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John Michael Montgomery Biography

John Michael Montgomery Biography

 John Michael Montgomery is an American country music singer-songwriter. He began his career in a band called Early Tymz, whose members included his older brother Eddie Montgomery and their friend Troy Gentry (who currently make up the country music duo Montgomery Gentry). John Michael made his solo debut on the American country music scene in 1992 with the release of his album, Life's a Dance, on the Atlantic Records label. John Michael has produced more than thirty singles on the Billboard country charts, including two of Billboard’s Number One country singles of the year: "I Swear" (1994) and "Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident)" (1995). Seven of Montgomery's singles have reached Number One on the country charts.

 John Michael Montgomery arrived on the country music scene in 1993 with a debut album, Life's a Dance, that became the only million-seller on the country charts by a new artist that year. Its title was a No. 4 hit single and was followed by his first country chart-topper, "I Love the Way You Love Me." The follow-up, Kickin' It Up, hit the top spot on both the country and adult contemporary charts and produced four more successful singles, the chart-topping "I Swear," "Be My Baby Tonight," "If You Got Love" and the No. 4 single "Rope the Moon". Montgomery and his older brother, Eddie Montgomery of Montgomery Gentry, received musical encouragement from their father, who performed in a local country band and taught his son his first chords. John Michael joined the family band as guitarist before taking the lead singing role when his parents divorced. Afterwards, he made a frugal living on the local honky-tonk scene as a solo artist playing what he referred to as "working man's country." Eventually, Atlantic Records signed him, although it was he, rather than the record company, who rejected his own material for inclusion on his debut. ("Mine just weren't good enough.") There were problems during the recording, typified in an anecdote regarding a late-night call to the head of Atlantic that resulted in a change of producer. Atlantic's faith in their artist was subsequently rewarded by his swift rise, even though some questioned his political correctness with songs such as "Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident)."

 
His fourth album, What I Do the Best, was released while the singer underwent throat surgery. He was almost back to full health for 1998's Leave a Mark, which, like the following year's Home to You, saw him heading in an increasingly middle-of-the-road direction. Following the release of 2000's Brand New Me, he switched labels after Atlantic closed its country division and transferred several of its artists to the Warner Bros. roster. He released Pictures in 2002 and The Very Best of John Michael Montgomery in 2003. In early 2003, he scored another radio hit with " Letters From Home", a song about a soldier fighting in an overseas war. The song served as the title track for his album of the same name. In 2007, Montgomery founded his own label, Stringtown Records. His first single for the label, "Mad Cowboy Disease", was released in March 2008.

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