SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Country singer Blake Shelton has a new album out. It's called "For Recreational Use Only."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TEXAS")
BLAKE SHELTON: (Singing) She's probably in Texas. Amarillo, all I know.
DETROW: That's the album's lead single, "Texas." Marcus Dowling covers country music for The Tennessean. He says this album demonstrates Shelton's ability to reinvent himself and that the megastar is skilled at blending classic and modern styles of country music. Dowling told us about a couple of standout tracks from the album.
(SOUNDBITE OF DRUMBEAT)
MARCUS DOWLING: "Texas" as a single is fascinating for Blake Shelton in the sense that the last thing that you would expect Blake Shelton to do at this point in his career is to turn to a R&B-style song with a romantic lyric. But here we are. I mean, it's the No. 1 song on country radio.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TEXAS")
SHELTON: (Singing) She cut me loose and caught herself a somewhere wind. I haven't heard a word and haven't seen her since. She disappeared quicker than this double shot of Jim 'cause everybody at the bar started askin'.
DOWLING: One of the things that he's uniquely able to do, just because of the time that he has pinged into country music, is that he's able to lean into a soulful vocal and lean into a personality and charisma that speaks broader than to just country radio or to crossover audiences.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TEXAS")
SHELTON: (Singing) Then I don't know where she's headed. If I'm guessin', I reckon she's probably in Texas. She's probably in Texas.
DOWLING: The key to it is being able to be savvy enough as a performer to lean in on the meaning of the lyric and the vibe of the song and really create a top-tier performance. There's something about just understanding the art of country singing as a craft, where he just is able to knock it out of the park.
(SOUNDBITE OF BLAKE SHELTON SONG, "YEARS")
DOWLING: "Years," featuring John Anderson, is incredible in the sense that John Anderson is a recent Country Music Hall of Fame inductee. Even deeper, when he came to town in 1973, he helped to build the Grand Ole Opry house. He built the roof. So (laughter) he always jokes that he is as fundamental to country music as the roof of the Grand Ole Opry, which is literally true.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YEARS")
SHELTON: (Singing) Years, everybody knows you got to let 'em go, and they kind of roll by like tears. It's a measure of time playin' with your mind, passin' you by - those years.
DOWLING: When an artist like John Anderson is somebody that's, like, a tangible person that you can reach out to - the guy who sang "Seminole Wind" and other '80s and '90s hits - he had a similar level of success in two different generations of country music. That's really kind of, like, the point where you understand where Blake is at this point in his career.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YEARS")
SHELTON: (Singing) Tomorrow. Those years, everybody knows you got to let 'em go, and they kind of roll by like tears. Just a measure of time, playin' with your mind, passin' you by, those years.
DOWLING: He is seriously contemplating what it requires in order to achieve a Country Music Hall of Fame induction-level career.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YEARS")
JOHN ANDERSON: (Singing) Years, everybody knows you got to let it go, and they kind of roll by like tears. Just a measure of time, playin' with your mind, passin' you by, those years, years, years.
DOWLING: "Stay Country Or Die Tryin'" is just one of those songs that speaks directly to the core of what the country consumer always has a space in their heart for wanting to hear. I think there's something about that lyric in there. There's something about being able to connect with that aesthetic, that vibe, that concept.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STAY COUNTRY OR DIE TRYIN'")
SHELTON: (Singing) Seven generations from a dirt road corn crop, boots ain't ever seen easy street.
DOWLING: People say a lot of things about the (ph) music, but the one thing that people know is that there is a stay-true-to-your-school kind of relationship and connection to what country means as a fundamental-type thing.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STAY COUNTRY OR DIE TRYIN'")
SHELTON: (Singing) It's lifestyle. It ain't a living. From the red, white and blue flyin' high at the farm to the Boone and Crockett stud on the wall in the barn, where the magnolias bloom, there's a lab on the lawn, where your buddy and your boat both got the name John. In God we trust. Detroit, we rust. Redneck letter testifyin'. From the born in the cut till the day that I'm dust, I'm a stay country or die tryin'.
DOWLING: Blake Shelton, for the last decade or so, has become renowned as a television personality. The artist that they knew as a fundamental part of country music 10 to 20 years ago is still at his core a country music artist through and through.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STAY COUNTRY OR DIE TRYIN'")
SHELTON: (Singing) Till the day that I'm dust, I'm a stay country or die tryin'.
DETROW: That was Marcus Dowling, country music reporter for The Tennessean, talking about Blake Shelton's latest album, "For Recreational Use Only."
(SOUNDBITE OF BLAKE SHELTON SONG, "STAY COUNTRY OR DIE TRYIN'") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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