Trace Adkins 'X (TEN)' album

Capitol Records star Trace Adkins is gearing up for the release of his 10th studio album, X (the Roman numeral for 10), which hits stores November 25th. The album features his current single, "Muddy Water," a "soul-stirring ballad about the power of redemption." The accompanying music video stars Trace's "Celebrity Apprentice" co-star, actor Stephen Baldwin, and is now airing in heavy rotation on CMT and GAC.

In the coming weeks, Trace will grace the pages of Billboard, Road King, Country Weekly, People, First Magazine and the Associated Press to name a few. He'll be hitting the small screen for a performance on the 42nd Annual CMA Awards, airing live from Nashville on November 12th at 8p (ET) on ABC-TV.

You can also catch him on GAC-TV's "Trace Adkins: X (Ten) Days" (a special that chronicles his recent USO trip to Iraq and Afghanistan), as well as on the 82nd Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on November 28th on NBC-TV, Fox News Channel's "O'Reilly Factor," the syndicated "Bonnie Hunt Show" and on TV Guide Network's "Hottest Stars Of Country Music" special, just to name a few. Check local listings for air dates and times.

Trace Adkins biography
Since he showed up in the country music world in 1996, Trace Adkins has been a relatively quiet but absolutely undeniable force in country music. At times his career has seemed to be almost under the radar. But with strong, memorable foundational hits plus subsequent #1 singles like 2006's "Ladies Love Country Boys" and 2007's "You're Gonna Miss This," Adkins, with minimal fanfare but a considerablerange of triple-strength music, has evolved into a bona fide country music superstar.

When speaking of his fans, Adkins says there are "Bandonkadonk people" and then there are "'Every Light in the House' people." The first group, named for Adkins' 2005 monster hit "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk," respond most readily to his songs that are big, bold, witty, fun -- the kind of high-impact, scrupulously well done productions that immediately, within their opening bars, announce themselves as modern country music extravaganzas.

The second group are more likely to rally around Adkins' first top-five hit, from 'Dreamin' Out Loud', his platinum-selling 1996 Capitol Nashville debut. These people love the way a song can more deliberately present itself over the course of three-and-a-half intense minutes soaked in the stylistic verities of country music traditions. But Badonkadonk people and Every Light people usually get along fine: With his commanding voice singing everything into a compelling whole, Adkins has no trouble seeing to that.

At 46, Adkins remains the same guy from Sarepta, Louisiana who, after singing in a gospel group and attending college and working on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, moved to Nashville in the 1990s and eventually made a name for himself in the country music business with that memorable '96 debut. There is no question, though, that since 2008, when he appeared as a contestant on NBC's 'The Celebrity Apprentice' and wound up one of two finalists, Adkins and his music have become more widely known.

"I'm glad now that I did it," he says of his appearances on 'The Celebrity Apprentice.' "I went into it reluctantly. The only reason I did it was because of the food allergy situation, and because that's such a personal cause for my family." He is referring to how he chose The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network to receive any winnings of his from the show, and how his 6-year-old daughter is one of the millions of children and adults who must contend daily with potentially life-threatening food allergies. "The last gasp of every entertainer whose career is in the crapper is to do reality TV, and I certainly didn't want my appearance there to be viewed that way. But, happily, it hasn't turned out be like that."

In late 2007 Adkins released the second best-of collection of his career, following 2002's 'Greatest Hits Collection, Volume 1.' It was entitled 'American Man: Greatest Hits Volume II.' Where the first set featured smashes like "I'm Tryin' (2001) and other songs that had come after his #1 masterstroke of groove and grit "(This Ain't) No Thinkin' Thing,' (1996). 'American Man' featured songs for the Badonkadonk people and the Every Light people like 2002's "Chrome," not to mention the "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" lollapalooza itself. The set also featured 2005's "Arlington," which moved Adkins into the realm of current events and history.

Also in late 2007, Adkins wrote a book. "A Personal Stand: Observations and Opinions from a Freethinking Roughneck," it was called. Although he spelled out his political-social views, the book made sense for Adkins, an artist-entertainer who says he "abhors" show business "soapboxes."

"I've just got this pet peeve about artists in general," he says, "whether they be actors or writers, painters, singers, whatever, who think that because of what they do that they're more enlightened in some sense, that they're more in touch with that deeper spiritual side than everybody else. I resent that. I don't agree with it. I think that it is a pious attitude. I don't like to go to a concert and hear someone get up there and preach his or her political opinions. It's not what I came for. If you want to do that, write a book." So Adkins did just that.

After all of this, Adkins returned to the music – the very thing that communicated, along with his concerts, all the articulate passion and views and charisma, whether they were specifically on the table for millions of listeners or not -- that made him Trace Adkins, country star, to start with. He has recorded a new collection of songs. X, his tenth album, does indeed collect songs for the Badonkadonk people and the Every Light people. These are songs like "Sweet," which turns a common national expression into a tight and particularized country tune, and "I Can't Out Run You," a vocal tour de force about the weight of romantic obsession in which Adkins records a haunting country soul song, in 2008, Sinatra-style.

"I'm not afraid to do stuff like that," Adkins says of the song, "and we've done stuff like that live, we've just never recorded that starkly. I told Frank that on this one I wanted the vocal to do the work, and carry the entire load, that's the way I want to cut this and put my voice out there and let the chips fall where they may."

It is the highlight of a collection teeming with other highs. There is “Hillbilly Rich,” a brilliantly fun song about how country stars live it up materially like rap stars, but with perhaps less blinding bling, and there are gospel- and bluegrass-sired songs such Adkins' 2008 "Muddy Water" single, as well as "Sometimes a Man Takes a Drink." These songs show how both sides of Adkins' music work with a great stylistic cocooperation: “Hillbilly Rich” wouldn't be nearly as good without the rooted center of Adkins' steady, nuanced baritone, and “Sometimes a Man Takes a Drink” could be tradition merely without his ability to infuse heritage styles with modern tensions and vibes. And the album features as well a song like "Till The Last Shot’s Fired," which looks at military history and personal sacrifice and in which Adkins' vocal is ugmented by the rare presence of the West Point Cadet Choir. "We had to go all the way to the Pentagon," Adkins says, "to get permission to record with them." An energetic tune built around a heavy guitar lick -- Adkins introduces the song as "a little funkabilly" -- called "Better Than I Thought It'd Be" and a thoughtful orchestrated ballad, "All I Ask For Anymore," round out the album.

When he travels these days, Adkins says, he gets recognized more than he used to be before he performed so well on 'The Celebrity Apprentice'. Along with the consistent accumulation of his signature music over the years, Adkins' television appearances have further revealed him as the smart, articulate singer his recordings have always indicated that he is. Of course, the “Badonkadonk” people and the “Every Light” people already knew.

What’s clear now, though, is that a dozen years into his career, Trace Adkins is not just an undeniable country music force. With his larger-than-life personality, steely determination and proven ability to compete in other medias, he’s a force that will continue to come.

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Trace Adkins - X (TEN)