Dillon Carmichael
Biography
Born with music in his blood, Carmichael hails from a lineage that includes country hitmakers John Michael Montgomery and Eddie Montgomery (his maternal uncles) and a lifelong singer for a mother. As a kid growing up in a farming community, he took up guitar at age 12 and joined a country-rock band in his early teens. “I wanted to be a rock & roll guitarist and didn’t care much about singing, but the people around me kept pushing me to sing,” he recalls. “Finally I gave in, and right away I caught the bug. I’d always been a quiet kid and kind of a misfit, but singing made me feel like I’d found my place in the world.” Within a few years, Carmichael began playing six-hour-long sets at local bars, in addition to winning big talent competitions hosted by Future Farmers of America (a longtime passion later explored in the 2024 mini-documentary The Blue Jacket). Soon after finishing high school, he moved to Nashville but struggled to find his way in the music industry, making ends meet with a series of odd jobs (including working as a security guard at the Grand Ole Opry and bouncing at several bars on Broadway). When a couple of his songs caught the attention of Dave Cobb (whose credits include superstars like Chris Stapleton and Zac Brown Band), Carmichael headed into the studio to create Hell On An Angel—a no-frills but finely crafted powerhouse that landed on Rolling Stone’s list of the year’s best country/Americana albums, praised as a “flawlessly executed portrait of an artist growing into his voice.”
Recently named a New Face of Country Music by Country Radio Seminar, Carmichael has also spent much of the past few years out on the road, with his live history now including sharing bills with legends like Dwight Yoakam and touring across Europe as support for Jon Pardi. “People always ask if I get nervous before I go onstage, but the truth is playing a show is the only time I’m not nervous,” he says. “For that hour or so I can forget about everything going on in the world, and just focus on doing what I love.” And as he gets set to release Keepin’ Country Alive, Carmichael hopes his songs might provide others with a similar sense of joyful relief. “There’s a lot of different themes on this record—one song might make you want to call your mama, another might make you want to throw down and party, some songs might make you cry,” he says. “But no matter what, I hope they help you to forget about your problems for a while, to not overthink things or take yourself too seriously, and just take a little time to remember all the good things in life.”
