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"CRAIG MORGAN"

biography

"When you've been where I've been and done what I've done," he says with a laugh, "ordinary life becomes paradise. And that's where I feel like I'm living."

Both the rigors of his past and his appreciation for home and family figure strongly to each groove of Craig's debut CD, Craig Morgan. They also give both his writing and his singing an uncommon depth.

Produced by Buddy Cannon and Norro Wilson, Craig Morgan explores life and love in situations both highly personal and universal, and each bearing a fresh perspective. In "Something To Write Home About," the singer's infatuation is expressed not to the woman but to his parents, anchoring love's earliest moments. In "302 South Maple Avenue," house, family, and life all merge to create a legacy every listener can relate to. "It's Me" brings an inspired zaniness to the manifestations of new love. Throughout, Craig sings with passion and believability born of experience.

"Every song on this album is true-to-life," he says, "and I'm convinced that everyone from the bank president to the department store clerk will be able to relate."

Craig has an incredible life to look back on. He was raised in tiny Kingston Springs, Tennessee, where he supplemented high school football and soccer with a deep and abiding love for the outdoors.

"My friends and I would load up our three-wheelers and leave home on Friday evening to go hunting or trapping," he says. "We'd come back Sunday night. In between, we'd just pitch a tent when we were tired, sack out, then get up and do it again."

Except for a few talent shows in high school and some youthful dabbling in songwriting, music was something Craig listened to, not something he performed. His mother did everything from cleaning houses to running a nursery. Craig's father was also a musician.

As with many small-town kids with big-city dreams, Craig wanted to leave his rural roots behind him as soon as possible after high school. "I had spent my whole life in the country," he says, "and I wanted to do something else."

That something else was emergency medical technician training in Nashville. His first job was on a rural ambulance where he'd grown up, and from the moment he was called to his first traffic accident, the experience taught him a great deal about life, and about himself.

They were lessons that would serve him well as he followed what he saw as a bigger calling. "I'd seen the advertisements for the Army," he says, "and I saw it as an opportunity for adventure beyond my country home." The motivation, he says, wasn't that different than what had driven him on weekends as a teenager.

"I wanted to shoot guns, run through the woods and wear camouflage clothes. Friday I decided I was going to do it, and Monday I being processed. They asked if I wanted to be airborne, and I said, 'Absolutely.' I thought that meant that I was going to be flying planes." Turns out he was jumping out of them, which suited him just fine. "It's pretty intense," he says with a grin. "It's as big an adrenaline rush as you can get in that little amount of time."

There was one drawback to the new world he found so challenging and exciting, but even it had a silver lining.

"I missed home very, very much," he says. "That was the toughest thing about the early days. Still, it wasn't until I joined the military that I realized just who I was and what I was about, and how much I liked being what I was, which was country."

He would carry that pride in his heritage throughout an impressive and sometimes harrowing military tour. In Korea, he trained at Rock Ranger School, a nine-and-a-half-week program where the attrition rate was so high Americans are no longer allowed to take it. "You run virtually non-stop with a 35-pound rucksack," he says, "eating very little. I've been to the point where I've been delirious, where I'd pass out, wake up and couldn't move. You just find the place in your mind and your heart to get away from the pain."

Back in the States, he became air assault qualified, and became a rappel master and a jump master. He was part of Operation Just Cause, which saw the U.S. in Panama during the ousting of Manuel Noriega.

After Panama, Craig helped train elite combat units and monitor the utilization of Air Force equipment in Army operations. He also continued to push himself and others. "I've made jumps with 65-pound rucksacks and walked for 50 miles to an objective," he says with a smile and shake of his head. "I once took my troops on a forced march with equipment around the entire Fort Bragg perimeter. It took us two-and-a-half days."

In both training and in combat missions, he learned what he was made of. It was in the midst of his military career, though, that he discovered the musician inside himself. Early on, he was taking part in a banquet honoring the military's very first airborne unit. As he learned of the group's history, he decided to write a song about them. His superiors liked it so much that he was made part of the program. From then on he would have a reputation as a singer.

In Korea, he won a number of singing and songwriting contests, and opened a Korean show for Sawyer Brown. His interest in writing and singing continued in the States, and his father, who recognized his talent, took him into the studio to record demos of some his own songs.

Upon completion of his enlistment, he decided to go for it musically. He was hired to sing demos for other writers and publishing companies in Nashville. Craig currently writes for Sony/ATV Tree. That's how he supported his family along with a whole host of other jobs; including a sheriff's deputy, a plainclothes department store security officer, a construction worker, and a Wal-Mart employee. He also spent eight months on stage at the Country Tonight Theater in the tourist Mecca of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, honing his energetic stage show.

"When I'm on stage, so is everyone in the audience, because I work to make them feel like they're right there with me. I'm very emotionally interactive. I have a very active show, and I work my band to death," he adds with the glee of someone who enjoys pushing those around him as hard as he pushes himself.

His stamina was apparent during a recent radio tour, a marathon of travel and radio station visits that has been known to wear out even the most physically fit artists. "I'm used to sleep deprivation," he says with a laugh. "If I get at least four hours a night, I'm usually good to go. Everyone was telling me how tough it was going to be, and I told them, it just can't compare to what I've been through and some of the things I've done. I'm so grateful to do what I do for a living and on Saturday I'm just as excited as I was on Monday when we started."

His sense of adventure and his love of adrenaline have not wavered either. He took part recently in the Mark Collie Race against Diabetes in Nashville, starting dead last and winning the race against some of the music industry's best drivers. He called it an even bigger adrenaline rush than skydiving, and quipped, "It was an opportunity to drive fast and not have to worry about a ticket."

Craig is nothing if not a dedicated family man. His mother first introduced him to his wife at a time when he was stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. "I fell in love with Karen the instant I met her and we've been in love ever since." Meeting Karen and falling in love with her was Craig's inspiration in writing his debut single, "Something To Write Home About." Craig's wife and children share his love of the outdoors. When there is a break in his crowded schedule they might slip off together to a favored destination like the Smokey Mountains or Florida's St. George's Island. He treats everything as a potential source of joy.

"I don't take anything--not one instant of the day--for granted," he says. "I celebrate every moment, and when something really cool happens, I'm as thrilled as I can be."

As a family man, he makes time for fishing with his sons, spending time with his daughters and will always be available for those less fortunate. Craig puts all the lessons he's learned along the way to work in his life.

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