John Michael Montgomery

Montgomery was born on 20 January 1965 in Danville, Kentucky, US and grew up in the nearby county, Garrard. His family was musically inclined and his father who played in a local country band encouraged and taught his son how to play the guitar. Montgomery went on to join his brother Eddie’s band, but the two later split off on separate paths with Eddie forming Montgomery Gentry with Troy Gentry and John heading out as a solo act.

It did not take Montgomery long at all to break into the Country mainstream. He released his studio debut “Life’s a Dance” in 1992 to commercial success, producing three charting singles with one of them “I Love the Way You Love Me” selected as the single of the year by the Academy of Country Music.

Montgomery’s studio debut acted as a forewarning taste of success to come. His sophomore release “Kickin’ It Up” reached multi-platinum status and took the No.1 spot on both country and pop charts. The album spawned a total of 4 singles 3 of which became number 1 hits. Montgomery proved himself to be one of the most consistently exciting figures in current country music with his self-titled 3rd studio album. Two of the songs on the album topped the charts and an additional 3 landed within the top 5.

However a shadow seemed to lurk behind the successful string of releases and in late 1995 he announced he would be undergoing vocal surgery. Thankfully the procedure went according to plan and Montgomery was back in 1996 to issue his 4th album “What I Do Best”. Though he did not score a No. 1 hit with this release he did have two tracks that appeared at No. 2 on the charts “Friends” and “How Was I to Know”.

Montgomery released his next studio effort “Leave a Mark” a year after he issued his greatest hits compilation in 1997. This album “left a mark” on his career as a pivotal tuning point. He transformed his rugged working class sound into a more polished and commercially palatable style. Despite his stylistic change there was not much deviation in sales and he still produced 2 singles, which entered the top 5.

Montgomery progressively moved into a more saccharine direction with his 1999 album “Home to You” and by the time he released “Brand New Me”, adult-contemporary was just as likely to be applied to him as country. The latter release rejuvenated the sales he had lost on his last album and his song “Little Girl”, which featured Alison Krauss gave him yet another No.1 single.

Montgomery ended his long career with Atlantic Records and moved to Warner Brothers to release his 2002 album “Pictures”. Montgomery followed this up with another “best of” album as well as a Christmas album entitled “Mr. Snowman”. His official follow up to Pictures was released in 2004 and was entitled “Letters from Home”. The album was a success, launching to No. 2 on the Country Charts and No. 24 on the pop (which marked the highest position in the pop realm of his career).

2008 was the year in which he released his 10th studio album “Time Flies”. Though the album did not live up to it’s predecessors reputation it did manage to produce the charting single “Forever”, which climbed to No. 28.