The Flag, The Bible, & Bill Monroe - Michael Monroe Goodman

From Buck to Johnny, to Waylon and Willie, to Merle and Lefty, the very best country music has shown the rich complexity of life. Steel backbones and breaking hearts. The true grit that helps people survive every difficult day. And those qualities haven't been forgotten. They're there in every word and note of Michael Monroe Goodman's second album, The Flag, the Bible, and Bill Monroe. It's the sound of Kentucky calling.

Country music is like breathing to Goodman. 'People have these stereotypes of country music and hillbillies,' Goodman observes. 'All the cliches, but the truth is more complex. I know, I've lived it. I grew up poor in a small town in Kentucky. That doesn't make us backward, though. We knew about life, maybe more than city people. I'm proud of my home state of Kentucky. You need that strand of where you're from or you don't have an anchor. At its heart, country's a state of mind, not a location.'

Goodman is currently in Chicago, starring in Ring of Fire, a musical about Johnny Cash, which has been nominated for six Jeff awards – the equivalent of a Tony in Chicago – and he's been part of the Million Dollar Quartet Broadway tour. So, even in the theatre, he's kept his country roots close.

1. Wretched Woman
2. I'm Just Country
3. Tinkerbell Love Song
4. It Never Rains
5. The Flag, The Bible, & Bill Monroe
6. If She Knew
7. Yay! Friday
8. Concerts in My Underwear
9. Drunk Again
10. She Was Mine
11. Let It Ride
12. Rosine I Cry
13. Maple Inn
14. Michael Monroe Goodman