As North Carolina native Scotty McCreery celebrates his 30th birthday (Oct. 9), he has also notched just over a dozen years in the country industry and five albums’ worth of music.
In early 2011, the North Carolina native began to make his presence known in the music world with his performances on American Idol, reflecting a talent and vocal maturity far beyond his years, starting with not only his cover songs choices on Idol, but the songs he’s chosen in the years since.
His recent songs continue to showcase the indelible influence of traditional-minded country artists including George Strait, Randy Travis and Keith Whitley on McCreery’s music. But McCreery has long shed his early-career image as simply a baby-faced singer with a basement-deep voice.
Notably, after parting ways with his former label Interscope/Mercury, McCreery released the song “Five More Minutes” independently; after the song began gaining traction on country radio, McCreery signed with Triple Tigers Records, which put its promotional weight behind the song, helping McCreery take the song to the top of Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart.
Since then, McCreery has added four more No. 1 Country Airplay hits to his arsenal. He’s also demonstrated his prowess as both vocal interpreter and skilled songcrafter — he is a co-writer on 10 of the dozen songs on his 2021 album Same Truck and is a writer on several of his Country Airplay chart-toppers.
Along the way, McCreery’s music has taken an increasingly personal turn, taking inspiration from his life with wife Gabi and most recently, the addition of their first child together, son Merrick Avery McCreery, born on Oct. 24, 2022.
Here, we look at 10 of McCreery’s best songs.
[Editor’s note: This article was originally published in September 2017 and was updated in October 2023.]
