Wednesday, July 25, 2007 | 7:16 a.m.
ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS MORRIS
Who: Montgomery Gentry
When: 9 p.m. Friday
Where: Whiskey Beach at Green Valley Ranch
Tickets: $55.50; 547-5300
Tattoos & Scars, 1999
Carrying On, 2001
My Town, 2002
You Do Your Thing, 2004
Something to Be Proud Of: The Best of 1999-2005, 2005
Some People Change, 2006
Montgomery Gentry has helped broaden the voice of country music since the duo broke onto the national scene in 1999.
Eddie Montgomery and Troy Gentry eschewed twangy ballads about beer and love for earthier subjects. Their first album, "Tattoos & Scars," included the hit singles "Hillbilly Shoes," "Trouble Is," "Daddy Won't Sell the Farm" and "All Night Long."
Hits have been coming almost routinely ever since: "She Couldn't Change Me" (No. 2 in 2001); "My Town" (No. 5 in 2002); "Hell Yeah" (No. 4 in 2003); "If You Ever Stop Loving Me" (No. 1 in 2004) and "Some People Change" (No. 7 in 2006).
The duo's latest No. 1 hit is "Lucky Man," which has been riding the top of the charts, and another single, "What Do You Think About That," was scheduled to be released this week .
Montgomery Gentry will perform at 9 p.m. Friday at Whiskey Beach .
Montgomery and Gentry performed together for several years before capturing national attention as a duo. They played in two bands with Eddie's brother, John Michael Montgomery - Early Tymz and Young Country. John Michael Montgomery went out on his own and became a country superstar with a string of No. 1 hits , including "Be My Baby Tonight" and "I Can Love You Like That."
Gentry recently talked to the Sun by phone from near Chicago , where the duo was performing.
Q: Are you ready to get back into the studio?
Our last album came out sometime at the end of October or in November last year, so yeah we're getting ready to go back in. But it's obviously a long process, trying to find songs, trying to write songs, trying to find time to get into the studio. Everybody in Nashville is cutting at this time. But yeah, we're getting ready to start working on the next album with (producer) Blake Chancey toward the end of summer.
Do you look for something specific in your songs, or do you just throw the field wide open?
A little bit of both. Eddie and I, we try to sing about everyday life - the ups and downs, the hard knocks of life, stuff that we grew up with, things that we believe in, that we can grab on and make our own, whether it be the good or the bad or the ugly. We sing about everyday life, something everyday people out there can relate to .
It seems like you've been together a lot longer than since '99, and you've had great success almost from the beginning. Was it a hard road?
We've been very blessed to have done as well as we have. We started out 16, 17 years ago playing in the clubs together, but on the national scene Montgomery Gentry has been since '99. We've been very fortunate since our first hit came out, "Hillbilly Shoes." We keep top-10 songs rolling out. We've been through a lot, three different record label head changes and everything. But we've been fortunate to remain up there on top with continued success.
It's tough to hold onto a record label today. A lot of artists are forming their own labels.
There have been a lot of independent labels coming into our format. Of course independent labels have been around forever, especially in rock 'n' roll and pop and the other genres of music, but as far as country there really wasn't a whole lot of independents that did very well. But the artists today, they're signing with independents and are doing well. There is so much competition in Nashville with so few record labels that it is kind of tough.
Toby Keith started his own label.
Yeah, but the success he's had - he wasn't seeing eye-to-eye with the label he was with. So with all the hits he's made and all the money he's made he was able to start his own, instead of taking directions from somewhere else, he's in charge. Toby's one of those guys who knows the way he wants it done and he wants to do it his way and the only way he could do that creatively was to go on and open his own record label. That way he was ensured he could do it the way he wanted to do it.
You and Eddie are pretty independent. Have you ever thought of starting your own label?
I don't know. I'd like to say no. Even through all the different label head changes at Sony and our record label, Columbia, we've always persevered, always stayed on top. Eddy and I are real personable guys and we've always had good communication with all the guys and everybody who's come through the Sony record regime. But I think we've got a really good home right now, with the Sony BMG with Joe Galante. He's been a fan of Montgomery Gentry since we broke onto the scene in '99.
So you have the best of both worlds? A good label and the independence to make the kind of music you want to make?
Yes, and it's great, too, having the creative freedom Eddie and I have. When we came to town we were a little bit older than some of the artists that were getting signed, but we had a direction. We'd been in the clubs. We knew which direction we wanted to go. We knew what we were about and what type of music we wanted to play. We've been very fortunate through all the changes. All the record label heads have let us have the creative freedom to at least bring in as many songs as we wanted to. They obviously help in song selection, but they've pretty much let us go the direction we've wanted to.
How has country music changed since you first got into it?
When Eddie and I were first breaking into the scene and got our record deal there were a lot of love songs and love ballads. Between ourselves and Gretchen Wilson and Big and Rich and Toby Keith and Keith Urban we were able to diversify the music to where it's not as twangy, crying-in-your-beer kind of stuff. I think it's opened up the spectrum of the talents and different styles of music to be heard. You've still got the traditional singers like the (Brad) Paisleys and Alan Jacksons, of course, and you go to the other end of the spectrum you have the Rascal Flatts and Keith Urbans and Kenny Chesneys. With the diversity in the music, more people are turning to country because they can find everything they're looking for in music in one format.
When you guys first started did you have your current perception of the kind of music you wanted to play, or did you start out with the twangy, beer-drinking stuff?
We did a little bit of everything. Playing the bars you had to play a lot of cover stuff to please everybody. We went from Southern rock to traditional country. From Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers to Merle Haggard, George Jones and Waylon, Willie and Charlie Daniels. In our case we had three lead singers with different tastes - John Michael sung lead sometimes, Eddie sang some lead , and I sang some lead. So our three different styles created a broad spectrum and diversity to our music and we've kind of stuck to that. You get a whole spectrum of sounds from Montgomery Gentry, which made us unique to the scene when we first signed a recording contract.
So you got your start in the bars, like any good country singer?
We did, we did. We played bars for many years before we played Nashville. It's a great place to cut your teeth. To us it's like Country Music College. Country Music 101. You get in there and learn how to entertain. You get a style that you develop for yourself.
Do you miss those days? You're on an entirely different level now. Do you miss the intimacy of the clubs, dodging beer bottles?
We still play some clubs. When we're out on the road we try to find some country bars and clubs to go in and sit in and hang out and everything. Occasionally we play a place like Billy Bob's, some of the larger nightclubs. We love the intimacy of people right there in your face on top of you.
How do you hold onto that intimacy when you're playing at a concert for 15,000 or 20,000 fans?
It's tough, but Eddie and I are pretty open. We try to bring the whole crowd into the show. Our energy is fueled by everyone who paid for a ticket to come see us. We try to get everybody up out of their seats and make sure everybody has a good time because that is what it's all about. You got that many people come see you, spend that kind of money, you want to make sure you leave them wanting more and want to come back and see you again. So we do the best we can to entertain, whether it be for 200 or 10,000.
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