Country star Troy Gentry wanted to talk about Montgomery Gentry's brand-new, totally rockin' CD. We wanted to talk about the 2006 headlines he made in Minnesota for hunting a bear in captivity.

OK, so let's get the old news out of the way in a hurry.

"Being an outdoors person and a conservationist, I should have known better. I do regret what I did and how it went down," said Gentry, 41, whose duo headlines tonight at the 15th annual Winstock Country Music Festival, west of the Twin Cities. "I've paid my dues and took responsibility for it and did everything I was required to do. None of our fans ever said anything or made a deal out of it; they're there for the music and the good times."

"I've learned from the mistake," he said. "I'd like to go on and do what I do for a living and not have to keep bringing up the past."

For the record, Gentry pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of falsely registering a captive bear as being killed in the wild. He agreed to pay a $15,000 fine, give up hunting, fishing and trapping in Minnesota for five years, and forfeit both the bear's hide and the bow he used to shoot the animal in 2004 in a 3-acre private enclosure.

Winstock-goers should not expect to hear Gentry make a fuss about that dustup. But they can expect him and Eddie Montgomery to play a few numbers from the new CD, "Back When I Knew It All." Released Tuesday, the disc rocks with the Jimmy Buffett-like chant-along "One in Every Crowd," the Big & Rich-like raveup "Now You're Talkin' " and the full-tilt piano boogie "I Pick My Parties," featuring Toby Keith and some smokin' slide guitar. For traditionalists, there's the outlaw-soaked country of "Long Line of Losers."

"We made a conscious effort on this album to rock it up a bit more, to find more aggressive songs, to get back in the Montgomery Gentry vein," Gentry said last week from Nashville.

The duo ended up recording in Memphis, not Nashville, at the legendary Ardent Studios. Among the classics cut there were Led Zeppelin's "III," Isaac Hayes' "Hot Buttered Soul," ZZ Top's "Tres Hombres," the Replacements' "Pleased to Meet Me" and Steve Earle's "Copperhead Road." More recent projects include Cat Power's "The Greatest" and the Raconteurs' "Broken Boy Soldiers."

"It was a big wow factor going in there, knowing that a lot of the guys we covered in our club days recorded there and now we were in the same studio cutting our seventh album," Gentry said. "I don't know if it's because of knowing the history of it or the fact we got down there with our players and got in there two or three days early and did a whole lot of preproduction with the music. We were more in a groove and more excited about it."

Will his luck turn, turn, turn?

Since its 1999 debut, Montgomery Gentry has been at its best doing Southern-rock inspired hits such as "Gone" and "If You Ever Stop Loving Me." But the duo also has had its share of ballads, including 2006's introspective "Lucky Man," their third No. 1 country song.

Its latest hit is the medium-tempo "Back When I Knew It All," which starts with a Byrds-like guitar riff and sounds like a Kenny Chesney reflection on the know-it-all days of youth.

"It kind of reminds me of back when I was playing the clubs, my dad would try to tell me that I needed to stay in school and finish up with college," Gentry said. "Back in the day, I thought music was all I was ever going to do and my dad didn't know what he was talking about."

The big payoff on the new album could be "I Pick My Parties," with Keith. Montgomery Gentry will tour with him for most of the summer (but not when he plays the State Fair on Sept. 1).

The song was co-written by country star Terri Clark, and Gentry was surprised that she didn't record it. "She didn't even sing on the demo," he said. But Gentry will take it because he knows that Montgomery Gentry, which can set the table for a huge country party as effectively as any opening act, may be one blockbuster hit away from being a bona fide headliner.

"I think it'll be based on the potential of this new album, and the changes we've made around us," Gentry said. Those changes include a new management company (one that handles Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy), publicist (Bruce Springsteen, Norah Jones) and booking agency (Tim McGraw, Martina McBride).

"We're getting more aggressive this year. Not that we haven't been aggressive in the past. We think it's our turn and our time."

Meanwhile, the country star is trying to stay on the straight and narrow. Among his good deeds: shaving his goatee in January in exchange for someone donating $20,000 to a leukemia, cancer and AIDS foundation.

That's the kind of headline Gentry, who usually has a five-day shadow, would welcome.

"I can always grow another beard back," he said.

Jon Bream • 612-673-1719