NEW ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Colt Ford

Colt Ford has written with Country hit maker Jamey Johnson, Jeremy Popoff from alt-rockers Lit and Southern rap-master Attitude. He has worked with Montgomery Gentry, No Doubt's Adrian Young and hip-hoppers Bonecrusher and Sunny Ledfurd. That may sound like this Georgia native and onetime PGA golfer is picking through wildly different types of music in hopes of finding his own direction. Nothing could be further from the truth.

On his debut album, Ride Through the Country, produced by Shannon "Fat Shan" Houchins and released on Average Joe's Records, Ford blends disparate styles into one sound that is part urban, part Southern, all Country and totally his own.

These 14 songs, half of them co-writes from Ford and the rest crafted solely, conjure vivid images over deep-fried, swaggering grooves. On his first single, "No Trash in My Trailer," which he penned with Mike Dekle and Byron Hill, you can smell the butterbeans cooking and feel the growling breath of Ford's dog, Sic 'Em Sam.

And on "Ride Through the Country," his drawling evocations of swimming holes, dirt roads, barbecue and a bottle or two on Friday night intersperse with choruses sung by John Michael Montgomery in a voice that seems worn by the trials as well as the pleasures of backwoods life.

"Most Country folks sing but I couldn't so I'm rappin,'" Ford intones on that track. But as far as telling a story through song, whether speaking or singing, he more than holds his own.

2009 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.