A county is a geographical region of a country used for administrative or other purposes in certain modern nations. Its etymology derives from the Old French term, conté or cunté and could denote a jurisdiction in mainland Europe, under the sovereignty of a viscount. The modern French is comté, and its equivalents in other languages are contea, contado, comtat, condado, Grafschaft, Gau, etc.) (cf. conte, comte, conde, Graf).

When the Normans conquered England, they brought the term with them. The Saxons had already established the regions that became the Historic counties of England calling them shires. The Vikings introduced the term earl (from Old Norse, jarl) to the British Isles. Thus, "earl" and "earldom" were taken as equivalent to the continental use of "count" and "county". So, the later-imported term became a synonym for the native English word scir ([ʃir]) or, in Modern English, shire

Since a shire was an administrative division of the kingdom, the term "county" evolved to designate an administrative division of national government in most modern uses.

John Michael Montgomery (born January 20, 1965, in Danville, Kentucky) is an American country music artist. He has produced more than thirty singles on the Billboard country charts, including two of Billboard’s Number One country singles of the year: "I Swear" (1994) and "Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident)" (1995). Besides these two songs, five more of Montgomery's singles have reached the top of the country charts: "I Love the Way You Love Me", "Be My Baby Tonight", "If You've Got Love", "I Can Love You Like That", and "The Little Girl", while thirteen more have reached Top Ten. Montgomery's recordings of "I Swear" and "I Can Love You Like That" were both released concurrently with R&B versions by the group All-4-One. Montgomery has also released eleven studio albums, counting a Christmas album. The most recent, Time Flies, was released on his own Stringtown label in late 2008.

Born January 20, 1965, in Danville, Kentucky and raised and lived in Garrard County, Kentucky, Montgomery received musical encouragement from his father, who performed in a local country band and taught his son his first chords. John Michael joined the family band (which also included his brother, Eddie Montgomery, who would later join Troy Gentry in the duo Montgomery Gentry) as guitarist before taking the lead singing role when his parents divorced. Afterwards, he made a frugal living on the local honky-tonk scene as a solo artist playing what he referred to as "working man's country." Eventually, Atlantic Records signed him.

Michael Lewis Montgomery, II (born August 18, 1983) is a gridiron football defensive end for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. He was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the sixth round of the 2005 NFL Draft. He played college football at Texas A&M.

Montgomery has also been a member of the Minnesota Vikings.

Montgomery was born in Carthage, Texas and attended Center High School in Center, Texas. He played college football at Navarro Junior College and Texas A&M. He started his career at Navarro where he played for two years recording 131 tackles and six sacks. Before his junior year he transferred to Texas A&M where he recorded 123 tackles, seven sacks, and one interception, and earned first-team All-Big 12 honors.

Montgomery was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the sixth round of the 2005 NFL Draft. For the first three years of his career he was used mainly as a backup defensive end.

During the 2008 season, after the Packers lost starting defensive end Cullen Jenkins due to injury and released Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila, Montgomery along with rookie Jeremy Thompson split time starting at defensive end. He finished the season starting eight games.

Stephen "Steve" McClaren (born 3 May 1961) is an English football manager and former player, currently manager of Dutch team FC Twente.

His managerial career began at Middlesbrough in the Premier League, who won the League Cup in 2004 and finished as runners-up in the 2006 UEFA Cup. McClaren then served as manager of England from August 2006 to December 2007. He was sacked after England failed to qualify for the 2008 European Championship. In 2008 McClaren became manager of FC Twente, with whom he won the club's first Eredivisie championship in the 2009–10 season. He then worked as manager of VfL Wolfsburg in Germany between May 2010 and February 2011. After a short spell as manager of Nottingham Forest, he returned to Twente in January 2012.

Despite his successes at Manchester United, where he had been assistant manager to Alex Ferguson from 1999 to 2001, and Middlesbrough, he was vilified by the English media following England's failure to qualify for Euro 2008. He was dubbed 'the wally with a brolly', after his use of an umbrella to protect himself from rain during his final game in charge. McClaren's time in charge at FC Twente saw his professional reputation recover somewhat after he managed them to the Eredivisie title.

Kenneth Donald "Kenny" Rogers (born August 21, 1938) is an American singer-songwriter, photographer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. Though he has been most successful with country audiences, he has charted more than 120 hit singles across various music genres and topping the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone.

Two of his albums, The Gambler and Kenny, are featured in the About.com poll of "The 200 Most Influential Country Albums Ever". He was voted the "Favorite Singer of All-Time" in a 1986 joint poll by readers of both USA Today and People. He has received numerous such awards as the AMAs, Grammys, ACMs and CMAs, as well as a lifetime achievement award for a career spanning six decades in 2003.

Later success includes the 2006 album release, Water & Bridges, an across the board hit, that peaked at #5 in the Billboard Country Albums sales charts, also charting high in the Billboard 200. The first single from the album, "I Can't Unlove You," was also a chart hit. Remaining a popular entertainer around the world, the following year he completed a tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland, telling BBC Radio 2 DJ Steve Wright his favorite hit was "The Gambler". He has also acted in a variety of movies and television shows, most notably the title roles in Kenny Rogers as The Gambler and the MacShayne series as well as his appearance on The Muppet Show.