Eddie Montgomery at the Reynoldsburg Tomato Festival (Free Admission)

Montgomery Gentry’s Eddie Montgomery is having a good time – and it shows. As one of the most recognizable voices in a generation of country singers, Montgomery continues to tour coast-to-coast behind a time-tested collection of rowdy and heartfelt songs. That collection grows with the new release – Home Run, a six-song EP that includes hard-workin’ stories, fatherly wisdom, brotherly appreciation and a boot-stomping reworking of Montgomery Gentry’s first single “Hillbilly Shoes.” With five No. 1 country radio hits, a Grand Ole Opry membership and a Kentucky Music Hall of Fame induction under his belt as part of Montgomery Gentry, the man in the hat shows no signs of slowing down. After all, why would anyone walk away from a dream-come-true? “I’m livin’ life,” Montgomery said. “I’m so happy that I gotta sit on my hands to keep ‘em from wavin’ at everybody.” Home Run debuted Nov. 1 via Average Joes Entertainment. Ahead of the release, Montgomery unleashed a 25th anniversary edition of “Hillbilly Shoes,” a signature country-rocker originally released as Montgomery Gentry’s first single and the opening track of the duo’s debut album Tattoos & Scars. The song comes as part of a promise Montgomery and his partner Troy Gentry once made to each other – if one of them ever passed away, the other would carry on the Montgomery Gentry legacy. Sadly, Gentry died in a 2017 helicopter crash. “I’m keepin’ it going, I’m keepin’ my promise,” Montgomery said. “A day don’t go by I don’t talk about him. A day don’t go by I don’t miss him.” Alongside his new take on “Hillbilly Shoes,” the EP includes a can’t-miss cast of collaborators and co-writers, such as powerhouse Music Row hitmakers Ashley Gorley and Bobby Pinson, breakout singer-songwriter Bryan Martin and his brother John Michael Montgomery, among others. As a tenured vocalist and storyteller, what does Montgomery look for in a song? It’s got to be real – like the stories shared sitting on a barstool after a long day. “I just like real country music,” Montgomery said. “I can’t sing a song I don’t really know about.It’s very, very hard. [A good song], it makes you pour your soul out. It’ll make you feel better. It’ll get you through whatever you’re going through.” Home Run opens with the working class anthem “Cost Of Being Me,” which features Bryan, a labelmate that Montgomery described as being “cut from the same cloth.” In the down-to-earth chorus, Montgomery sings, “I drink my whiskey from the well/ My souls for loan but ain’t for sale/ I've had my daddy pay my bail/ That kind of hell just don't come cheap/ If I had half of what I lost/ I'd be just a little bit better off/ I've paid a lot for being free … Yeah, that's the cost of being me.” The EP continues with the title track, a song about knowing how to find home when it matters most. Gorley, a fellow native of Danville, Kentucky, co-wrote the song. “I run into his dad at Lowe’s all the time,” Montgomery said, laughing. “I heard ‘Home Run’ and was like, ‘Man, this reminds me how I feel going home. When I cross that Kentucky state line, it’s like, baby I’m home.’ I looked and said, ‘well, hell, Ashley Gorey wrote that song.’” And Home Run includes an acoustic rendition of “My Son,” a 2021 song Montgomery co-wrote for the feature film Old Henry. A reflective number that carries the weight of fatherhood, Montgomery sings, “My son, please don't make mistakes I've made/ No don't chase the things I've chased/ Don't waste your life on the run/ My son, go ahead and spread your wings/ But while you're reaching for your dreams/ There's one thing you can't outrun/ You'll always be my son.” For the release, Montgomery also offers a duet that can only be shared between kin – “Brotherly Love,” a taste of country nostalgia featuring John Michael Montgomery, Eddie Montgomery’s younger brother. The two grew up surrounded by music, from kids watching their parents gig at local nightclubs to playing in bands together as teenagers and beyond. On singing with his brother “John-boy,” Montgomery said: “My dad always said, ‘If one of us got an apple, all of us got an apple.’ We always had each other’s back through music.” Montgomery will take the new songs on the road and he doesn’t plan to slow down any time soon. Why? He’s having too much fun, of course. Or, in his words: “I want to play until the good man upstairs goes, ‘Well, I need ya now.’”