Introduction
Sam Lowry Hunt born on
8th December 1984 in Cedartown, Georgia is an American country music
singer, songwriter and a former college
football player, played football in his school and college years and also
attempted to pursue his career in the sport but eventually end up signing with
MCA Nashville for his music career. His biography is featured in Wikipedia and
latest information about him can be grabbed from his own personal website .
The reason behind the Sam Hunt pursuing his career in music even though he
spent his school days concentrating on sports is because of his attachment and
passion towards music grows deeper and deeper. Before his successful solo career, Hunt is credited with writing songs for some of the music
legends like Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban, Billy
Currington and Reba McEntire. On a short period of time hunt has
become one of America’s most anticipated artist and his debut album entitled
“Montevallo” is proof of it which create quite a buzz and promise. His all
songs and music videos are available on iTunes.
Early
Life and Football Carrier
Hunt was born eldest to
the three children from Allen and Joan Hunt. He studied at Cedartown High
School nearby his home and his prime focus in his school was in sports
especially in football. His accomplishment as a football player in school was named 2002 co-offensive player of the year,
selection for the Georgia Sportswriter association All-State class AAA first-term as an all-purpose player and a
nomination for Wendy’s High School Heisman. He ends
up playing football as starting quarterback at the University of Alabama,
Birmingham.
He studied 2 years at
Middle Tennessee State University and two years at UAB where his major subject
was philosophy and he eventually graduated with a business degree in economics.
After graduating from college his talent was noticed by NFL and given him the lifetime opportunity to train with the Kansas
City Chiefs. But after two months a failed attempt to impress the official of
NFL hunt decided to move to Nashville to
everyone surprise to pursue a career in
music.
Music
Carrier
The building for the
passion of music started during his UAB days. Due to the multiple injuries he
suffered while playing football for UAB in early 2006, he just plays 7 games.
To avoid the leisure time which according to Hunt is killing him, he started to
teach himself to play an acoustic guitar. While learning the songs of great
singers and songwriters like Townes Van Zandt
and John Prime, he began putting rudimentary chords together and composing his
own songs. The real starting off his illustrious
music career started when his college
friends heard his songs written by him and encouraged and help him to book the
shows in bars. After arriving in music city, the USA without a real understanding of different paths a musician can
pursue, he was lucky enough to sign a publishing deal and write songs for full
time. He then decided to go in the path of songwriting
and conventional method of collaborating and he soon realizes that he was developing the music that was slightly out of
sync with the standard Nashville formula.
Before his successful
singer career, he also co-wrote 2012 hit
“Come Over” song for legendary singer Kenny Chesney. In 2013, he met producer Zach
Crowell with whom he released a free mixtape of acoustic songs called “Between
the Pines”. The acoustics version of his own previous songs and the ones he
wrote for other artists are the songs on
this album. His other successful work was writing the songs titled as “Cop Car”
and “We are tonight” for the singers Keith Urban and Billy Currington
respectively in the year of 2014 which went on to become the smashing hit.
Along the way, he learned many rules and
structure to make a great song while collaborating with songwriters. But he
also realizes that there was a way to go
beyond these rules to and make something that would really be unique and that is
something he would be remembered for. After all the songs written by him went
on to become the huge hit, Hunt found an exciting new direction as a solo
artist and began to shift his direction from being a songwriter to a solo
singer. Soon, Hunt as a singer won the latest cycle of Spotify’s Emerge where
his songs were averaging 300,000 streams per day. This led to Universal/MCA
took an interest in him.
The true milestone in
his music career came in January of 2014
when he signed a contract with MCA Nashville. In his initial days in MCA, he
finished polishing some mixtape songs and preparing for his debut album
“Montevallo”. His first four songs EP as a solo singer was released on 12th
of august, 2014 as a preview to his first album “Montevallo” which is entitled
as X2C. The EP went on to be the huge hit landing number 36 on the “Billboard
200” and in the “Billboard Top Country Album Charts,”
it was on number 5 responsible for selling over 8,000 copies only in its first
week. And in October of 2014, Hunt first solo song “Leave the Night On” came and
as expected it became a smashing hit. It cemented the legacy of Sam Hunt as a
rising star in the country music giving him the recognition he deserves. This
song went on to be the number one on “Country Airplay” and thus received a
deserving platinum certification from “Recording Studio Association of America
(RIAA)”. The songs, as well as a music video,
was also a big hit and it gave Hunt two nomination
for CMT music awards winning him the Breakthrough Video of the Year and also
nomination in Billboard Music Awards.
His first album
“Montevallo” was released on October 27,
2014. November 5 2014, marks the
important day for Hunt as his debut album lands at number 1 on Top Country
Albums and number 3 on Billboard 200. All the songs in the album are smashing
hits. The song with aggressive dance beats “Take your Time” lands at number 20
in Billboard hot 100 others are “Break Up in a Small Town”, “Raised on It” and
“Make You Miss Me”. As his four songs landed in a list of Billboard hot 100,
Hunt became the first country artist, whose all solo songs for his debut album
listed in such a respectable chart. His first album is named “Montevallo” due
to his emotional feeling for this name.
Actually, “Montevallo” is a name of a small Alabama Town and Hunt choose this
name because he used to visit this place to meet his friends and to reduce the
pressure of starting a new career in
Nashville. In the process, that place is
emotionally attached to him. “Montevallo” in Spanish means “Mountain and
Valley”.
Awards,
Nomination and Music Tour
Despite the fact that
Mark Hunt is a relatively new name in the field of country music but due to his
unique and smashing hit songs, he had achieved many nominations and awards both
for songwriter and as a solo artist. He
had nominated in the Academy of Country Music Awards as a New Artist of the
Year in the year of 2015 and his Album “Montevallo” and the song “Take Your
Time” was nominated for “Album of the Year” and “Single Record of the Year”
respectively in the year 2016.
He won the 2016 version
of “Breakthrough Male of the Year” at the American Country Countdown Awards.
His debut album “Montevallo” also won the “Digital Album of the Year” at the
same event and on the same night. This
marks him the two wins in his five nominations at the American Country
Countdown Awards 2016. Others fields of his nominations are “Artist of the
Year”, “Male Vocalist of the Year” and “Album of the Year”. He won one award “New
Artist of the Year” out of his three nominations in American Music Award 2015. Other
nominations for him includes “Favorite Male Artist – Country” and for his album
“Favorite Album – Country”.
He was nominated and
won the ASCAP Country Music Award for the “Songwriter artist of the Year” in
the year 2015. He got CMT Music award 2015 for the song “Leave the Night On” as
a “Breakthrough Video of the Year” and nomination for “Video of the Year” for
the same song. He got two nominations in the respected Grammy Awards version of
2015. The nominations fields were “Best New Artist” and “Best Country Album”
for his debut album “Montevallo”. He won the 2016 version of Music Biz Award
for “Breakthrough Artist” and Taste of the Country Music Award 2015 for “New
Artist of the Year”.
5 days after the
release and success of his debut album “Montevallo”, which was sold 70,000 unit
approx. till then, Hunt announced his first music tour Lipstick Graffiti with
Michael Ray. Due to his huge popularity,
the show sold at 15 venues despite the time being between the show and ticket
sale. Other memorable tours include
Wheels Up Tour with Lady Antebellum, Hunter Hayes,
and Kelsea Bellerini, Farm Tour in 2015 with Luke Bryan, C2C: Country to
Country tour with Carrie Underwood, Little Big Town and Maddie & Tae and
Spread the Love tour in 2016 with Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, and Old Dominion.
Influence
and musical style
Hunt writes and sings the songs of country music, R&B, and pop. Hunt music was taken as a
reinterpretation of early 60’s music, that not only intrigued the country
audience at the time but it brought a brand new audience to the country music
genre. Hunt music was heavily inspired by Brad Paisley, his early hit “He Didn’t
Have to be” had a big impact on him as a kid growing up in Georgia. Hunt remembers
getting the car keys from his mom before the supper was over to get in the car
to listen to that song. He also said that
he is very inspired by Billy Currington, Usher, K-Ci & JoJo, R. Kelly and
Alice Cooper.
Hunt always tries to
add some uniqueness to his songs rather than the traditional Nashville formula.
He had told often that he does not write songs with a specific genre in mind, but rather follow his instinct. His passion
was towards the country music and he once told the Rolling Stone Country “I
think country songs are truthful songs about life written by country people,
but the beats and sounds continue to evolve.” Billy Dukes of Taste of Country, after
observing the “Break Up in a Small Town” praises the song as “likely the
wordiest song of 2015” and Hunt’s “most
genre-bending release to country music” adding “Any talk of which genre Hunt
belongs in misses the point. His story hits hard. It’s deep and emotional and
sincere and all the things we expect from a great country song.” In an
interview with Billboard, Hunt remarked the position of women in the music,
“Respect for the women was a very important part of my upbringing”, and added, “The women in my life demanded that for
me”.
Net
Worth, Fan Following
As of 2016, Hunt net worth
is estimated to be 5 million dollars. There is no doubt for this huge net worth
for Hunt as he is a widely popular singer. His per year salary is estimated to
be $606,000. Along from songs he also earns
money by sponsorship and featuring in programs. Hunt is very active on social
media. He likes to post all the photos and videos from his tour and other
activities on social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and
others media. He had also huge fan following. Because of his innocent looks, charismatic
voice and muscular body he has as many fans
following of female fans as that of the male.
He had about 1,000,000 followers on Facebook, 433,000 followers on Twitter and
a whopping 1.3 million followers on Instagram. He had over 1 hundred thousand
subscribers in his YouTube Channel. This statistics shows how popular Sam Hunt
is in social media. During his struggle days as a musician, he arrived at
Nashville with a big dream and now he is
living his dreams.
view more info about Sam Hunt
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