Half a lifetime ago, a young Australian singer broke onto the country, and later, pop charts. Another of country music's young new singers, Sherrié Austin has a pop/country crossover style that makes one wonder if perhaps she might not be too far away from following in the footsteps of Canada's current girl wonder, Shania Twain, if not that famous Aussie (Olivia Newton-John, and yes, I know she's British by birth) in becoming a frequent visitor to the top of both pop and country charts.

Words was her debut album. Although "Lucky in Love" from it was very appealing, this CD didn't make an impression on me when it was released, perhaps because I was less attuned to country music at the time. You might want to click on the CD title or cover and see how many of the songs YOU recognize, or try the RealAudio or high quality MPEG music samples.

Sherrié's new CD, Love In The Real World contains the big hit "Never Been Kissed" (.... I've never been touched / Baby 'til I felt your touch / Your love's goin' to my head so fast / Just like the bubbles in a champagne glass.... I like the "wild-eyed poetry" and "rough around the edges" lines too. Sherrié wrote or co-wrote all but one of the twelve songs included here.

They're all pretty catchy, but for what it's worth, "Little Bird," "Sarah," "Dreaming Out Loud," "Heart Hold On" and "Heart To Heart" especially grab me. The words to the title track "Love In The Real World" ring through the catchy melody. "That's No Way to Break a Heart" looks to me like a surefire single down the road, a pretty ballad that particularly lets the instrumentation show through along with Sherrié's pretty voice.

Hmmmmmmmm. Eight big winners in my book... sure, I'm becoming easy in my old age. I think not. Rather, I think what we're listening to here is a CD with a lot of good music on it.

Sherrié has made Nashville her home and is touring to venues both large and small to promote her CD's as well as to meet her fans. My experience is country performers not only go the extra mile, but a LOT of extra miles in that effort. I missed her performance at the Old Shawnee Days festival early this summer, but caught Sherrié at an in-store appearance in Independence, Missouri, where she and her band performed most of the songs from the then brand new Love in the Real World.

If you're interested, here is Sherrié Austin Official Web Site.

Her site at her record company is at Twang This! (part of Arista.)