Songoftheday 10/22/24 - I hold it up and show my buddies like we ain't scared and our boots ain't muddy...

 

 

"Letters From Home" - John Michael Montgomery

from the album Letters From Home (2004)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #24 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 9

 

Today's song comes from country music artist John Michael Montgomery, who had scored a second top-40 crossover hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in the autumn of 2000 with "The Little Girl" from his seventh studio album Brand New Me. However, his record label at the time, Atlantic, was in the process of being folded into Warner Brothers in that millennial age of music merger madness.  John's first album on Warner, Pictures, was his first to not spin off a top ten country hit, with the lead single, "'Til Nothing Comes Between Us", only made it to #19. (It deserved better.) The album hit #110 on the Billboard 200 sales tally and #13 on the Country Albums list. A holiday record, Mr. Snowman, followed, but surprisingly went mostly unnoticed.

In 2004, Montgomery returned with his ninth release Letters From Home. For the first single and title track, John re-mined the heartstring-pulling card that jumped on the post 9/11 patriotic train. "Letters From Home", written by Tony Lane and David Lee, is put in the eyes of a member of the military, using the analogy of "being a job" that was prevalent at the time. But as opposed to the jingoistic chest-pumping of some (looking down at you, Toby), this was more intimate and vulnerable, as he gets missives from his parents, including his normally-distant father who admits he's "proud of me" and his fiancee. The production from Byron Gallimore is nothing striking but reverent to the theme, and John's calming vocals lend a nice gravitas to the piece...

"Letters From Home: became Montgomery's biggest hit on Billboard's Hot 100 in May of 2004. On the radio, the song spent four weeks at #2 on the Country Songs airplay chart. Internationally, the single hit #4 on the Canadian Country chart as well. The Letters From Home album, released in April of that year, brought John back to the top-40 on the Billboard 200 at #31, while peaking at #3 on the Country Albums list.

For the follow-up single, John attempted to do a 180 from the serious title track to the comical bar track "Goes Good With Beer". However, it didn't go well with radio, stopping at #51 on the Country Songs chart, and not soon after he was dropped from Warner Brothers. (It didn't deserve better.)

The next few year were troublesome to the singer, with health troubles affecting his hearing to a drugs and firearm arrest that eventually sent him to rehab. He finally released his first set on his own indie imprint Stringtown Records, Time Flies, in 2008. It would be his last new album as of right now. The set went to #35 on the Country Albums chart, and #172 on the Billboard 200. The lead single from the record, "Forever", spent a hefty 24 weeks on Billboard's Country Songs chart, making it to #28. His most recent appearance on that list was a feature on "country rap" act Colt Ford's "Ride Through The Country", which slipped in at #57 in 2009. 

(5/10)

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Here's John performing the song live on Ray Stevens' TV show...

Up tomorrow: A "Country Star" regales the sugary whiskey liquor, perhaps.