song by fans but was heavily criticized for what some regarded as patronizing caricatures of Native Americans. Despite some radio stations' refusal to air the song, it reached the country Top Ten and even crossed over to the pop Top 20. All the publicity helped send McGraw's next single, the ballad "Don't Take the Girl," all the way to the top of the country chart; it too made the pop Top 20. The album kept spinning off hits: "Down on the Farm" hit number two, the title track went to number one in 1995, and the novelty tune "Refried Dreams" also reached the Top Five. Not a Moment Too Soon was a genuine blockbuster hit, eventually selling over five million copies and topping both the country and pop album charts; it was also the best-selling country album of the year.
McGraw's follow-up, 1995's All I Want, immediately consolidated his stardom with the number one smash "I Like It, I Love It." The album topped the country chart, reached the pop Top Five, and sold over two million copies. Once again, it functioned as a hit factory thanks to the number two "Can't Be Really Gone," the number one "She Never Lets It Go to Her Heart," and the Top Five "All I Want Is a Life" and "Maybe We Should Just Sleep on It."

Over 1996, McGraw supported the album with an extensive tour, accompanied by opening act Faith Hill. In October, after the tour was over, McGraw and Hill married, in a union of country star power that drew plenty of attention from mainstream media. It doubtlessly helped McGraw's next album, 1997's Everywhere, become another crossover smash; it topped the country chart, fell one spot short of doing the same on the pop side, and sold four million copies. The lead single was a McGraw-Hill duet called "It's Your Love," which not only hit number one country, but made the pop Top Ten. Three more singles from the album -- "Everywhere," "Where the Green Grass Grows," and "Just to See You Smile" -- hit number one, and two others -- "One of These Days" and "For a Little While" -- reached number two. Meanwhile, "Just to Hear You Say That You Love Me," another husband-and-wife duet from Hill's 1998 album Faith, climbed into the Top Five.

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Country singer/songwriter, guitarist, and pianist Sam Hunt was born and raised in rural Cedartown, Georgia, where he was a gifted athlete and had a fine career as a college quarterback at both Middle Tennessee State University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Although he was good enough to be signed as a free agent for a time with the Kansas City Chiefs, Hunt was drawn increasingly to music. He had grown up on, and loved, 1990s country, and after hearing all manner of rap, R&B, and other urban pop styles in college locker rooms, he developed a singing and songwriting style that gently blended all of this, and he headed off to Nashville, ground zero for hopeful country songwriters, to begin his career.

Quickly signed to a publishing deal, he applied the self-discipline he learned as an athlete, and began writing better and better songs, finally breaking through when songs he wrote or co-wrote were recorded by country stars Kenny Chesney ("Come Over," which went on to become a number one single), Keith Urban ("Cop Car"), Billy Currington ("We Are Tonight"), and others. Hunt made his commercial recording debut when he independently released a single, "Raised on It," in 2013, followed by a 15-song demo mixtape called Between the Pines that same year, also independently released. Hunt signed a recording deal with MCA Nashville early in 2014, and the label released a single, "Leave the Night On," that same year in advance of an album. "Leave the Light On" became a number one country hit later that year, setting the stage for the October release of Hunt's debut, Montevallo. It debuted at number one on the country chart and number three on the pop chart and generated three additional hits: "Take Your Time" and "House Party," which both reached number one, and "Break Up in a Small Town."

Sam will be embarking on a major concert tour this year.

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Thomas Rhett was born March 30, 1990. In 2012, Thomas Rhett released his debut single, "Something to Do With My Hands." The song topped out at #19 on the country singles chart. In fall of 2013, the young singer released his major-label debut, It Goes Like This. The title track was co-written by his father and sailed to #1 on the country radio charts.

After years of being nominated for a few CMA Awards, he finally went home with his first win in 2016 for Single of the Year for his song " Die a Happy Man " .

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Born on May 3, 1977, country singer Eric Church started writing songs and performing as a teenager, and he released his first album, Sinners Like Me, in 2006. His rock-influenced country style really began to catch on with his second album, Carolina (2009), and with Chief in 2011, Church had established himself as a country music star. His latest release is 2014's The Outsiders.

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Zac Brown Band

Three-time GRAMMY winners and multi-platinum artists Zac Brown Band have become one of music's most heralded acts. The band's three platinum-selling albums, Uncaged, You Get What You Give, and The Foundation have sold over seven million copies total and produced a historic series of eleven #1 hit singles. In 2014, Zac Brown Band performed for two million fans including a sold out, two-night stand at Fenway Park, a packed show at Wrigley Field and a Veteran's Day performance with Bruce Springsteen and Dave Grohl on the National Mall in Washington, DC. 

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Miranda Lambert is a Grammy Award-winning country music star and singer-songwriter. Her 2005 major label debut album, Kerosene, went platinum.