Gary Allan

Gary Allan charted a route between gritty honky-tonk venues and glossy country-rock, a route that occasionally yielded chart-topping singles yet just as often left him traveling side roads outside the commercial center. That push-and-pull between his old-school troubadour background and his ear for anthemic melodies produced early-2000s number-one successes such as “Man to Man,” “Tough Little Boys,” and “Nothing on but the Radio.” Ten years afterward “Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)” returned him to the summit of Billboard’s country chart, after which he spent most of the decade finishing Ruthless, the 2021 album marking his first full-length project since 2013.

Allan entered the honky-tonk circuit in his native Southern California at the seasoned age of twelve. Sitting in with his father’s band inside those smoky rooms prompted him to form his own group and replicate the same circuit. The music that filled those clubs was classic Bakersfield country, shaped by Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, and their peers. Through his twenties he sharpened his craft as a new-traditionalist vocalist until Decca Records signed him in 1996. Used Heart for Sale arrived that same year; though somewhat restrained, the record announced Allan as a capable performer with clear promise. Two years later It Would Be You appeared, its polished Nashville production stripping away much of the whiskey-soaked barroom character, yet his underlying talent still surfaced. When Decca shuttered in 1999, MCA acquired his contract and issued Smoke Rings in the Dark before year’s end. The album gathered Allan’s strongest traits—road-worn honky-tonk and bruised country ballads—into a cohesive package that avoided excessive Music City gloss and included a spirited reading of the Del Shannon standard “Runaway,” recalling his early nights on the circuit. Alright Guy, released in 2001, fused driving, dust-covered swagger with measured crooning and confirmed his continued growth; its single “Man to Man” became his first number-one hit. After extensive touring he delivered See If I Care in September 2003, another sturdy collection rooted in Bakersfield traditions and heartfelt balladry. Tough All Over, which reached the Top Ten, followed in 2005. A greatest-hits package surfaced in early 2007, succeeded later that year by the studio album Living Hard. The single “Today” entered the chart at number 52 in June 2009 and paved the way for Get Off on the Pain in early 2010. Following a worldwide tour and subsequent hiatus, Allan returned to the studio in 2012; “Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)” was released that September, ascending to number one on the Billboard country chart shortly after the January 2013 appearance of its parent album Set You Free.

Throughout the mid-2010s Allan issued a series of standalone singles—“Hangover Tonight” in 2015, “Do You Wish It Was Me?” the next year, and “Mess Me Up” in 2017—none of which entered the Country Airplay Top 40. He finally unveiled Ruthless, positioned as the follow-up to Set You Free, in 2021.