Mark Chesnutt

With early-'90s bar-room memoirs both funny ("Bubba Shot the Jukebox") and not so funny ("Too Cold at Home"), Mark Chesnutt was one of the last in the George Jones line of bona fide honky-tonkers to find real major-label success (Chesnutt's dad was actually one of Jones's running buddies). These days, Chesnutt maintains an active career on the regional dancehall circuit. Produced by longtime Dwight Yoakam right arm Pete Anderson, Chesnutt's latest album, Outlaws, honors the previous generation of do-it-our-own-way troubadours: Willie ("Bloody Mary Morning"), Waylon ("Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line"), Kris Kristofferson ("Sunday Morning Coming Down"), Hank Jr. ("Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound") and Billy Joe Shaver ("Black Rose"), among others. Pick of the litter, though, is an arresting duet with Amber Digby on '70s country-rockers Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show's Shel ­Silverstein-penned ballad "A Couple More Years."