AUGUST 18, 2011
(Nashville, Tennessee...) -- The past year has seen incredible changes in the personal and professional lives of Eddie Montgomery and Troy Gentry - some positive, some not - and all of those experiences and emotions have been funneled into award-winning duo Montgomery Gentry's seventh studio album. Rebels on the Run, a collection of 11 songs that define where Montgomery Gentry have been and where they're going, will be available from their new label home, the indie powerhouse Average Joe's Entertainment, on October 4, 2011.
"In a lot of ways the past year has been has been nothing but hell," said Eddie Montgomery, whose life was upended with the C-word and D-word late last year. He was blindsided by news of prostate cancer, which was fortunately caught early, promptly treated it and is now in remission. A short time later, his wife filed for divorce. "Man, without T-Roy and my family, this music, our fans and the Man upstairs, I don't know how I would've gotten through it."
"I don't know if we would have made the same album if we hadn't been through everything we've been through in the last year," added Troy. "We've always tried to record songs about things we've lived or seen, but the depth of all of those experiences really comes out in this album."
The biggest career change in the last 10 months was a move from the only label they had ever known, Columbia Records, to one of the most artist-friendly companies, Average Joe's Entertainment.
Average Joe's instructed Eddie, Troy and producer Michael Knox, whose production credits include Jason Aldean, Trace Adkins, Hank Williams, Jr, Kelly Clarkson and others, to "go in and make some Montgomery Gentry music." Music that harkened back to the songs that initially brought them to the dance.
"They had gotten away from the music that made people fall in love with them in the beginning," said Tom Baldrica, President of Average Joe's Entertainment. "Eddie and Troy know their audience better than anyone, because they are their audience. That made it easy for them figure out what kind of songs they wanted on this album. They have also developed incredible relationships with the best songwriters in the business, which in turn helped them get the absolute best songs."
Eddie and Troy collaborated with Jim Collins, Ira Dean, Wendell Mobley, David Lee Murphy, Rivers Rutherford, and Neil Thrasher on three cuts on the album. Rodney Clawson and Dallas Davidson co-wrote the duo's first single from Rebels on the Run, "Where I Come From," and they turned to friends like Kelly Archer, Greg Bates, Kevin Grantt, Justin Weaver and others for the remaining songs.
The guys are on the road this week with dates in California, Las Vegas and Colorado. As members of the Grand Ole Opry since 2009, they will be back in Nashville to play the storied stage on September 13. They are scheduled to headline the 28th Annual Love Ride motorcycle rally with Jay Leno outside Los Angeles on Sunday, October 23, 2011. For more details, visit www.montgomerygentry.com.
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