Rodney Atkins

Rodney Atkins built a string of country chart-toppers by merging Tim McGraw’s propulsive style with broad, relatable themes. Though he inked a contract with Curb Records in the late 1990s, real momentum arrived in 2006 when the title song from If You’re Going Through Hell lifted that album to the top of the Country chart and earned him the Academy of Country Music’s Top New Male Vocalist award. Between 2006 and 2008 he collected five country number-one singles, the most memorable being the heartfelt “Watching You.” Both 2008’s “It’s America” and 2011’s “Take a Back Road” also reached the summit of the Country charts. In 2018 he teamed with the Fisk Jubilee Singers for the title track of 2019’s Caught Up in the Country, returning him to the Country charts’ Top 30. He further joined wife Rose Falcon on the 2022 project Rod + Rose.

Born March 28, 1969, in Knoxville, Tennessee, Atkins was placed for adoption by his birth mother. After brief stays with two prospective families, Allan and Margaret Atkins adopted him and raised him in Claiborne County, Tennessee. While attending Powell Valley High in Speedwell, he first picked up an instrument. His commitment to music grew during college; after graduating from Walters State Community College he enrolled at Tennessee Technological University, then left for Nashville in the mid-1990s to launch a country career.

Atkins signed with Curb Records in 1996, and the label issued “In a Heartbeat” the following year. The single stalled at number 74 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart, sending him back to the studio. Curb permitted him to replace producer Chuck Howard with Ted Hewitt, who had already begun co-writing original songs with Atkins. Shifting toward mainstream country-pop, the two spent several years shaping an album; its first evidence appeared in 2002 when “Sing Along” and “My Old Man” registered on the lower half of Billboard’s Country Top 40.

“Honesty (Write Me a List)” finally opened doors, climbing to number four on Billboard’s Country Singles chart. The accompanying album Honesty peaked at number 50, and its fourth single, “Someone to Share It With,” failed to reach the Country Top 40, yet the modest success paved the way for the strong launch of If You’re Going Through Hell in 2006.

Moving from ballad singer to everyday country storyteller, Atkins broke through with If You’re Going Through Hell, notching four consecutive number-one hits: “If You’re Going Through Hell (Before the Devil Even Knows),” “Watching You,” “These Are My People,” and “Cleaning This Gun (Come on in Boy),” keeping him on the charts into 2007. The run also secured the Academy of Country Music’s Top New Vocalist trophy in 2006.

Atkins resurfaced in 2008 with his third album, It’s America. Its title track hit number one, while the follow-up “15 Minutes” reached number 20; a bonus track added to the 2010 reissue, “Farmer’s Daughter,” finally delivered another Top Ten hit, climbing to number five on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart that year.

Take a Back Road, released in 2011, contained a number-one title track and a second single, “He’s Mine,” that peaked at number 23. The pair of songs drove the album to number three on the Country Albums chart and into the Billboard 200’s top 10. Atkins married singer Rose Falcon in 2013. That same year he issued the non-album single “Doin’ It Right,” which stopped at number 53 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. A new track, “Eat Sleep Love You Repeat,” attached to a 2014 Greatest Hits collection, reached number 47.

In 2018 Atkins returned with “Caught Up in the Country,” featuring the Fisk Jubilee Singers; the single rose to number 21 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. The song titled his fifth album, Caught Up in the Country, which arrived in May 2019 and peaked at number 28 on the Top Country Albums chart. Two years later he released a non-album cover of Anne Murray’s “A Little Good News.” In 2022 he and Rose Falcon issued the EP Rod + Rose.