Sam Hunt certainly isn’t your average country music star. He had grown up on, and loved 1990s country, but was constantly immersed in rap, R&B, and other urban pop styles in college locker rooms. This led him to develop a sound that blended all of these styles together, which he took to Nashville to chase his dream of being a country music singer. Now Sam Hunt is on tour all over the nation, and you can get your tickets right here at Country Music On Tour!
Quickly signed to a publishing deal once he arrived in Nashville, Sam Hunt used the self-discipline he learned as an athlete, and started writing better and better songs, eventually getting his break when songs he wrote or co-wrote were recorded by country stars Kenny Chesney (“Come Over,” which later became a number one single), Keith Urban (“Cop Car”), Billy Currington (“We Are Tonight”), and others.
Hunt made his commercial recording debut when he independently released a single, “Raised on It,” in 2013, succeeded by a 15-song demo called “Between the Pines” later that year, also independently released. Hunt managed to get a recording deal with MCA Nashville in 2014, and the label released a single, “Leave the Night On,”. “Leave the Light On” rose to number one that year, building a fanbase for the October release of Hunt’s debut, “Montevallo”. It debuted at number one on the country charts and number three on the pop charts and produced three additional hits: “Take Your Time” and “House Party,” which both reached number one and “Break Up in a Small Town.”
As the latter rode the charts, his 2013 “acoustic mixtape” Between the Pines was re-released in October 2015. Montevallo produced one more single — “Make You Miss Me” — in 2016, but Hunt spent the majority of that year working on his second album. “Body Like a Back Road,” which as we all know went on to cement his place in the modern pop-country fanbase.
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