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I was born the eleventh of thirteen children into the loving family of Marvin and Lottie Ott. My parents were fine Christian people who were madly in love with each other. I have nine lovely sisters and three brothers much more handsome than I. I was blessed to be part of this close-knit group. We grew up very close and have even become closer over the years. I would not trade my life for anyone else’s and if I could be anyone in the world I would choose to be me. I am the most blessed person alive because of all of the love in my life. Besides the loving family I was born into I also have my lovely wife Stephanie of fifteen years and my beautiful daughter Katie who just turned thirteen.Musical HistoryI began playing bass guitar at age ten. I learned to play at the famous Friday night family singing at the Ott house. My family and many friends gathered every Friday night and played music. My Dad and my uncles played music since their childhood. They played back in the days of live radio and would be on local radio stations. People came from miles around to listen to the music. Sometimes there would be hundreds of people there. It was like a festival every Friday and once I began playing I knew I could never stop.My first paying job was playing in the Ott Family Gospel band with the Ott sisters singing, my brother Tim on lead guitar and Brother in law Jerry McCune on drums. We played at a little Baptist church and I think we made about 15 dollars, which we donated back to the church.I started learning acoustic guitar and writing songs at age thirteen. I found that the music of the acoustic guitar helped me write. I would take the guitar out into the pastures behind our house and write and sing for hours. The cows must have thought I was nuts. By age 16 I was playing bass with local bands at festivals, fairs and dances. At age 19, I moved to Texas began playing the Texas club circuit and traveled all over East Texas. I played in several bands, which opened shows for many famous country artists. I went back and forth to Nashville for a while but found out that country music was packing up to leave and that western music had left long before I got there.In my early twenties I reunited with my brother Tim in Kilgore Texas and formed our own band which we called Double-R-Nothin'. A couple of different bands wanted us to play separately but we said, "If you want the Ott boys then it's double or nothin'. We added Lee Goins on drums and soon added him to our family as he married our youngest sister. We hired an agent and began traveling all over the country. I could go on for hours about our adventures on the road. Maybe some day I'll put all of those stories in a book or in a really funny song. I was most fortunate to travel with such a great group of guys. We played about twenty states but what I enjoyed the most was playing music in the great southwest.While traveling in the southwest I fell in love with the cowboy way of life and began writing songs about it. I love the wide-open spaces and the cowboy way of life has gotten down into my soul. I'm not sure how it happened. It could have been while counting the stars in the west Texas sky just outside of Pecos, or watching the sunset over the famous XIT ranch in Dalhart, or maybe it was while lying in a field of green grass in Oklahoma letting the whistling wind sing me to sleep.After a few years on the road I settled down to raise a family. Over the past few years I have been writing songs and singing at local events and churches. I have written a few hundred songs and last year published a book of cowboy poetry entitled, "A Cowboy Soul."With the help of my family I have recently recorded a new cd of original cowboy songs. The title of the cd is "Lonesome Cowboy." It includes ten original cowboy songs and a cowboy poem. It was recorded at the Patrick McGuire studio in Arlington, Texas with the great Milo Deering on guitar, fiddle and dobro, with myself and three of the lovely Ott sisters, Charlotte, Mary and Vicki on vocals. So far people tell me they love the cd and I have begun marketing it and resuming my musical career. I will soon be on tour again and traveling all over the country at festivals, rodeos and gatherings. If you would like a copy of the cd or the book or for booking information you can reach me online at michaelallenott.com.