Walker Montgomery, chosen as an Artist to Watch in 2022 by Country Now and Music Mayhem Magazine; as well as Artist to Watch in 2021 by Sounds Like Nashville and The Boot and a Country Next pick by Country Now, is a rising singer/songwriter who knows a thing or two about family tradition, but he’s an artist making his own legacy. The 21-year-old son of John Michael Montgomery and nephew of Montgomery Gentry’s Eddie Montgomery, the emerging star was raised away from the spotlight in Nicholasville, Kentucky. But now that he’s found that spotlight on his own, Montgomery’s pedigree is matched only by his country passion. Signed to Play It Again Entertainment and produced by the multi-award-winning chart-topping team known to the world as The Peach Pickers – Dallas Davidson; Ben Hayslip; and Rhett Akins (who have nearly 80 No. 1 songs between them)– he’s already put his classically-inspired, honey-bourbon vocal to use on a self-penned hit debut (“Simple Town,” over 4 Million Spotify streams). A pair of story-building singles followed – the high-energy “Like My Daddy Done It” and passionate “Saving For A Rainy Night” – and there’s more on the way. Montgomery and his team have already logged countless hours in the studio, as the breakout talent works to hone his lyrical honesty and integrity, plus a lived-in sound that brings country’s past into the present tense. “I want my music to stand the test of time and connect with people no matter who they are,” he says. “I learned from my family that the way you do that is by being true to yourself, and that’s the reason I’m here. That’s the reason I get up every day and do what I do – to help take care of the family name and make them proud.”
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For an artist who’s amassed so many light-hearted country songs, Mitchell Tenpenny is actually dead serious about his craft. And the result of that is a carefully curated batch of bona fide country songs that he hopes will keep getting fans to listen and to love what they hear.
“This isn’t a hobby for me. This is my job: to get people to love and believe my songs. I have a responsibility to make music that people latch on to. That’s what songwriting is to me,” Tenpenny says now, four years after making his debut in 2018 with Telling All My Secrets. “It’s like that old adage, ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’” That album earned him the best first week showing for any major label country debut LP at the time of its release.
Even with that solid work ethic, Tenpenny knows that half the fun of making the music is the having fun part. The songwriting and wordsmithing come naturally, he says, even when he’s been out drinking with friends. “There’s a clarity in the drunk. Sometimes that’s when you have the best titles, phrases, and alliterations, because you’re free and you’re talking, and things just come out differently.” He says his hook book is packed with ideas from good hangs and nights out.
Now that he’s on the verge of releasing his ambitious 20-track studio album This Is The Heavy, he maintains that while his rock influences are featured on the songs, with heavy drums and guitars, the foundation for everything he does is country. Which you’d expect from someone who was born and raised in Nashville, in a family with deep roots in the country music business.
“In the heyday of Brooks & Dunn, they were my favorite band. And going to Fan Fair with my grandma (former Sony/ATV Music CEO Donna Hilley) was awesome,” he recalls. “But there was a lot more than just country music going on in Nashville. There was the emo-rock scene and the Rocketown scene. After being so engulfed in country music, when I got to high school, I made friends by starting a rock band.” Even as they explored that sound, Tenpenny’s origins stayed with him and ultimately, led him to a proper career in country music. “When teacher says, ‘write whatever you want in your journal’: that’s how songwriting feels to me. Just free. So lyrically we stay country, but we also explore new sounds.”
That’s the very reason that Tenpenny’s music sounds like an evolution of sorts. If fans expect him to recreate traditional country music, that’s just not him. “If I copy Waylon and Willie, that’s not authentic. Because those records have already been made. I write what I know and what I like, and hope that other people like it, too.”
At 32, Tenpenny also knows that he hasn’t lived quite enough life to make every single song about him. He’s okay with telling a compelling story when it happens to make a compelling song. “I don’t always just write about myself. Johnny Cash didn’t really shoot a man in Reno just to watch him die. It was just a great lyric. A lot of my songs come from true life, but a lot of them are stories I make up in my head.”
He’s learned those songwriting lessons from his idols, like Bobby Braddock, who he says can write a million different songs a million different ways. And from Brett and Brad Warren, who he credits with getting him his first publishing deal. “They told me when we met that if they ever had a songwriting cancellation, they’d call me. They did, and we ended up writing ‘That’s How She Goes.’ Keith Urban put it on hold, then Blake Shelton put it on hold. I always thought it was someone else’s song, but then it finally felt right for me, and I knew I needed to cut it myself.” The song makes its debut appearance on This Is the Heavy even though it was written nearly a decade ago.
The Nashville that built Tenpenny isn’t much like the one that exists today. His memories of the influential music from Lower Broadway take him back to Paradise Park Trailer Park at 4th and Broadway. A place where he and his buddies could drink $6 pitchers of Natty Light and listen to a guitar player with a Fender Forever tattoo. “It was the coolest place in the world. Rest in peace, Paradise Park,” he says of the honky-tonk that closed in 2018.
Another instrumental part of Tenpenny’s early attempts at songwriting came in college when he hit the roommate jackpot. He lived with Brad Clawson — “Happy Does,” “Up Down” — the son of prolific hitmaker Rodney Clawson. They didn’t plan to make a living in country music, but they also didn’t plan not to. “We had guitars in our room, and there was nothing else to do but just try to figure this out. We started writing country songs. It just kind of happened, because we didn’t have a plan B. We were so naïve. But we had jobs – I worked in construction and valet parking – and I learned that you never know who’s in the room. When you’re too focused on becoming an artist, you lose sight of everything that’s around you. And then you might miss the opportunities around you.”
Opportunities such as meeting a producer while he was putting insulation in a roof in Nashville. “You have to be open minded enough to take chances every time you get them,” he says. And then those seemingly random moments can lead to bigger things, like Tenpenny’s breakout hit “Drunk Me,” which has amassed more than 550 million on-demand streams. He wrote the song with Jordan Schmidt and Justin Wilson, and it became his debut single. It was released in 2018, but he remembers hearing it on the radio for the first time as if it was yesterday.
“I remember being in my truck driving around Nashville, and I heard my voice. I thought it was just my CD and that I was listening to the mix. But it sounded different,” he says. When he pushed the eject button and nothing came out, he had the quintessential epiphany: “Is this the radio? It said 103.3 Country. I couldn’t believe my song was on the radio. I started crying, I called my mom: that feeling never changes.”
He considers his new song stack more mature, with a best-of-both-worlds sound. “It goes back to my rock influences, with more expressive arrangements, but lyrically it’s about what I’ve been doing the last four years of my life,” he says. His intention was not to veer off course. “There are still songs that have the vibe of ‘Drunk Me’ and ‘Alcohol You Later.’ I’m not one to ever leave the fans behind. Because I loved when bands stuck to what made me fall in love with them. That’s important to me. I never want to venture off too far from what first got me started.”
And its those fans that have pushed his on-demand streams to be among the best out of today’s breakout artists, with over 1.3 billion total and as many as six tracks exceeding competitive artists’ tracks thanks to his loyal fan base. At the close of 2021, Mitchell was a Top 10 artist on Spotify’s Hot Country (#7) and the #5 most-played artist on SiriusXM’s The Highway only just behind superstars like Kane Brown, Luke Combs, Thomas Rhett, and Chris Stapleton. His social following continues to grow and specifically, his TikTok following, and likes are competitive with current headlining acts.
When Tenpenny set out to make This Is the Heavy, there was no question that he’d write all the songs the way he did on his first studio album. “It’s hard for me to make someone believe a song I didn’t write. When it comes to my own record, I feel like I’m the best one to write my own story and say what I want to say.” The album’s first single “Truth About You” has already racked up 120+ million streams and landed in the Top 13 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. Tenpenny’s debut album and his follow-up EPs also caught the attention of expert talent spotter Luke Bryan, who invited Tenpenny to join him on his current “Raised Up Right Tour.”
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Nashville’s most unpredictable hitmaker ERNEST is “The Charmer” (MusicRow), a triple threat talent and one of Music City’s on the rise artist/writers that’s changing the status quo. As a chart-topping songwriter, he fuses influences ranging from Eminem to George Jones, creating a twist-heavy verse style that’s become his signature, proving its mettle, and earning him seven #1 hits to date. The eccentric free spirit and 2022 CMA Triple Play Award winner launched his debut single to country radio “Flower Shops” feat. Morgan Wallen in January to 88 first week stations, the #1 most added single of the week. The Top 20 track continues to make waves, hitting another benchmark with RIAA platinum certification. His debut full-length album of the same name - Flower Shops (The Album) – is out now, showing off the more classically country side of his craft. Nashville’s “busiest – and most consistently successful – creative force” (Tennessean) just wrapped his first-ever sold-out headlining Sucker For Small Towns Tour, spanning college towns nationwide.
Country music just sounds better when a family sings it. That’s where it all began: mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, all huddled together, picking and singing on a porch in the twilight.
That’s why when The French Family launch into the bittersweet ache of a classic or the startling tenderness of one of their self-penned original songs, the hairs on country music loving necks stand up, and we instinctively––sometimes tearfully––recognize this father, mother, and son as the real thing.
“We’ve just got to stay true to who we are and what we do,” mother Camille French says. “We’ve always done that––and we won’t change.” Camille is reflecting on a two-decade long career with her husband Stuie at the family’s new home in Nashville, oceans away from their childhood worlds where they both fell in love with country music and ultimately, mastered it.
Touring over the last almost 20 years as Camille and Stuie, the duo became beloved in Australia. They earned three Australian Golden Guitar Awards––that country’s equivalent to the CMAs. The Golden Guitars have recognized both their singing and playing: In 2013, the couple earned their first trophy together for Best Alternative Country Album of the Year, while in 2017, Stuie received Best Instrumental Album honors for his stunning Axe to Swing. Now as the French Family Band they earned their first Golden Guitar Award for Instrumental of the Year from their album "Me and Dad". Two of the pair’s original songs––“Gone for All Money” and “Pretty Katalina”––were also featured on the wildly popular Australian television drama A Place to Call Home and in 2022 the French Family were featured in a National Holiday Season television campaign for the JC Penney Department store chain.
Nashville noticed. Grammy-winning Western Swing maestros The Time Jumpers invited Stuie and Camille to sit in at the group’s 3rd & Lindsley residency. That night, grinning widely and dazzling both a crowd already accustomed to greatness and their fellow musicians on stage, Stuie and Camille realized dreams that had begun in grade school.
Stuie grew up in Tasmania. He felt drawn to the guitar and his father and big brother’s old Johnny Cash records. “The guitar was so prominent and dominant on those records that I just wanted to learn it,” Stuie says. “We had an old Yahama acoustic guitar. Then in the mid-70s, my brother went and bought me an electric. He was a mechanic and didn’t have much money, but he bought me a guitar.”
Stuie became a monster player with chops that sublimely meld the virtuosity and instinct of jazz with the clear tone and restraint of American hillbilly roots music. Also a fine singer, his vocals nod to the gentle ease of Western swing greats such as Tommy Duncan. Stuie’s prodigious skill led to high-profile sideman gigs with Australia’s top touring artists, as well as recognition from his own heroes including Tommy Emmanuel, who asked Stuie to serve as a tutor at the Tommy Emmanuel Guitar Camp Australia, and Les Paul, who invited Stuie on stage to play with him in New York. Stuie also toured and jammed with his idol Merle Haggard on the latter’s Australian tour as a member of the opening band.
Camille, née Camille Te Nahu, was raised in New Zealand. A Maori whose mother was also part Samoan, Camille grew up immersed in a tight-knit familial culture that encouraged singing and dancing. Her voice, somehow both crisply expressive and immeasurably rich and smooth, can sit back to soothe in a pocket before jumping out to thrill. “I fell in love with country music,” Camille says. “From a very early age, I just knew it was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.” Camille made her way to Australia, where gigs as a backup vocalist for established greats including Kasey Chambers family soon followed. She never forgot her roots––and they never forgot her. Years later, New Zealand television series Unsung Heroes of Maori Musicwould devote an entire episode to Camille.
Stuie and Camile toured as sidemen for top Australian acts and often opened those shows together for two years before deciding to go out on their own, as a pair. “Once we got together, I always thought he was too good to be in the background––and he thought I was too good to be in the background,” Camille says with a laugh. “So we joined forces just to see where it took us.”
“It’s hard to do on your own,” Stuie adds. “But together, you can.”
While Camille and Stuie first turned heads delivering unforgettable renditions of others’ songs, they found even broader acclaim when they decided to write their own. The first song they wrote together, “Beverly Joy,” pays moving tribute to Stuie’s mother––and instantaneously established them as a songwriting force. They performed the song the same week they wrote it at an intimate show. “Of all the songs we did that night––and we did our best covers––that was the one that brought tears to people’s eyes,” Stuie says. “We didn’t tell anyone it was our song. Afterwards, we said to each other, ‘Wow. We wrote that song. We didn’t tell anyone––they just understood.’” He pauses. “It made me realize that we could write songs.”
Stuie and Camille were right. They were both too good to be buried behind anyone, and together, they’ve proven artistically unstoppable. They’re also parents to three children, but it’s been 16-year-old Sonny who transformed a successful duo into The French Family. “He was about three when he first started singing, and even from that early age, he could sing in pitch,” Camille says. “His timing and pitch were just too good to be true. Then, by the time he was six or seven, he was doing harmony. I’ve made my living as a harmony singer, but I’ve never had anybody who locks in with me quite like he does.”
Camille and Sonny singing together is a joy––a gorgeous throwback to early country’s familial harmonies that also pulses with youth and new energy. Sonny has picked up the guitar as well, and twinning on stage with his father has become the norm. “I love the melodies and the songwriting––and the guitar playing, especially,” Sonny says of classic country music. When asked for a list of his favorite artists, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, George Jones, and Glen Campbell come to his mind first. The industry has begun to take note: USA Gibson Guitars recently invited Sonny to be part of an international mix of promising young musicians dubbed the Gibson Generation Group (G3).
2023 is off to a great start for The French Family Band with an invitation to make their debut at the Grand Ole Opry this coming spring.
Now performing as The French Family, Camille, Stuie, and Sonny are acclimating to life stateside––deep roots in tow. “I love being able to share our family music with people,” says Camille. “I think people crave it. They come up and tell me how much they love seeing the love among our family and what we do––and I love being able to share that with everybody.”
Stuie agrees, adding, “We hope our music takes people back to a time when the essence of country music was twangy guitars, honest songs, and vocals that tear your heart out.”
Known around Nashville as a “rare talent” (CelebMix), Faren Rachels is one of the hardest working women in Music City. Having played her way through every bar in her college town of Athens, the Sparta, Georgia native turned her sights on Tennessee in 2012. After working side-gig after side-gig, the tenacious firebrand landed a publishing contract that saw her earn cuts Billboard has called “steady, stomping [and] propulsive”. Rachels has also hit the road with country greats Luke Combs, Brantley Gilbert, Willie Nelson, and Dwight Yoakam. “My grandparents loved country… used to take me to concerts,” she recounts, “now I get to tour with some of the artists that they introduced me to.” Rachels’ honest approach to songwriting has landed her credits with luminaries such as Lainey Wilson, Ashland Craft, Chrissy Metz, and many more. “I wanna make music for grown-ass women; real… raw,” she explains, “I wanna make music about things people are actually going through, and not drinking beer 24-7.” Despite having to take a break from touring due to the COVID pandemic, Faren is now poised to impress once again with a string of new releases (produced by Rocky Block and Austin Goodloe) and a rapidly building tour schedule. It’s no wonder her work has been described as “speaking to the universal journey, and struggle, of turning dreams into reality,” (American Songwriter) because Faren Rachels has lived, and thrived, through it all. Faren Rachels EP, 'Cryin' With The Windows Down', is out now!
It takes some folks 10 years to make a name for themselves in Music City, but in the three short years that Drew Parker has lived in Nashville, TN, he has been able to accomplish things he never dreamed were possible.
Coming from a small, unincorporated town of Stewart, Georgia (located in Covington, Georgia), Parker began singing at age 3 in front of small church crowds. Over the years, he began to build his confidence and, at age 14, he decided to pick up a guitar and teach himself how to play songs from his inspirations, such as Keith Whitley, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Travis Tritt, and Alan Jackson. At age 18, he expanded his musical abilities and learned to play piano, both of which he still uses today to craft lyrics and rhymes into songs.
Parker made the move to Nashville, Tennessee in 2015 and signed a publishing deal with RiverHouse/WarnerChappell in September of 2017. He is a co-writer on Luke Combs’ debut platinum record “This Ones For You”, Jake Owen’s single “Homemade” and Luke Combs’ “1,2 Many”.
Aside from his cowboy hat and boots, Drew Parker is the definition of true country. He is genuine, honest, and carries an old soul that resonates with many. He is on the rise and sees no end in sight.
The Kentucky Headhunters are an American country rock and Southern rock band originating in the state of Kentucky. The band's members are Doug Phelps (vocals, bass guitar), Greg Martin (vocals, lead guitar), and brothers Richard Young (vocals, rhythm guitar) and Fred Young (vocals, drums). They were founded in 1968 as Itchy Brother, which consisted of the Young brothers and Martin, along with Anthony Kenney on bass guitar and vocals. Itchy Brother performed together until 1982, with James Harrison replacing Martin from 1973 to 1976. The Youngs and Martin began performing as The Kentucky Headhunters in 1986, adding brothers Ricky Lee Phelps (lead vocals, harmonica) and Doug Phelps (bass guitar, vocals) to the membership.
With the release of their 1989 debut album Pickin' on Nashville via Mercury Records, the band charted four consecutive Top 40 country singles. A second album for Mercury, Electric Barnyard, did not do as well commercially, and the Phelps brothers left after its release to form Brother Phelps. Kenney re-joined and Mark S. Orr took over on lead vocals for 1993's Rave On!! and a compilation album entitled The Best of The Kentucky Headhunters: Still Pickin' before the band exited Mercury. Orr left and Doug Phelps rejoined in 1996 as lead vocalist for the album Stompin' Grounds. He also led on the Audium Entertainment albums Songs from the Grass String Ranch and Soul, as well as Big Boss Man and a second compilation, Flying Under the Radar, on CBuJ Entertainment. After Kenney's departure, Doug once again became the band's bass guitarist by the release of Dixie Lullabies, in 2011.
The Kentucky Headhunters have released ten studio albums, three compilations, and twenty-three singles. Their highest-peaking single is a cover of the Don Gibson song "Oh Lonesome Me," which the band took to number eight on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts in 1990. In addition, the band has won three Country Music Association awards, an Academy of Country Music award, and a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, won in 1990 for Pickin
