Trace Adkins - Greatest Hits Collection - Volume 1 (2003)

The optimistically titled GREATEST HITS COLLECTION VOL. 1 encapsulates the first seven years in the career of Trace Adkins, who made a huge splash on the country scene with his 1996 debut. That auspicious album is represented by the hits "(This Ain't No) Thinkin' Thing," "There's a Girl in Texas," and "I Left Something Turned on at Home," all of which presented Adkins as the acceptable face of new country, polished enough for '90s Nashville, but with roots enough to give him credibility (he'd even done some time in a gospel group).
Successive albums followed an essentially similar path, mixing ballads and honky-tonkers in equal measure. The title track of 2001's CHROME strays a bit from the pattern, sounding like a mix of Shania Twain and Steve Miller, but one of the two new, previously unreleased tracks is the brightest indication of Adkins's future. "Welcome to Hell" is a post-9/11 song that's miles ahead of Alan Jackson and Toby Keith's efforts toward that end, replacing breast-beating jingoism and intellectual laziness with a much more subtle, even humorous approach well-served by Adkins's rich baritone.