And the Crowd Goes Wild
A reliable, if unspectacular hitmaker, Georgia native Mark Wills serves up country for the karaoke set--folks eager for a momentary thrill of emotion, but not necessarily steeped in the tradition of the genre. His newest delivers the expected populist rewards, including a snappy title song that works the testosterone charge of NASCAR into a theme of self-empowerment, and a Southern rocker tribute to long-distance truckers, "Prisoner of the Highway," a duet withRonnie Milsap. The former points up one of Wills’ strengths--a knack with rhythmic novelty songs a la 2002’s hit, "Nineteen Somethin’."  But mostly he excels at heartfelt family values, as in "What She Sees in Me," which gives mother, wife, and daughter equal time. If the latter seems cloying, things get even sappier on the closer, "Singer in a Band," in which he deflects the hero label in favor of ordinary folks who’ve made real sacrifices. That’s country, of course, but it’s also the very definition of why so many folks run screaming from the format.--Alanna Nash