My Town

1	My Town (Piano Intro) 0:21
2	My Town 4:25
3	Break My Heart Again 4:01
4	Scarecrow 3:21
5	Bad for Good 3:00
6	Speed 4:01
7	Hell Yeah 4:50
8	Lonesome 4:22
9	Why Do I Feel Like Running 4:00
10	Free Fall 3:54
11	Lie Before You Leave 4:13
12	For the Money 4:00
13	Good Clean Fun 5:23

Barnes & Noble

The advance word that the burly boys known as Montgomery Gentry would be taking some new directions on My Town might have concerned the duo's hard-core, beef-eating constituency -- not to worry, folks. Sure, they get a bit introspective here, but even on, say, the title song, which finds MG cataloging the many changes sweeping through their hometown, they jut out their jaws and make a stand for their point of origin as the music roars behind them -- none of that morose, crying-in-your-beer stuff allowed. Naw, these guys keep it on high heat, serving up muscular riffs and bruising vocals. "Hell Yeah" -- now that's the spirit -- is one stomping, unapologetic chronicle of music's unrelenting grip on a populace ranging from the Greatest Generation to Boomers to the Me Generation. Okay, they turn it down a notch on the forlorn "Lonesome," but the drums and the edgy guitars sound restless, eager to storm the barricades. There's a running theme here about men breaking free of -- well, of everything -- and hanging it on a limb. "Scarecrow" fits that mold, and in a frenetic bit of blues-rock bloodletting, "Why Do I Feel like Running," we learn that wanderlust is in the paternal genes. Putting a fine point on this rambunctious, testosterone-fueled outing, MG sign off with a red-hot jamming workout on the Gregg Allman/Dickey Betts/Johnny Neel party-hearty southern rocker, "Good Clean Fun." Blast My Town loud enough to irk your neighbors, make that steak rare, slop some extra butter on the baked potato, and stockpile those kegs. Now that's living, Montgomery Gentry style. David McGee

All Music Guide

The core of Montgomery Gentry's musical appeal lies in the duo's vocal contrast, alternating lead singing between the gruff low tenor of Eddie Montgomery and the sweeter high tenor of Troy Gentry. The core of their cultural appeal lies in another dichotomy, between the hell-raising and church-going aspects of stereotypical Southern rural life. "My Town," the leadoff track, title song, and advance single from their third album, concerns itself with the latter, depicting a small community in which you have to get up early on Sunday morning to be able to find a seat in church. But by the fifth track, the singers are having trouble keeping to the straight and narrow, deciding that they'll be "Bad for Good," and that song is a good candidate for a single, too. To a country fan, of course, there isn't that much of a conflict between the duo's rowdy Saturday night and reverent Sunday morning postures. In fact, they're two sides of the same coin. Similarly, to Montgomery Gentry, as to many fans, contemporary country music isn't just acoustic instruments and cheating songs, it's also the legacy of 1970s Southern rock. The session musicians number Allman Brothers Band alumni Chuck Leavell and Johnny Neel, and the album, which rocks harder as it goes along, concludes with a cover of "Good Clean Fun" from the Allmans' 1990 album, Seven Turns. Just as their image, with Montgomery decked out in a black jacket with tails and a big, flat-brimmed hat and Gentry in excessively casual wear, is calculated, so their musical approach is tempered. But the contradictions are the same ones their listeners live with every day. You may want to jump on the bar and yell "Hell Yeah," but "Montgomery Gentry supports responsible drinking," as a sleeve note discloses. And be early for church. William Ruhlmann