After the big success of his freshman album in 2005, Macon native and country star Jason Aldean felt the foreboding cloud of the "sophomore jinx" hovering over him.
"I didn't have a lot of fun recording that second album," he said recently by phone in advance of his appearance Friday at Wild Bill's. "I began second-guessing myself."
Despite his misgivings and mixed reviews, that album, "Relentless," generated two Top 10 hits ("Laughed Until We Cried" and "Johnny Cash") and got him past the hurdle of being a one-album wonder. It also freed him up as he worked on his third record, "Wide Open," which comes out today.
"I went into this latest album with more of a frame of mind I had with my first," he said. "Have fun. Trust my instincts. I don't sit around beating myself up."
Aldean, 32, was not an overnight success. A Warner publishing company representative discovered him doing a gig in Atlanta in 1998. Aldean signed a deal to be a songwriter and moved from Macon to Nashville.
But he had greater aspirations, eventually garnering a recording deal five years later. Ironically, he has only written a handful of songs for his three albums.
"I'm a singer first, songwriter second," he said.
"If I write something that's good enough to be on the album, I'll be the first one to go to bat for it. But if it sucks, I'll be the first to say that, too."
His current single from the new album, "She's Country," a propulsive, honky-tonk–style song, is No. 7 on the country charts and the fastest-rising song of his career so far. It's his sixth Top 10 hit.
"It was something that came late in the album," he said. "It was a different sounding song." Then he joked, "I'm from Georgia, man. We talk kind of a slow down there. It had a lot of words in it!"
Aldean was able to launch the single at the CMA Awards telecast last year, a rare situation where an awards show gave a middle-of-the-pack artist a shot to introduce a new song. "CMA needed something uptempo for the show," he said. "I think that helped get us on the air."
He also feels he sounds better on this album than the last one.
"We were playing so many shows," he said. "I was coming in off the road for a week, 10 days straight, then spending two days in the studio. My voice never had a chance to rest."
This time, he rested his voice before recording "Wide Open."
Aldean is loyal, too, using the same musicians he met a decade ago in Nashville.
"They've played me all my demos. They got me my record deal. They've been right there with me from the get-go."
Aldean is excited about singing the national anthem Friday at the home opener for the Atlanta Braves.
"I used to go to Braves games all the time," he said. "That was my main reason to go to Atlanta when I was 18, 19 years old. That, and the bars!"
IN CONCERT
Jason Aldean. 9 p.m. Friday. Wild Bill's, 2075 Market St., Duluth. $22-$97. www .ticketmaster.com or 404-249-6400.
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