Kellie Pickler is ready for large-scale breakthrough

Kellie Pickler The Woman I Am Black River B+

Kellie Pickler’s best weapon is her self-awareness. Pickler knows her strengths and who she is as an artist, one who follows the country path of Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton and, to a degree, Tammy Wynette. Her albums have shown a steady artistic growth and confidence.

Thanks to her Dancing With the Stars triumph, Pickler is positioned to make a long-overdue breakthrough with a large audience. Nowhere does that growth show better than with the album’s feisty title song, co-written by Pickler and hubby Kyle Jacobs.

The song that’s likely to generate a big buzz is “Ring for Sale,” a terrific kiss-off tale of revenge. She takes her cheating fiance’s engagement ring and puts it up for sale: “I gotta get out ’fore he finds out/And I’ll throw in the dress for free.” Hot tracks: the single “Someone Somewhere Tonight,” “Ring for Sale,” “The Woman I Am.” - ELLIS WIDNER

Brandy Clark 12 Stories Slate Creek A-

Singer-songwriter Brandy Clark’s 12 Stories is considered by many music critics a lock for country album of the year when music associations start handing out awards. The Washington native is a key member of a new wave of Nashville songwriting professionals that includes her writing partner, Shane McNally. She has helped write hits for Miranda Lambert (“Mama’s Broken Heart”), The Band Perry (“Better Dig Two”) and Kasey Musgraves (“Follow Your Arrow”). Clark’s penchant for bleak musings makes a move to the front of the microphone an imperative and, sure enough, 12 Stories is loaded with songs about drugs-as-relief (“Get High”), comparing religion with the lottery (“Pray to Jesus”) and cheating (“What Will Keep Me Out of Heaven”). Nashville used to be much friendlier to cheatin’ songs, but today Music City is enthralled by tailgate parties and the screams generated by Luke Bryan’s tight jeans.

Clark has an unerring gift for details, such as the veteran with the old pit bull and trunk full of drugs in “Take a Little Pill.” She’s got an exceptionally dark sense of humor (the protagonist of “Stripes” refrains from killing her cheating ex because she wouldn’t look good in prison orange).

What 12 Stories doesn’t have is a distinct musical footprint, which might be a must to give Clark’s acidic observations as wide a berth as possible. But, goodness gracious, this is a slow album, and Clark’s voice, while clear and capable, isn’t packed with nuance. For that reason, the lovely work that Ashley Monroe and Musgraves offer, in the end, is greater reward.

That’s not to say a country marketplace isn’t a much, much, much better place with Clark as an alternative.

Hot tracks: “Hold My Hand,” “What Will Keep Me Out of Heaven,” “In Some Corner.”

• WERNER TRIESCHMANN

Old Baby Love Hangover Karate Body B-

Louisville, Ky.-based Old Baby whips up a swirling mass of blues-tinged, atmospheric rock on these eight songs.

Think tense, fever-dream moodscapes with curious rumblings happening just below the surface, like a hungover and more interesting Black Keys, and with more tension. The only drawback is that much of it is singularly paced and it takes a while for the tracks to distinguish themselves. The patient will be rewarded, guaranteed.

Hot tracks: The modern-world drudgery of “Tired,” the churning opener “Into the Earth.” - SEAN CLANCY

Randy Travis Influence Vol. 1: The Man I Am Warner Bros. B+

Here is a low-key collection of covers from the great baritone and one keeper of the flame of traditional country. Randy Travis, who has been recovering from a stroke this summer, walks through a catalog of tunes that lean toward country greats such as Merle Haggard and Lefty Frizzell.

The surprises are the original tribute to George Jones (a duet with Joe Nichols called “Tonight I’m Playing Possum”) and the jazz-lite takes on “Big Butter and Egg Man” and “Pennies From Heaven.” The best, like Frizzell’s “Saginaw, Michigan,” are where Travis can harness the easy power of his voice. But some are just flat out duds - Jones’ “Why Baby Why” doesn’t have near the speed it needs. The best news is that Travis is on the mend and so maybe there will be a Volume 2.

Hot tracks: “Saginaw, Michigan,” “I’m Always on a Mountain When I Fall.”

• WERNER TRIESCHMANN