Eli Young Band photo courtesy of Universal Records South.

In an era when Kid Rock and Bon Jovi have found success in country music, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to hear Tom Petty’s name being thrown around.

The Eli Young Band has been covering the rocker’s “American Girl” frequently in concert, and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers are something of a muse for the Texas foursome as it develops a follow-up to the 2008 album Jet Black & Jealous.

“With Jet Black & Jealous, we recorded it in, like, five different sessions, and it was chopped up with no real mind-set other than we recorded what we rehearsed and had written,” drummer Chris Thompson told The Lake County News-Herald of Ohio. “With this new record, it’s not that we sat down and said, ‘This is the direction we’re going in.’ We’ve never done that. But after hearing what’s coming out, we’re erring on the Tom Petty side. It is a little more roots-sounding but still very radio-friendly.”

Produced by Frank Liddell and Mike Wrucke, the same team that crafted Miranda Lambert’s award-winning Revolution and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend albums, Jet Black gave EYB its first Top 10 hit, “Always The Love Songs.” The band’s sound has been compared to several acts that have effectively blended country and rock — the Eagles, Rodney Crowell and Foster & Lloyd — though you can find bits of Gin Blossoms and the Wallflowers in the mix, too.

“When we started out, we never said, ‘Let’s be a country band’ or ‘Let’s be a rock band’ or ‘Let’s be a pop band,’” Chris observed. “We just started playing, and somehow we kind of grew into the country world. It felt like country sort of accepted us and was understanding of what we were doing and it fit. So country is our home, but we’re not a twang country band.”

Meanwhile, the Tom Petty references fit perfectly. The Heartbreakers might have made their name as classic-rockers, but they’ve had an influence in country, too:

• Tom sang on a No. 1 Hank Williams Jr. single, “Mind Your Own Business,” in 1986. And he was a songwriter on three titles that became country hits: Southern Pacific’s “Thing About You,” Rosanne Cash’s “Never Be You” and Roy Orbison’s “You Got It.”

• The late Howie Epstein, who played bass with the Heartbreakers, produced several Carlene Carter hits in the 1990s.

• Petty’s former drummer, Stan Lynch, co-wrote Tim McGraw’s 2004 hit “Back When.”

• Keyboard player Benmont Tench has played on hits by Travis Tritt and Mary Chapin Carpenter, plus Johnny Cash’s award-winning “Hurt.”

Eli Young is currently on the Country Throwdown Tour with a number of similarly edgy acts, including Jamey Johnson, Eric Church, Jack Ingram, Montgomery Gentry and Little Big Town, among others. The next week carries the entourage to Cleveland on Thursday, Cincinnati on Friday, Chicago on Saturday and Indianapolis on Sunday.

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Darius Rucker (center front row) and his fellow co-writers (including Radney Foster, right front row) at the 2010 CRS ASCAP-sponsored event, "Storytellers With Darius Rucker," on February 24 in Nashville, Tenn. Photo by Bev Moser, courtesy of AristoMedia.

It takes a certain amount of guts — and a lot of self-confidence — to work as an artist, continually pushing against the odds until maybe, just maybe, you get a chance to break through. And a story about his pre-stardom days suggests that Darius Rucker always had the attitude it takes.

When he first heard Foster & Lloyd’s “Crazy Over You” on an AM radio in 1987, Darius was hooked on country music, and the following year, he went to see the duo at a South Carolina club after he finished his shift at a retail store. They’d already started their set, and Darius proceeded to down a few brews. He soon began shouting repeatedly for them to play “You Can Come Cryin’ To Me.” They didn’t. Instead, Radney Foster and Bill Lloyd closed out their regular set, then came back for an encore, only to hear Darius screaming for the song again. Radney politely told him he had missed it when they sang it near the start of their show, but Darius belligerently called his attention to the racial makeup of the audience.

“I’m the only black guy,” Darius said, as he recounted Wednesday during the Country Radio Seminar. “Are you tellin’ me you can’t play the song I wanna hear!?”

That story was an appropriate lead-in as Darius sang “You Can Come Cryin’ To Me” with Radney Foster during an ASCAP session, “Storytellers With Darius Rucker,” at the Country Radio Seminar. Darius trotted out a host of songwriters he’s worked with — including Frank Rogers, Ashley Gorley, Clay Mills, Chris DuBois, Chris Stapleton, Dave Berg and Rivers Rutherford — as he delivered a semi-acoustic bit of insight into the creative process for radio executives in town for the annual convention.

Artists wisely work with co-writers they’re able to bond with, and they end up forming a sort of satellite friendship around the act. They’re rarely recognized or credited outside of Music Row circles, but without their melodic contributions and lyrical abilities, many artists would have lesser material. Darius was cognizant of their aid as he performed eight of the 12 songs on Learn To Live, an album that converted him publicly from the lead singer for the ‘90s pop/rock band Hootie + The Blowfish to a bona fide country solo star.

“It’s really cool to have all these guys in the room at the same time,” Darius said. “They changed my life.”

Darius swapped verses or lines with some of the writers and got harmonic input and/or guitar backing from most of the rest. Throughout, the event had an informal air about it, the band providing character to the songs through a very-country fiddle and through an electric piano that provided a 1970s vibe, reminiscent of such divergent influences as Don Williams’ country classic “Tulsa Time” and the Looking Glass’ “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl).”

The creative process of making an album thus unfolded for the CRS attendees in bits and pieces: Darius finding inspiration for “Alright” as he nursed a staph infection in his knee, pulling “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It” from Clay Mills’ breakup with a girlfriend, and essentially writing the title track on assignment after Frank Rogers — the album’s producer — announced they needed “something peppy and radio-ish.”

In the worst of circumstances, the creative process can lead to a clash of egos and bruised feelings. It would appear that the process of Learn To Live built a web of friendships, given the volume of writers who took part in the performance and their playful interaction.

As the session neared its end, Frank made an offhand remark that was barely audible over the speaker system. Darius didn’t hesitate to pounce: “He beat me in PlayStation this weekend, he’s gotta tell everybody. I’m like, ‘Grow up!’”

The attitude permeates all.

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Josh Turner photo courtesy of UMG Nashville.

They’re back to back at Nos. 15 and 16 on this week’s list of the top country videos in the nation; Josh Turner and Radney Foster will both join host Nan Kelley this weekend as guests on GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown.

Radney is positioned at No. 16 with “Angel Flight,” from his 2009 album Revival. Having established himself with the ultra-cool duo Foster & Lloyd, he’s gone on to become a jack of all trades in his solo career. In addition to making his own albums, he’s produced the Randy Rogers Band and written such hits as Sara Evans’ “A Real Fine Place To Start” and Keith Urban’s “Raining On Sunday.” He’s allegedly got something up his sleeve for Darius Rucker’s next album as well.

Josh finally releases his next album, Haywire, on Tuesday. His infectious “Why Don’t We Just Dance” is at No. 15 on the Top 20, and it’s also in the Top 5 on the Mediabase country airplay chart.

“There’s a lot of different types of songs on here,” Josh says of the album. “There’s one song that kind of speaks to the father-child relationship, there’s obviously the first single, ‘Why Don’t We Just Dance,’ there’s an old-school R&B-type song on there, there’s a lot of up-tempo traditional country-type songs on there, and then there’s also a gospel song on there that I wrote with my buddy, Mark Narmore, called ‘The Answer’ that’s probably one of my best gospel songs yet. There’s just a lot of different types of songs for the fans to sink their teeth into.”

Josh will perform Friday on the Grand Ole Opry, which has a significant milestone to observe the following night. George Hamilton IV, best known for his 1963 hit “Abilene,” celebrates his 50th anniversary with the radio show.

Top 20 Country Countdown counts down the week’s top country videos from No. 20 to No. 1 as voted by viewers on each week on GACtv.com. A new countdown premieres every Friday at 8 p.m. ET on GAC and airs again Saturdays at 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. ET; Sundays at 1 p.m. ET; and Mondays at 10 a.m. ET. Viewers can vote for their favorite videos, as well as purchase Top 20 artists’ albums and ringtones at GACtv.com.

Click here to preview each song on our Top 20 list and download the ones you want!

THIS WEEK’S CHART:

1. Zac Brown Band “Highway 20 Ride”
2. Carrie Underwood “Cowboy Casanova”
3. Miranda Lambert “White Liar”
4. Kellie Pickler “Didn’t You Know How Much I Loved You”
5. Blake Shelton featuring Trace Adkins “Hillbilly Bone”
6. Keith Urban “‘Til Summer Comes Around”
7. Lady Antebellum “Need You Now”
8. Reba McEntire “Consider Me Gone”
9. Jason Aldean “The Truth”
10. Toby Keith “Cryin’ For Me”
11. Gary Allan “Today”
12. Bucky Covington “Gotta Be Somebody”
13. Chris Young “The Man I Want To Be”
14. Keith Urban “Only You Can Love Me This Way”
15. Josh Turner “Why Don’t We Just Dance”
16. Radney Foster “Angel Flight”
17. Billy Currington “That’s How Country Boys Roll”
18. Trace Adkins “All I Ask For Anymore”
19. Chris Young “Gettin’ You Home”
20. Tim McGraw “Southern Voice”

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Darius Rucker wins New Artist of the Year at "The 43rd Annual CMA Awards," on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009, live from the Sommet Center in Nashville on the ABC Television Network. Photographer: Donn Jones / CMA.

A certain amount of irony accompanied Darius Rucker’s victory as New Artist of the Year at Wednesday’s 43rd annual CMA Awards. He is, under the Country Music Association’s voting rules, a new artist to the genre, though he’s hardly new to the music business. He experienced the big time before as the lead singer for Hootie + The Blowfish.

Still, he’s done such a good job of reinventing himself that he’s now begun to encounter fans who know nothing of his history. That became clear when he played a concert in Houston. Two women stood throughout the show singing all of his songs verbatim, but when Darius launched into “Let Her Cry,” from the 16-times-platinum Cracked Rear View, they sat down.

“They had no idea what I was playing — no clue what it was!” Darius told The Maryville Daily Times in East Tennessee. “I just laughed. All I could think was, ‘Wow.’ There’s just a whole new generation getting turned on to Learn To Live, I found out that night. But still, it was just funny to me, man. I couldn’t stop looking at them.”

With three No. 1 singles and the CMA victory under his belt, Darius has already exceeded his expectations with the Learn To Live album, though the seeds were sewn a couple decades ago when he first heard the music of Radney Foster and Bill Lloyd while working at a record store in college.

“I was never early — it was so bad that when I was supposed to come in at 1 p.m., my boss would write down one-ish,” he said. “Well, I was watching TV one day in my apartment, and Foster & Lloyd’s video for ‘Crazy Over You’ came on. I remember it was like the first time I saw R.E.M. — it was just huge. I sat there watching that song, and I got up and got dressed and went into work two hours early, because I had to find that song. I probably played it 20 times that day, and from that first day, I realized I could really sing to this music as well.”

Obviously, plenty of other folks agree. In addition to his win at the industry-voted CMAs, Darius is up for the fan-voted American Music Award for Favorite Male Country Artist against Jason Aldean and Keith Urban. The victor will be announced Nov. 22.

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