Country fans will remember Jason Aldean’s genre-defying “Dirt Road Anthem,” which hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart in 2011 and still holds a record for the best-selling song by a male artist in digital history at more than 4 million. But the country-rap song, which helped pave the way for artists such as Florida-Georgia Line, began life years earlier when Georgia’s Colt Ford wrote the song with Brantley Gilbert and released it on his 2008 debut album, “Ride Through the Country.” Without the benefit of chart-topping singles, Ford, who plays the Midtown Ballroom on Friday, has continued to break musical ground through a string of studio albums on his own label, Average Joe’s Entertainment. Last year’s “Love Hope Faith” adds disco and metal to Ford’s hick-hop equation and features Toby Keith, rock band Lit, acoustic soul singer Javier Colon and more.

Colt Ford, with Cheyenne West: 8 p.m. Friday, doors open at 7 p.m.; $25 plus fees; Midtown Ballroom, 51 NW Greenwood Ave., Bend; midtownbend.com, eventbrite.com or 541-408-4329.