Sarah Johns may not be today's typical female country artist. For starters, she does not have a hit on radio (yet), but she feels that everyone knows who she is in radio land. (That's a good thing).

Second, instead of veering towards the pop side of the country spectrum, a la today's stars like Carrie Underwood, the Kentucky native remains true to her country roots.

And in this day when music is so song driven, Johns is taking the credit/blame for what the listener hears because she had a hand in writing all 11 songs on her debut, "Big Love in a Small Town" (BNA).

Johns, 26, who was discovered in a bar by Toby Keith's manager, isn't in a looking back mode of coulda, shoulda, woulda on the album.

"I did exactly what I wanted to do," she says laughing, while talking from Nashville. "I wanted to make a record that within 20 years, I'd be proud that I did that record. I ended up writing every single song on there. I've got a lot of fiddle and a lot of steel, and it's a very country record. And I really wanted to make a country record."

"The label was really wonderful in letting me have my artistic ability with it...I feel there's such a huge audience out there for country music, pretty traditional country music, and so that's why I did it."

Johns says label head Joe Galante "loves when you have passion about something, when you really feel strongly about something. I tried to write very country, but make it today too, so that radio will love it, and the young people would love it and the old people."

Even though she helped write all the songs, Johns did go the traditional route of looking for songs written by others as well.

"I worked my tail off. I went to publishing companies and listened for other songs. I said 'hey I want the best stuff I could find'. Joe Galante and my A&R people said, 'your stuff just sounds like you'. They wanted to set me apart too at the same time. They honestly have been so trusting in everything with me, even asking 'what do you think the next single should be?' It really has been wonderful, and if it wasn't, I would tell you because I don't lie."

Johns's brand of country music is done with a definite nod to Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn.

Johns makes no bones about where she's coming from.

"The reason I wanted to (go traditional) is because I think it's country music to me. That Rascal Flatts's new song ("Take Me There") is so pop - I love the song, I love a lot of Carrie Underwood stuff. Let's be honest. It's not traditional country. It's not country really. It's pop. That's fine, if they can do that, but I'm from the holler in Kentucky."

"I want people to hear my music and know who I am, and that was part of the reason for writing the whole record. You're going to go 'she's a sassy spitfire, and I've like to sit down and have a beer with her.' It seems very approachable, and I wanted people to be able to see me as that."

"My favorite stuff and honestly what I even listen to right is XM, Willie's Place...It's so funny because I'm young, but the stuff that really turns me on, that really wants me to drink a beer or kick a hay bale over is the traditional country music. I love it. I always have. George Jones and all those types of people."

"You do have to progress. Even Sarah Evans who started off so strictly country. (Her first CD, "Three Chords and the Truth" was extremely traditional, but when that didn't sell very well, she went for a more modern sound). I think there's a way to progress, but still keep those country roots on your albums, and she's done good at that. Lee Ann Womack has done good at that."

Johns also acknowledges the realities of the music business. "You got to sell, or you'll lose the record deal."

"I know that there is an audience out there that wants country music. Just look at Josh Turner."

Johns's first single, "The One in the Middle," was not a huge hit at all, though it did chart. But Johns also is convinced that it left a big impression on listeners and the all important radio programmers.

The song is about an ex-boyfriend who dumps her for someone else even ' though "I would've given you the finger on my left hand/the one that you use for a wedding band but" and then the chorus kicks in, "Now I'm giving you the one in the middle/The one that's a little longer/And I've got another one on my other hand/So I can say it even stronger."

Not exactly the lyrics for a kiss off song you'd expect to hear on country radio.

Johns wrote the song with Jason Sellers and Lynn Hutton. "It took us three days to write the song. We were real slow writers."

"They were, 'would you be okay with singing something like that?' I said, 'yeah, if you think it's a hit idea'. We wanted to make sure we had that thing perfect...I've been cheated on. I had a boyfriend who cheated on me after six years. Everyone's been there and everyone's felt like that, so what better thing to say than whatever, here's your middle finger."

Johns thought she was on the right track when she went on the road playing a few songs during a Toby Keith concert. "Whenever I did that, they started all over the time - people were flipping me off. I thought oh my gosh, I think I have a hit song. This is crazy. Even Toby Keith said, 'That song's a hit'."

Referring to the reaction she received, Johns said, "I was just freaked out about it." After the tour ended, Johns went straight to label head Joe Galante.

Johns says people were surprised someone like her would sing the song. "A lot of them would go 'Sarah you're really nice."

"It's such a reactive record that the first time you hear that song, you (go) 'oh my God. Did she really say that'? The song only went to like 43, and we're still selling good right now on everything. It's over that one daggone song...It didn't go to the top, which is fine...but I guarantee that there ain't one person at radio who doesn't know who I am right now."

"The first single I think is to just get the attention that we needed and say 'let's set you up'. It's like this too - I had the whole head of SonyBMG came to CRS (Country Radio Seminar, an annual event in February in Nashville to educate country radio personnel about music). He was like, "oh my God, a brunette country singer. We have not had one in a long time. Most of them are blonde. We wanted to set me apart, and I have no problem doing it because it's so tough as a woman to make it at all. You have to come out there guns blazing and say 'You will pay attention to me'."

The next single is the title track, "Big Love in a Small Town," written with Mark Nesler and Tony Martin.

"I never really thought it was a hit, and then when I was doing my radio tour for 12 weeks, I was traveling all over. I see all these places, bean fields and corn fields with a house in the middle. This is really like this song."

Johns says she prefers writing with others. "I never asked the label one time to set up a co-write. I just wanted to do it on my own. I wanted people to write with me because (they) believe in what this girl's doing, and we love her. They will support me throughout my career. These people have become my friends."

The album closes with the autobiographical "It's Hard to be a Girl (In a Young Man's World)," penned with veteran Dean Dillon and Dale Dodson.

"That song is about Nashville, how tough it is here being a woman and getting respect and people really knowing who you are," says Johns. "It's a pretty tough tough road here being a girl. It's really good now."

"I knew it was going to be tough. You've got to have thick skin." Johns says her mentality was 'you're not going to push me around'."

Johns isn't forthcoming about business issues she previously had, but she made it clear she was not happy. "It was about a business relationship. There was a time when I first moved, sometimes it was hard to even get out of bed."

"There were some people here that tried to steer me wrong basically. That's as far as I'm going to go. It was complete business. It went south, and I decided that's not what I needed to do. God watched out for me, and I got out of it."

Johns grew up in Pollard, Ky., a tiny town 90 minutes south of Lexington, Ky. that has tobacco farms.

"It was wonderful," says Johns. "I love to go back. We didn't have running water. It is a little bitty house. There are 150 people down there, so it' really small, but I absolutely just love it down there. I go down there all the time to go let me get my head straight."

"You go back home, and you remember where you're from. It's just got ponds. It's just quiet. I love the sound of crickets and frogs, and when you can hear crickets and frog, (you say) 'okay, this is wonderful'. It's really quiet there. It's where I'm from. It's real peaceful there."

For a good time, folks in Pollard build bonfires and go spotlighting, a way to kill animals at night with headlights to spot them. "It's illegal," says Johns. "so you're not really supposed to do it, but if you're from the country, you do it. They don't really care."

Like many singers, Johns's introduction to music was through her church. "I was in church my whole life singing. Singing all the time. I led praise and worship at a Pentecostal church until I was 21 in Lexington."

"The sound guy (at church) was saying 'Sarah you're really good. You need to do something with it. I said 'okay'. I just kept on singing."

She sure did not get interested in secular music from her family.

"I couldn't really listen to anything. All I could listen to was church music. That's the way it was. I just grew up in church so much, and they didn't want to me listen to so-called secular music."

"I was sneaking when I was mowing grass, I'd listen to Patsy Cline and Tammy Wynette. I just loved it."

"I got in trouble a couple of times. I got grounded once for listening to Faith Hill's 'Wild One'."

Johns continued singing, but left church singing for the bars in Lexington where she went to the University of Kentucky. She sang songs of Patsy Cline, Martina McBride, Lee Ann Womack and Allison Krauss.

"I knew that it wasn't going to fly. If the church people knew I was singing at a bar, they'd ,"oh my God. She shouldn't be doing that.'"

Her break came when Keith's manager came to town. T.K. Kimbrell, hit the bar where Johns was singing.

"He said the atmosphere changed when (I) sang. He said you need to move to Nashville. He said, 'I can't do this here. Are you sure?' He said, 'I'm telling you right now. You need to move to Nashville'."

"In 28 days, I broke up with my boyfriend and moved to Nashville."

"I was just about to graduate. I knew that I would never get this opportunity again. This is your chance. You'd better do it, and I just left. I quit college."

That was three years ago, but hooking up with Kimbrell proved impossible.

"I couldn't get him on the phone after that really. I thought 'oh shit. Oh my God. I cannot believe I've done this'. I know now why he did that. He wanted to see if I would stay and see if I'd go through it. I thought 'honey I'll make you like me'. I've always had that attitude. If you shut a door in my face, I'll find some way to go through it. I always get what I want, but I'm a really hard worker. I busted my tail to get people to like me."

Johns say she got a buzz going about herself, although that was for her songwriting since she was not performing. She worked with Mac McAnally a lot. "It's such a small town. You start talking about somebody, and it gets around in one day."

After about a year, Johns received a surprise phone call from Kimbrell, who told her she needed to go to his office.

"I come to the office, and he said 'we're opening this new label. We want you to go on the road with us'. I said, 'well. I don't know if I should really do that'. He said, 'what you talking about it?' - you're doing it ' - I said, 'okay'. About a month after that, we left and went on the road with Toby."

Johns did about 15 dates with Keith singing a few songs each night. She had not performed at all in Nashville prior to that.

"I had gone from singing in restaurants to doing that. I was so scared. I was cussing and praying at the same time before I got out on stage. I remember (thinking) 'Jesus, please help me' and then I would cuss and (say) 'Jesus, you've got to make me sing good'. It was 20,000 people. I got out there, and it was just like something else took over me. I was made to do this."

"That tour was incredible, and it was the biggest opportunity. Without that, I probably wouldn't be where I am now. I think the world of Toby Keith. He was wonderful to me."

But that did not result in Johns signing with ShowDog Nashville, Keith's label.

Instead, she went with Galante and BNA. "They wanted me to be on their label. I thought BNA would be a better place. I just felt in my gut that's what I needed to do more than anything. I prayed a lot about it. Joe Galante and BNA are the best. You get usually one or two tries to make it. So that's what I felt I needed to do."

"I knew he was the most powerful man in Nashville. I set up with a meeting with him and went over there."

Johns wore a t-shirt that said 'if it ain't fried, I ain't eating it." She wore in pony tails. "I wanted him to see me for who I am. We sit there and talked for two hours."

Galante got in touch that night, offering a record deal. Johns says she told him, 'if I was sitting with you right now, I'd kiss you right on the mouth."

"That was a year ago, and now I have a record," Johns says.

Joe Scaife, who worked with Gretchen Wilson and Montgomery Gentry, produced. Johns had a big hand in the direction of the CD from picking players to the music.

"Just make sure there's fiddle and steel on it, and that's all I care about," says Johns.

She cites Parton, Lynn, Wynette and Womack as influences.

"Like me, she's never really wanted to paint the perfect picture," says Johns of fellow Kentucky native Lynn, who she has yet to meet. "She wasn't afraid to open up...I think it's so neat that she let the audience see who she was. I think that's why I respect her so much and her writing, and she's from Kentucky."

As for Wynette, "I just think that when sang, it came straight out of her soul. She really really lived a tough life."

To Johns, Womack "is incredible. She's very honest in all of her stuff too. Her last record was one of my favorite records that's been out in years."

"She loves my record. She said 'listening to my record was like oh my God, thank you Jesus. Here comes somebody who's going to carry the torch'."

Johns's parents are "completely happy and everything. They just want to keep my heart pure through all of it. That's the main thing to me too. I think this record is the kind of record that could set up a long lasting career. I would like to be here for 10 or 15 years. I know everybody does. I'd really like to be able to do that. I'm so driven and all I care about is my career...The business is so tough."

Come January, Johns could be on a big tour with an unnamed Texas superstar.

"I'm telling you right now, I'm so happy with my life. I love it. I wake up every day and I'm like 'thank you God that I'm being able to do what I love'."

"I love singing more than anything. I feel this is an absolute gift from God that I get to do this."

Does Johns ever have anxiety about how her career will turn out?

"Are you kidding? I feel like that a lot. I know I made a great album. I know it is...But it's so scary because you don't ever know if everything's gong to line up or not line up. It's 'okay hey this single didn't work'. You just have to stay positive. That's what I was saying about being grounded - making sure you're doing this business for the right reasons - not to be famous. Not for the big houses, but it's for the music and it's got to be about that, and that's all."

"It's such a fickle business. It's really scary especially when you want it so bad. I really hope it works out. But you have to work very hard too. I do work very very hard, and I always have."