Sibling country stars John Michael Montgomery and Eddie Montgomery (of Montgomery Gentry) have joined forces on an album and book project, both of which will be worked on this year.

John Michael Montgomery tells Billboard.com that he and his brother plan to hit the studio "later on this winter" and aren't entirely sure what they'll come up with. "Maybe we'll do two or three songs first and then maybe even do a whole album next year or something," says the younger Montgomery, who played with his brother and Troy Gentry before going solo in the early 90s. "We used to do a lot of Willie and Waylon stuff together -- he'd do Willie and I'd do Waylon, stuff like that. We've been wanting to do something together for quite awhile, but we've never really gotten together and done actual songs of our own together. So it's going to be interesting to go in and find what we can come out with.

"We want to have fun with it more than anything. Before we were on different major labels, different booking agencies. Now all the red tape has disappeared, and the politics, too. I think it could turn out to be a pretty good album."

Montgomery predicts the brothers will "do a little woodshedding, a little writing" before hitting the studio and will also "try to go through some other writers and see if there isn't some cool material out there for us to cut."

Besides the album, the Montgomerys have also started work on a book about their lives. Co-writing with veteran country music journalist Alanna Nash, John Michael says the tome will be "about our life, being raised in Kentucky with a musical family and moving a bunch from house to house...and having a good time doing it. The next thing you know, I ended up getting a record deal and having some hits, and so did (Eddie). It's rare enough that one person gets an opportunity like that; it's even more rare that two people have something like that happen and, I think even rarer that two brothers actually have success like me and him have. We have a lot of really good stories, I can tell you that."

While all that is going on, John Michael -- whose last release was the 2009 Cracker Barrel compilation "For Our Heroes" -- is working on a live album for release this year that will include a DVD documentary featuring him talking about the songs, "Storyteller"-style. "I'm putting together little, short stories about how each song came about and how it ended up in my lap or how I ended up writing it and stuff like that," he says. "I gives a little insider stuff that people probably don't know. I think they'll really enjoy hearing those stories."