Ira Dean - It's About Time (2015)

So, who’s this guy, then?

Because we know Ira Dean from hit country trio Trick Pony, and he’s supposed to be playing bass, wearing funny hats and singing harmony. This guy is playing guitar, wearing unfunny hats and singing lead.

“I guess I got pigeonholed, like an actor in a role,” Dean says. “People keep saying, ‘I didn’t know you played guitar.’ My dad was a guitar player, and I’ve always played. I went to college for music, and I play something like 12 instruments. I was actually a drummer before anything else.”

He’s also a hit songwriter and a session singer. He did the horn arrangements on Hank Williams Jr.’s The Almeria Club Recordings album, and background vocals for Johnny Cash, in the studio with members of the famed Carter Family. And, with the release of Ira Dean most recent project "It's About Time", he’s a solo recording artist with an album of full-throttle country rockers and honest ballads. It also gave him the opportunity to collaborate with Ronnie Milsap, Montgomery Gentry, Lee Roy Parnell, Jeffery Steele, and Colt Ford on the song "Nothin' To Do 'Round Here."..