Alabama

In the late '60s, cousins Randy Owen and Teddy Gentry discovered that they shared a common interest in music, and with Jeff Cook they began playing regularly while working day jobs and performing locally in the evenings as "The Boys In The Band," using their limited spare time to compose and practice their harmony style. In 1973, alongside Randy Owen's graduation from Jacksonville State University, the band left its daytime jobs and part-time weekend gigs and, as "Wildcountry," departed its Lookout Mountain and Fort Payne roots to develop its live performance skills in the club scene around coastal South Carolina, including the Bowery in Myrtle Beach. In 1977 the band became the Alabama Band, and in 1979 it added drummer Mark Herndon and turned its attention to Nashville. After an appearance on the New Faces Show at the Country Radio Seminar in 1980, RCA's Joe Galante enthusiastically backed the group, and on April 21, 1980, Alabama signed with RCA. The label soon released the autobiographical anthem "My Home's in Alabama" as a single, and that May RCA Records issued "Tennessee River" as Alabama's first No. 1 hit. Beginning with "Tennessee River," the group earned 21 consecutive number-one hits, followed by 21 more for a total of 42 number one singles. Alabama became a driving force in country music, took the genre in new directions, reached a diverse fan base that included many who had not previously listened to country music, influenced an entire generation of country groups as a self-contained band that played its instruments and sang, and was officially inducted into the Country Music Hall Of Fame on May 7th, 2006.

Fort Payne, Alabama · United States