Brothers Osborne had a big goal with their new single, 'Rum' -- to show that Maryland can be every bit as country as Tennessee.

"We wanted to get rid of the stigma that Maryland is not a country place," John Osborne tells CMT.com. "We get asked all the time how we got into country music being from Maryland. It's probably the most-asked question next to 'Are you really brothers?'"

Even though the boys don't really look alike, they are brothers. John and brother TJ were raised in the small fishing town of Deale, Md., on the Chesapeake Bay.

"One thing that's interesting about that area, as opposed to most other places that are country, is that while other people would have tractors and farmland, this town has fishing boats and the bay," TJ says of Deale. "These people get up early, and they go out there all day long basically farming the bay, and we call them watermen. So we grew up with that. It's a very blue-collar, hard-working community."

Despite the hard work, the brothers were surrounded by music, breaking out the instruments for jam sessions and parties, which were plentiful.

"We grew up in a really musical family. Our parents played music and wrote songs, and our uncle and cousins played music," TJ says. "When we were really young, it was like second nature ... Naturally, John and I wanted to participate and play with the family because it was fun. And that was where we cut our teeth. We just wanted to sit in with our dad and our cousins and play songs."

"We were the token party band," John adds. "Whenever there was a hang at our house -- without fail -- me, TJ and our dad would be playing guitars, and everyone would be singing songs."

The duo released their self-titled EP on Sept. 9, with a full-length album expected in early 2015.

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