The Hit Men of Country
Doug Carter (keys, vocals)
From age 4, music played a big part in Doug’s life. All through his childhood years and on into his teenage years, Doug studied under several private piano instructors and took advantage of every opportunity to perform music for anyone who would listen. He spent the majority of his teenage years playing gospel music on a regional level and at 18 landed a job with a gospel music touring act, and spent the next eight years touring with several different gospel music acts. In 1998, Doug moved to Nashville, TN. He quickly made connections with people in all facets of the music business. These friendships allowed Doug to begin working steadily in recording studios on and around music row. Doug also continued his touring work and has toured with country legends like Lee Greenwood, the Gatlin Brothers, Crystal Gayle, Debbie Boone, Sam Moore, Doug Stone, Little River Band, Pam Tillis, and the Bellamy Brothers. From his Nashville home base, Doug has also produced records for Grammy and gospel music award-winning artists.
Jayson Chance (electric guitar, vocals)
Jayson is a 3rd generation professional musician in Nashville, TN. His Grandfather, Floyd “Lightnin’“ Chance was a staff bassist at the Grand Ole Opry in the 50s & 60s and played on countless recordings as a member of the original “A” team. His grandmother, Helen LaCroix, was a session singer and recording artist who sang on albums with Roy Orbison, Roy Acuff, Jerry Lee Lewis, and numerous others. His father, Barry Chance, was a prominent guitarist who worked with Barefoot Jerry, Jimmy Buffett, Marty Stuart, George Jones, Joe Stampley, and others. Since the early 2000s, Jayson has worked as guitarist, vocalist, and/or music director for Gretchen Wilson, Ty Herndon, Thompson Square, Tyler Farr, Tracy Lawrence, Lee Greenwood, Montgomery Gentry, Jamie O’Neal, Colt Ford, and numerous others.
Jeff Zona (acoustic guitar, vocals)
Jeff is an accomplished musician. He was featured in the Spotlight column of Guitar Player magazine at the age of 19 and earned a bachelor’s degree in music in studio/jazz guitar from the University of Southern California. Born in East Rochester NY, at the age of 5 he traveled cross country with his family in a Chevy Nova to L.A. After growing up in Southern California, he moved to Nashville, TN and has recorded several original projects as an instrumentalist and songwriter as well as authoring a guitar instruction book titled Chord Voicings for Guitar. He has toured with notable classic country artists such as Grammy winner/ 5-time CMA vocalist of the year Lee Greenwood, Grammy winner David Ball, The Bellamy Brothers, and Lorrie Morgan. Other artists include Eddie Montgomery (of Montgomery Gentry), T. Graham Brown, Clay Walker, Steve Holy, Pam Tillis, and CMA songwriter D. Vincent Williams and the Nashville All-Stars. He was the featured guitarist/vocalist in ONE, the show at the Alabama Theatre in Myrtle Beach, SC. It was there that he also performed regularly with Herb Reed’s original Platters. Numerous television appearances include The Grand Ole’ Opry, TNN and CMT. Among all the musical projects he has been involved in, he considers the many performances on the Grand Ole’ Opry to be one of the highlights of his career.
David Northrup (drums)
David Northrup's skill and talent as a busy touring musician is matched only by his long list of recording credits and work that he has done with a multitude of artists over varying genres. His long and versatile list of playing credits includes work with rock legend John Waite, The James Brown Horns, John Mellencamp, Guitarist Les Dudek, jam band sensation The Disco Biscuits, and country artists such as Wynonna Judd, Travis Tritt, Joe Diffie, Doug Stone, Tanya Tucker, Lila McCann, Jo De Messina, Jo-El Sonnier, Pam Tillis, Ty Herndon, Lee Greenwood, Connie Smith, Gene Watson, Deborah Allen, and Louise Mandrell. David has also toured with country music legends The Oak Ridge Boys. He was voted No. 2 Country Drummer and No. 2 Clinician of the Year in the prestigious Modern Drummer Readers Poll (2009 and 2010).
Don Mott (bass, vocals)
If you’re a top bass player and vocalist, and you’ve served your country both as a Marine and playing bass for the U.S. Air Force Band of the Golden Gate in California and for the U.S. Marine Corp Forces Pacific Band in Hawaii, what do you do next? You get gigs working with some of the best country music legends in the business. And that’s what Nebraska-born Don Mott did. Playing bass and singing with the late Kevin Sharp, who recorded multiple chart-topping songs; gigging with Mark Wills, the contemporary country singer who has charted 16 singles on the Billboard country charts, all of them in the Top 40; and most recently, touring with Wade “Old Enough to Know Better” Hayes, who had numerous Top 10 hits on the Billboard hot country singles & tracks charts.
