Crossin Dixon includes Jason Miller, lead vocals; Charlie Grantham, vocals and guitar; and Brandon Hyde, vocals and guitar. They have shared the stage with everyone from Dierks Bentley and Jason Aldean to Merle Haggard and Bad Company.

The band has its roots in central Mississippi. Miller was playing in one local band, while guitarists Hyde and Grantham were in another.

“We were following one another around, playing the same venues on different weekends,” Miller said. When both acts experienced lineup changes, the men decided to try joining forces. That was in 2002.

“We just had something that was unique to us, something that we really liked the sound of,” Hyde said. “It was perfect, it was like it was meant to be.”

After a couple of years on the nightclub circuit, Crossin Dixon opened for Aldean in Huntsville, Ala. The group had almost decided to cancel, since they wouldn’t be breaking even on the date.

“Somebody there was friends with Michael Knox, who produced Jason,” Hyde said. “After they heard our show they called Michael the next day.”

Two weeks later Knox came to see them play at legendary Nashville nightspot Tootsies Orchid Lounge; he liked what he heard, and introduced them to several record labels. In August 2006, the band signed with Broken Bow Records.

Crossin Dixon released its self-titled debut, featuring the radio favorites “Guitar Slinger” and “Make You Mine,” in 2008.

The follow-up is “a little more edgy than the first record,” Hyde says. “Everything happened so fast when we got the record deal that we didn’t really have time to tell people who we were and what we were about. Between then and now we’ve had time to write songs and figure out who Crossin Dixon is.”

“Lovin’ in the Country” celebrates life in the backwoods, a subject the group knows well.

“It’s something you’ll hear on the radio and go, ‘What’s that? That’s something I’ve never heard before, that’s not what you’d normally hear,’” said Miller. “You’ll crank it up loud and say, ‘Wow, it’s a band.’ That song tells our story right there.”

Indeed, the members all continue to live in Mississippi rather than relocating to Nashville. “It really keeps us grounded,” Hyde says. “We can stay with our families and not be in fast-forward all the time. “

In a more serious vein is “I’m Not About To,” a romantic pledge of fidelity written by Grantham and Parris. “We got to talking about things that go on out on the road,” Grantham said. “I said, ‘It’s taken me this long to find who I’m looking for, and I’m not about to jeopardize that for a one-night stand. I’m not about to.’ We looked at each other, and in 15 minutes we had it written.”