The Eli Young Band is a country music group that consists of Mike Eli vocalist, James Young, a guitarist, Jon Jones a bassist and Chris Thompson who is the band's drummer, all former fellow students at the same university.

The Eli Young Band has created albums with a loose sound influenced by a number of musical tastes like soft rock, country, etc. from every genre. They focus on themes of "the difficult turns in life with an underlying optimism" . http://eliyoungband.com/bio.aspxThey are still active in the music industry.

The Eli Young Band is nominated for the Top New Vocal Group of the Year at the Academy of Country Music awards, which will be held on April 18, 2010.

The Eli Young Band began as a duo, later expanding to include a bassist and drummer. They started off as a small musical group unsure of what to do with themselves, playing small gigs, opening shows and at minute clubs. In 1999 the group began to play amongst themselves, then kicked off live performances beginning in 2000. Thanks to the good word put in by fellow musician Miranda Lambert, they received the independent "Carnival" label from Frank Liddell. They slowly gathered a reasonable fanbase, and the amount of admirers exploded after exposure on CMT, GAC, and Country Weekly as they continued moving along on tour. When it Rains one of their earliest songs, was a smash hit and earned them droves of fans.

The single When it Rains is the longest running single in the history of the Country chart. Their national debut Jet Black & Jealous was released in September, 2008 put them in the top 5 of the Billboard Top Country Albums Chart. They have received an ACM nomination, CMT nomination, and received a performance spot at the CMT Awards.

• "Eli Young Band," "Level (2005)," "Level (2009)," "Jet Black & Jealous," "Live at the Jolly Fox"