Justin Cole Moore is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 country music singer and songwriter signed to Big Machine Records

Big Machine Records

Big Machine Records is an Independent American record label specializing in country music artists. It was launched in 2005 by former DreamWorks Records executive Scott Borchetta. The label was part of a joint venture between Borchetta and country singer Toby Keith, although Keith dropped his...

 imprint Valory Music Group. He has released two albums for Big Machine Records

Big Machine Records

Big Machine Records is an Independent American record label specializing in country music artists. It was launched in 2005 by former DreamWorks Records executive Scott Borchetta. The label was part of a joint venture between Borchetta and country singer Toby Keith, although Keith dropped his...

: Justin Moore

Justin Moore (album)

-Album:-End of year charts:-Singles:...

in 2009 and Outlaws Like Me

Outlaws Like Me

-Album:-Singles:*A Current single.-References:...

in 2011. He has charted six times on the Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

 charts, including the number one hits "Small Town USA

Small Town USA

"Small Town USA" is the title of a single co-written and recorded by American country music singer Justin Moore. It is the second chart single of his career, and the second release from his self-titled debut album, released on August 11, 2009 via the Valory Music Group, an imprint of Big Machine...

" and "If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away

If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away

"If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away" is the title of a song written by Dallas Davidson, Rob Hatch and Brett Jones. It was first recorded by American country artist Rhett Akins, whose version was released as a single in September 2006 but did not chart...

" and the top 10 hit "Backwoods

Backwoods (song)

Backwoods is a country music song, written by Justin Moore, Jeremy Stover, and Jaime Paulin. The song was recorded by Moore on his self-titled debut album, from which it was released as his third single in October 2009...

".

Music career

Moore began performing during his senior year of high school. After graduating, he joined his uncle's Southern rock band and moved to Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

 in 2002.

Through his music attorney Bernie Cahill, he met a young producer in Nashville, Jeremy Stover, who introduced him to Scott Borchetta, a respected industry executive who was planning to launch The Valory Music Co. Borchetta promised to give him a record deal if he would be patient.

Justin Moore has been criticized for his style of cowboy hats. His hat is hand made but comes from the line of Atwood Straw Cowboy hats.

2008-2010

In mid-2008, Moore signed to the Valory Music Group, an imprint of the independent record label Big Machine Records

Big Machine Records

Big Machine Records is an Independent American record label specializing in country music artists. It was launched in 2005 by former DreamWorks Records executive Scott Borchetta. The label was part of a joint venture between Borchetta and country singer Toby Keith, although Keith dropped his...

. The label then released the digital single "I Could Kick Your Ass". His first radio single, "Back That Thing Up", was co-written by his producer Jeremy Stover and Universal South Records artist Randy Houser

Randy Houser

Shawn Randolph "Randy" Houser is an American country music artist. Signed to the Universal South Records label in 2008, he charted the single "Anything Goes" that year...

. It reached number 38 on the U.S. Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

 chart. He continued working on his debut album, which was part of a special promotion called "So You Want to Be a Record Label Executive". This promotion placed his music on social networking sites such as MySpace

MySpace

Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....

 and iLike

ILike

iLike is an online service that allows users to download and share music. The website makes use of a sidebar that is used with Apple's iTunes or Microsoft's Windows Media Player. The program and sidebar are not required in order to use the site but allow for ease in discovering new artists....

, where fans were allowed to create playlists comprising ten of his songs; the top ten songs picked were then included on the final album. His next single, "Small Town USA

Small Town USA

"Small Town USA" is the title of a single co-written and recorded by American country music singer Justin Moore. It is the second chart single of his career, and the second release from his self-titled debut album, released on August 11, 2009 via the Valory Music Group, an imprint of Big Machine...

", entered the charts in February 2009, followed by a digital EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

 entitled The "You Asked for It" EP.

On August 11, the label released his self-titled

Justin Moore (album)

-Album:-End of year charts:-Singles:...

 debut album, on which he co-wrote nine of ten tracks. Justin Moore debuted at #3 on the Top Country Albums chart. He promoted the single and album on a "Small Town USA" tour which began in his hometown of Poyen and included several stops in small towns, as well as acoustic shows at Walmart stores. On the Billboard charts dated for October 3, 2009, "Small Town USA" became his first Number One hit. "Backwoods" was released as the album's third single in October 2009; the song was his second Top 10 hit with a peak of #6 in April 2010. The album's fourth single, "How I Got to Be This Way", debuted at #54 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for the week of June 12, 2010; it became his third Top 20 country hit.

2011-Present

In February 2011, he released the song "If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away

If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away

"If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away" is the title of a song written by Dallas Davidson, Rob Hatch and Brett Jones. It was first recorded by American country artist Rhett Akins, whose version was released as a single in September 2006 but did not chart...

", which was originally recorded by Rhett Akins

Rhett Akins

Thomas Rhett Akins Sr. is an American country singer and songwriter. Signed to Decca Records between 1994 and 1997, he released two albums for the label , followed by 1998's What Livin's All About on MCA Nashville. Friday Night in Dixie was released in 2002 on Audium Entertainment...

 on his 2007 album People Like Me but did not chart. Justin Moore's rendition debuted at #46 on the Hot Country songs chart. In June 2011, the song became his third top ten hit on that chart, and a month later, reached Number One. "If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away" serves as the lead-off single to his 2011 album Outlaws Like Me

Outlaws Like Me

-Album:-Singles:*A Current single.-References:...

, released June 21, 2011.

He will appear on the Flatts Fest 2011 Tour with Rascal Flatts, Sara Evans, and Easton Corbin.

Musical styles

Steve Leggett of Allmusic describes him as having "a ready-made image. He was that good kid from a small town with a rowdy heart of gold who just happened to be able to sing about it." He has said that he learned to write songs because, when he had first moved to Nashville, no songwriters wanted to offer him material. His album has received mixed reviews from music critics: Jeffrey B. Remz of Country Standard Time

Country Standard Time

Country Standard Time is a website dedicated to country music and related genres such as Bluegrass and Rockabilly. It provides news and musical reviews pertaining to the genre. It was established in 1992 by Jeffrey B. Remz as a print magazine, which was first published only in New England but went...

referred to him as a "poseur" for name-dropping, and Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Stephen Thomas Erlewine is a senior editor for Allmusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for Allmusic, as well as a freelance writer, occasionally contributing liner notes. He is also frontman and guitarist for the Ann Arbor-based band Who Dat?Erlewine is the nephew...

 of Allmusic referred to it as "anonymous country rock

Country rock

Country rock is sub-genre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock with country. The term is generally used to refer to the wave of rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s, beginning with Bob Dylan and The Byrds; reaching its greatest...

." The 9513's Karlie Justus said that his influences were comparatively more authentic than most other acts on country radio, and Matt Bjorke of Roughstock said that his music has "a heavy dose of southern, country charm and twang."

Personal life

Justin Moore married his wife, Kate of Houma, Louisiana, in 2007. They have two daughters, Ella Kole, born February 11, 2010, and Kennedy Faye born November 21, 2011.

Studio albums

Title	Details	Peak chart positions
		US Country	US Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
Justin Moore Justin Moore (album) -Album:-End of year charts:-Singles:...	Release date: August 11, 2009 Label: Valory Music Group Formats: CD Compact Disc The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,... , music download Music download A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...	3	10
Outlaws Like Me Outlaws Like Me -Album:-Singles:*A Current single.-References:...	Release date: June 21, 2011 Label: Valory Music Group Formats: CD, music download	1	5

Extended plays

Title	Details	Peak chart positions
		US Country	US Heat Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers refers to either of two separate "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by Billboard Magazine: the Heatseekers Albums chart or the Heatseekers Songs chart. They were introduced by Billboard in 1993 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new and developing musical...
The "You Asked for It" EP	Release date: June 9, 2009 Label: Valory Music Group Formats: CD, music download	54	49

Singles

Year	Single	Peak chart positions			Certifications (sales threshold)	Album
		US Country Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...	US Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...	CAN Canadian Hot 100 The Canadian Hot 100 is a music singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine which ranks songs in Canada. The chart debuted in the Billboard issue dated June 16, 2007 and was made available for the first time via their online services on June 7, 2007...
2008	"Back That Thing Up"	38	—	—		Justin Moore
2009	"Small Town USA Small Town USA "Small Town USA" is the title of a single co-written and recorded by American country music singer Justin Moore. It is the second chart single of his career, and the second release from his self-titled debut album, released on August 11, 2009 via the Valory Music Group, an imprint of Big Machine... "	1	44	—	US Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States... : Gold
	"Backwoods Backwoods (song) Backwoods is a country music song, written by Justin Moore, Jeremy Stover, and Jaime Paulin. The song was recorded by Moore on his self-titled debut album, from which it was released as his third single in October 2009... "	6	69	—
2010	"How I Got to Be This Way"[A]	17	101	—
2011	"If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away "If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away" is the title of a song written by Dallas Davidson, Rob Hatch and Brett Jones. It was first recorded by American country artist Rhett Akins, whose version was released as a single in September 2006 but did not chart... "	1	49	76		Outlaws Like Me
	"Bait a Hook"[B]	24	100
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

^ "How I Got to Be This Way" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100 but peaked on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles

Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles

The Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States. It lists the top 25 singles below number 100 that have not yet charted on the Billboard Hot 100. Sometimes, however, singles halt their progress on this chart, and never appear on the Hot 100...

 chart at number one.

• B^ Current single.