Kip Moore performs onstage during day one of 2015 Stagecoach, California's Country Music Festival, at The Empire Polo Club on April 24, 2015 in Indio, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Stagecoach)
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Stagecoach
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Today we focus on an artist who had the best selling debut album for both 2012 and 2013. A singer and songwriter who worked days at Abercrombie and Fitch in Nashville while writing, or co-writing, every song on that debut album.

Born in Tifton, Georgia, Kip Moore began playing guitar while attending Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, Alabama, where he would make his first public performance at a Mellow Mushroom restaurant in Valdosta, Georgia. After college, he moved to Hawaii on a whim with just a backpack, a surfboard and a friend. They slept on an airport bench the first night and then lucked into a hut that was $50 a month.

After six months of this tropical paradise, Kip thought he had found his permanent home; Moore took up backpacking and surfing, but then his friend encouraged him to pursue his songwriting songwriting as a living. He moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in 2004, where songwriter and producer Brett James helped him sign a publishing deal.

 

Kip Moore performs onstage during day one of 2015 Stagecoach, California's Country Music Festival. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Stagecoach)
Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Stagecoach
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Moore spent four years in Nashville, writing for other artists and working as a store manager for Abercrombie & Fitch before signing with MCA Nashville. He co-wrote two tracks on Thompson Square's self-titled debut album, released in February 2011: "All the Way" and "Let's Fight", the latter of which was their debut single. He also co-wrote James Wesley's 2012 single "Walking Contradiction".

His debut single, "Mary Was the Marrying Kind" was released in March of 2001 and it peaked at number 45 on the country singles charts published by Billboard. In September, Moore released his second single, "Somethin' 'Bout a Truck". The songs were both featured on Kip's debut album Up All Night in April 2012. Moore co-wrote every song on the album, and Brett James produced it. A month later, "Somethin' 'Bout a Truck" hit #1 on the Billboard country charts. "Beer Money" was the album's second single, followed by "Hey Pretty Girl". All three of the songs reached the Top 5.

Moore followed up his strong debut with a pair of singles from 2013 and 2014, "Young Love" and "Dirt Road" both failed to crack the top-25, neither song was featured on the follow up album, 2015's WIld Ones, but the lead single, "I'm To Blame", peaked at #20. The second single from the album is in our spotlight, today's Catch of the Day is Kip Moore and "Running For You", new music you haven't heard, but you'll want to hear it again.

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