Easton Corbin (Mercury Nashville, 2010)

You may not always be able to judge a book by its cover. But the image of a north Florida country boy playing a guitar and sitting next to a dog on a front porch perfectly describes what the mood of the 11 songs will be. Corbin recalls George Strait on several songs, but none more than the hit A Little More Country Than That. It's his debut song and firmly establishes him on the traditional side of the country/pop-country canyon.

But Corbin isn't simply a sound-a-like. He mines his own sound throughout, especially on a ballad This From Memphis, in which he describes what experiencing the blues can be like.

There's equal space devoted to having fun - Roll With It, The Way Love Looks and the beach-flavored A Lot to Learn About livin' to songs that have deeper meanings. On Someday When I'm Old, Corbin sings "no matter how much time you get, you always want more." It may be an obvious statement, but seems poetic in that ballad.

Corbin helped write 4 of the 11 songs. But unlike some new artists, he was smart enough to enlist the talents of top-notch veteran songwriters like Carson Chamberlain, Mark D. Sanders, Aimee Mayo and Rory Feek (of Joey + Rory). The highlights are Don't Ask Me About A Woman, in which a grandpa tells his grandson all kinds of things - but still doesn't understand the mystery of women; and Leavin' A Lonely Town, a song with a heavy dose of fiddle, about leaving a small town that suddenly becomes "lonely" after a breakup.