Tim McGraw

McGraw grew up in a small community, the only child of a waitress mother and successful baseball player father, Frank Edwin “Tug” McGraw, who was often travelling the USA whilst playing for various teams. He was an avid sports player growing up, and attended the University of Mississippi through a baseball scholarship, before dropping out to pursue his musical career.

After handing out demos trying to catch a break in the early 90’s, McGraw's father happened to be playing one of his son's songs in the car whilst his friend, a record executive at Curb Records was sat in the passenger seat. The label quickly snapped him up but his first album was a commercial failure, not charting in the top 40.

However in 1994, McGraw recorded and released his second album, "Not a Moment Too Soon", which was a smash hit, reaching the top of the country charts. The following year, McGraw demonstrated he had serious chops as a country singer when his third album “All I Want” sold over 2 million copies and hit the top of the charts again.

In 1996 McGraw married fellow country star Faith Hill, and went on to release ten more successful albums within 18 years, as well as an unlikely collaborative chart smash hit with rap superstar Nelly, “Over and Over”. In 2006 McGraw went on a 55 city tour with his wife called “Soul2Soul II Tour”, which was a massive triumph, generating revenue of almost $89M, making it the most profitable country tour of all time.

Later on in his career, McGraw has also enjoyed a successful stint in the acting business, starring in the award winning sports drama “The Blind Side” and action thriller “The Legend” alongside Jamie Foxx.

The country star has also become known for his charity work, in 2010, McGraw and his wife put on a benefit concert called “Nashville Rising” to aid flood victims in the south, they also worked as aid transporters during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Originally comprised of upright bass player Laura Lynch, guitarist Robin Lynn Macy, and multi-instrumentalist sisters Martie and Emily Erwin, the band is named after the Lowell George song “Dixie Chicken”. Following a series of shows around Texas in which the Dixie Chicks found their form, the group inherited $10,000 from the daughter of Senator John Tower to record their debut album. The result was 1990’s “Thank Heavens for Dale Evans”, which while failing to cause a stir, was followed by the Christmas single “‘Home on the Radar Range”.

Unimpressed with the contemporary direction of the band, Robin Lynn Macy left the group in 1992 following the release of their sophomore album “Little Ol’ Cowgirl”. Laura Lynch subsequently took over lead vocal responsibilities for 1993’s “Shouldn’t a Told You That” after which Dixie Chicks signed with Sony Music Entertainment. “Shouldn’t a Told You That” proved to be Lynch’s final release with the band and was subsequently replaced by Natalie Maines. Bringing with her a broader appeal with blues and rock influences, the band’s major label debut was the single “I Can Love You Better”, which peaked within the U.S. Country Singles Chart’s Top 10. Significantly raising their profile to the national level, Dixie Chicks’ third full-length “Wide Open Spaces” sold over 12 million copies, aided by the singles “Where’s Your Trouble”, “You Were Mine”, and “Wide Open Spaces”.

The record won the band the Horizon Award in 1998 as well as their first Grammy Award for Best Country Album in 1999. Debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, Dixie Chick’s subsequent album “Fly” was released in August 1999, marking the group as one of the most successful country acts in U.S. history. The record spawned a whopping nine singles, notably “Sin Wagon” and “Goodbye Earl”, after which the band became involved in a legal dispute with their label Sony.

The result of the dispute awarded the group their own imprint Open Wide Records, through which they released their sixth studio album “Home” in 2002. Noted for its traditional bluegrass and lighter lyrical topics, the record spawned the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 single “Long Time Gone”. The album secure the band three more Grammy Awards for Best Country Album, Album of the Year and Best County Instrumental Performance (“Lil’ Jack Slade”). Dixie Chicks embarked on the Top of the World Tour in support of the record, the first show of which Maines announced her displeasure at the invasion of Iraq, which led the group to be on the receiving end of a huge backlash.

Despite this, their subsequent 2006 album “Taking the Long Way” once again peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and Country Albums Chart. Winning five Grammy Awards for Album of the Year, Best Country Album, and Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group for their single “Not Ready to Make Nice”, the record was a huge success. The supporting tour, the Accidents & Accusations Tour, was directed more towards the Canadian and international markets due to their newfound unpopularity in America’s south; and didn’t even venture in their home-state of Texas. A hiatus ensued following the tour in which members spent time with their families. Dixie Chicks returned in 2010 to appear on the Eagles’ 2010 Summer Tour after which they appeard in the music documentary “Sounds Like a Revolution”.

The band are comprised out of one core trio. Hilary Scott and Charles Kelley both share lead vocals on their songs, with Kelley also playing the rhythm guitar, whilst multi-instrumentalist Dave Haywood sings backup vocals while playing lead guitar, piano and mandolin.

Scott is the only one of the trio actually born in Tennessee, with both Kelley and Haywood being born in Georgia, the former was raised there while the latter was raised in North Carolina for the first ten years of his life. Haywood’s family moved back to Georgia and the two natives became friends in middle school, and by 2005 they were meeting up to write songs together every other weekend.

Like many other before and many others who will go on to do so, creating music became their passion and they came to Nashville seeking to make Kelley’s dreams of country stardom a reality. In comes Hilary Scott, who recognised Kelley from his MySpace page (that’s right, we’re going way, way back here!) when they met in a bar.

The three of them started writing songs together and country history was made. They signed to Capitol Records in 2007 and released their self-titled debut the year after; it was an instant hit, hitting the top spot on the Billboard country album charts in the first week of release.

Their music is a seamless mix of the accessible yet artistic, and their reign on top of the country world is only just beginning. If you join them for the ride now, there will be sights and sounds that you’ll never forget.