•   COUNTRY

Kellie Pickler , 100 Proof (BNA/Sony) ★ ★ ★  1/2

Pre-release buzz touted Kellie Pickler’s third album as one of the top-down best Nashville releases since Lee Ann Womack’s traditional There’s More Where That Came From seven years ago. I’ll add that a major label won’t release a more authentic or better country album in 2012 than Pickler’s surprisingly terrific 100 Proof.

Yes, that Kellie Pickler. The American Idol fifth-season finalist and Taylor Swift friend, on her two previous mainstream country-pop releases, never hinted she could go head to toe with old classic honky tonk albums from her idols Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton and Kitty Wells.

100 Proof is Pickler’s Coal Miner’s Daughter, an album in which she leads with the musical question, Where’s Tammy Wynette, and, on the subsequent 10 cuts, feels like Wynette’s spirit has been reborn in the plucky 25-year-old.

Pickler gets some help from producer Frank Liddell, who has worked with traditionalists Womack and Miranda Lambert and who ensures that pedal steel, banjo and fiddles sit high in the mix — a rarity for an album marketed to twang-free country radio. But give Pickler credit, too, for co-writing a number of 100 Proof’s best tunes with respected writers like Dean Dillon and Leslie Satcher and for sharing material with sharp detail such as the road song, Little House on the Highway. (“I finally found a radio station that’s keeping me awake/And just when I like what I hear playing is when it starts fading away.”) The short acoustic coda, The Letter (To Daddy), recalls Parton’s spoken-word The Letter, which opened her 1972 LP, My Tennessee Mountain Home. Parton read a letter she wrote to her parents in 1964 upon first landing alone in Nashville. Pickler is equally heartfelt as she addresses her father, who was in prison for much of her childhood, and the pain she felt. But she takes pride in his eventual growth. “With your back to the bottle, you’re finally facing me/And dad I wanna tell you that I’m proud of you for never givin’ up on us.”

Pickler’s 360-degree departure from plastic Nashville country-pop on 100 Proof makes her one of country’s leading ladies.

Yes, that Kellie Pickler.

Download: Where’s Tammy Wynette, Stop Cheatin’ on Me, Rockaway (The Rockin’ Chair Song).

Tim McGraw, Emotional Traffic (Curb) ★ ★  1/2

Tim McGraw’s 11th album, Emotional Traffic, should have been out in the fall of 2010, but the 12-song set got caught in a legal traffic jam when his label, Curb, shelved it while the parties battled in court.

McGraw pronounced Emotional Traffic “my best album ever.” One could make a convincing argument for Set This Circus Down (2001) as his true high point. But Emotional Traffic is undeniably miles better than the country star’s last release, 2009’s forgettable Southern Voice.

Emotional Traffic represents a bit of stretch for McGraw. The arrangements are built on modern rock guitars and a harsh, overly bright sound mix could make this painful on headphones. Instead of the usual Nashville session players, McGraw adds members from Foo Fighters, Paul McCartney and Alanis Morissette’s bands. He also duets with R&B singer Ne-Yo on the smooth pop number, Only Human. None are better than Right Back Atcha Babe, a sun-kissed slice of late ‘70s-styled California pop.