Montgomery Gentry has always looked to classic rockers for inspiration, but the country duo never took things quite this far.
For their seventh album, ''Back When I Knew It All,'' they holed up at Memphis' Ardent Studios, where Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers, ZZ Top and Bob Dylan recorded.
The pair -- Eddie Montgomery and Troy Gentry -- were looking for a meatier sound after their last release, the more subdued ''Some People Change.''
''We purposely stepped up the tempo,'' Gentry said. ''It was one of the conversations we had with [Sony/BMG chairman] Joe Galante when we sat down to talk about this record. He said one of his favorite productions by us thus far was the 'My Town' record. So we were trying to get back more to that sound and feel.''
It didn't take them long. They called in Blake Chancey (Dixie Chicks) to produce and Chuck Leavell (Rolling Stones, Allman Brothers Band) to play piano and organ.
And, of course, they soaked up the vibe in Memphis, where blues, country and gospel converged to help create rock 'n' roll.
The city on the Mississippi River has been a musical mecca ever since, with Ardent Studios one of its cornerstones. It's where ZZ Top cut ''Tres Hombres,'' Zeppelin made ''Led Zeppelin III,'' James Taylor did ''Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon'' and Steve Earle recorded ''Copperhead Road.''
''Their ghosts were in there all over it, man,'' Montgomery said.
The group's last disc produced three Top 5 singles, including the No. 1 ''Lucky Man.'' But Galante wasn't happy with the sales figures, so he urged the duo to toughen up their sound.
''There are a lot of people in that space of the pop sound they had on the last record,'' Galante remarked. ''On the rock edge, there are very few because very few have the chops to pull it off like they can. I can think of only two or three in this format. This plays to their strength.''
The first single, the title track, is a midtempo tune about the folly of youth and growing wiser with age that recalls John Mellencamp's heartland hits.
''No matter what age group you're in, you can identify with it,'' Gentry said. ''For Eddie and I, it was looking back on what we had done in the past, back when we thought we knew it all.''
The rest of the album finds them balancing introspective songs with party anthems. While ''Long Line of Losers'' deals with family dysfunction, ''One in Every Crowd'' is an ode to good-time Charlies everywhere. The barroom sing-along ''I Pick My Parties'' was co-written by Terri Clark and features Toby Keith, who is the headliner for tonight's country show in Tinley Park that also features Montgomery Gentry.
But the best of the bunch on the new album might be ''Roll With Me,'' a soulful track with organ and bluesy guitar
''I think it's the best performance I've ever heard from my brother over here,'' Montgomery, 44, nods toward Gentry, 41. ''Emotionally, you can tell when he sings it. It's from the heart.''
The two men go back a long way. They started singing together in the '80s in a band that included Montgomery's younger brother, the future country star John Michael Montgomery.
Since their 1999 debut, ''Tattoos & Scars,'' the duo have ripped off 13 Top 10 hits with songs that would have fit easily beside Lynyrd Skynyrd and Tom Petty years ago.
''When we came out with 'Hillbilly Shoes,' we had radio programmers telling us we were a breath of fresh air,'' Gentry said. ''The male audience was turning to classic rock because they couldn't find what they wanted on country radio, and I think we offer that.''
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