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Nashville legend Tim McGraw may be a certified country superstar, but he didn't exactly get there on the strength of his voice. McGraw can carry a tune, but he does it the way an above-average karaoke singer might belt one out on a Friday night. And it's exactly that every-man charm that makes McGraw such an unlikely success story and such an accessible crowd favorite. Like one of the working class characters from his songs, Tim McGraw was the son of a waitress and a professional ball player. Tim grew up in Delhi, Louisiana and actually believed his stepfather Horace Smith was his real father until he discovered his own birth certificate and his mother told him the truth. Tim's first love was professional sports, and he enrolled in Northeast Louisiana University on a baseball scholarship. He learned to play guitar while in school, but dropped out in 1989 to follow his musical dreams. But again, like one of his loser-makes-good songs, he was discovered busking for change outside Nashville's famous hot dog stand HounDogs. He signed with Curb Records and released his self-titled debut album Tim McGraw in 1992. He had minor hits with "Memory Lane" and "Two Steppin' Mind" but didn't achieve mainstream success til his second single, a ballad called "Don't Take the Girl." Other signature hits off his second album Not A Moment Too Soon included "Refried Dreams" and "Down On the Farm." After a constant string of successful solo albums, McGraw surprised fans by going to his touring band in 2002 to record Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors. The album was more rock-oriented than a typical Tim McGraw record but he kept it country with hits like "Real Good Man" and "She's My Kind of Rain."

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