Montgomery Gentry Back In The Studio

After spinning off a couple of No. 1 country singles from the 2008 "Back When I Knew It All," Montgomery Gentry is finishing work on the duo's seventh studio album. The set is due in early 2010, with a first single expected to be released shortly.

"We've got all the songs cut and four or five of them mixed," Troy Gentry says of the currently untitled 10-song set, which will have a bonus song for digital buyers. He says the album's sound is "a little bit of everything from the past." He adds that one song, with the working title of "Shotgun Wedding," "sounds like a newer version of 'Hillbilly Shoes,' " the first of the duo's 17 top 20 country hits.

The album is produced by Blake Chancey and recorded in Nashville, and Gentry says he and Eddie Montgomery "wrote a little bit more on this project than they did in the past," including a the patriotic-themed "Freedom Never Goes out of Style" with Gary Hannan and Phil "Philbilly" O'Donnell. Neil Thrasher, Ira Dean, Rivers Rutherford and Tommy Karlas also wrote for the album, and there aren't any guest spots planned.

Gentry says the duo and Columbia Nashville are in the midst of determining a first single from the album, which should be out in time to be considered for next spring's Academy of Country Music Awards.

As previously reported, the duo have been announced as one of the headlining acts of the debut run of the Country Throwdown tour, the country music venture from Warped Tour producers 4fini Production, which will also feature Jamey Johnson, Little Big Town and Jack Ingram, among many others.