James Otto
A country singer and songwriter with a Southern rock heart, James Otto was born into a military family at the Fort Lewis Army Base in Washington and grew up all over the U.S., including extended stays in North Dakota and Alabama. He started singing when he was only four years old, and learned both violin and saxophone before getting his first guitar at the age of 13. Both his father and grandfather were part-time musicians who played gigs in local bars, so music was hardly a foreign thing to Otto, but it wasn't until he spent time with his mother in Sand Mountain, Alabama that he really discovered the joys of country music. After graduating from high school, Otto did a two-year stint in the U.S. Navy and, following his release from active service, he moved to Nashville in 1998, attending various songwriting nights at the clubs there, soon falling in with the so-called MuzikMafia, a feisty group of writers and musicians including Big & Rich and Gretchen Wilson, who became the central players in a CMT reality show called MuzikMafia TV.
The exposure landed Otto a record deal with Mercury Nashville and he released a handful of singles and an album, 2002's Days of Our Lives, before being dropped by the label in 2004. Following a small screen role in Road House 2, he rebounded by signing with Raybaw Records, a Warner Bros. imprint, and releasing a second album, Sunset Man, produced by his brother-in-law (and Rascal Flatts member) Jay DeMarcus, in 2008. Sunset Man generated one big hit with the chart-topping "Just Got Started Lovin' You" and raised Otto's profile considerably, leading to several co-writing gigs including authoring Jamey Johnson's "In Color," which won Song of the Year at the 2008 Academy of Country Music Awards. Otto returned with his third album, Shake What God Gave Ya, in the fall of 2010. He parted ways with Warner after Shake What God Gave Ya, and spent the next five years out of the spotlight as he stockpiled songs. Otto re-emerged in 2015 with the self-released single "Somewhere Tonight."
© Steve Leggett /TiVo
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Discography
11 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Texas Hold 'em
Country - Released by Base Station Records on 19 Mar 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sunset Man (Standard Version)
Country - Released by Warner Records on 7 Apr 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Days Of Our Lives (Album Version)
Country - Released by Mercury Nashville on 1 Jan 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Somewhere Tonight
Country - Released by Blaster Records on 24 Jul 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Since You Brought It Up
Country - Released by Warner Records - Nashville on 5 May 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Warner Years
Blues/Country/Folk - Released by Warner Music Group - X5 Music Group on 13 Jan 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shake What God Gave Ya
Country - Released by Warner Records on 7 Sep 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shake What God Gave You
Country - Released by Wrasse Records on 7 Sep 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Texas Hold 'em
Country - Released by Base Station Records on 19 Mar 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gasoline And Matches
Country - Released by Universal Records on 1 Jan 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
That Spirit of Christmas
Christmas Music - Released by Base Station Records on 29 Nov 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo