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“LOVE ON THE INSIDE” Sugarland (Mercury)

Back in the early ‘90s, country music was full of plaintive storytellers, singer-songwriters who were sensitive to the fact a great country tune starts with the characters.

But then Garth Brooks came along with big hooks played so slick you could grease a frying pan with them. He moved the country music from honky-tonks to arenas.

By the time we got tired of Garth, we were used to the idea that country stars were meant to write soaring anthems.

Somehow Sugarland manages to blend the stadium-sized swagger of Big and Rich with the uncomfortable intimacy of Mary Chapin Carpenter and have America love them for it. Heck, “Love on the Inside” knocked Miley Cyrus off the top of the Billboard charts.

Sugarland does it with a witch’s brew of country tradition and good old-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll.

Lead singer Jennifer Nettles sings with enough twang to melt the heart of any boy who ever dreamed of meeting a Southern belle. She’s Miss Scarlett with honey blond hair and the voice of a Homerian siren.

Damn if Kristian Bush’s mandolin doesn’t sound high and lonesome. Plus, he’s mastered Johnny Cash’s chugga-chugging guitar.

The duo’s songs introduce Gretchen Wilson’s blue collar rowdy to Lucinda Williams’ psyche-probing tales of love and obsession. The hooks would put tears in Bono’s Guinness. And the choruses brim over with big, bold rock ‘n’ roll riffs that share as much in common with Bon Jovi as Brad Paisley.

“Love on the Inside” pulls all these elements better than Sugarland’s two previous records, both of which sold more than 2 million copies.

Thanks to being recorded live, the record sounds more organic than most of what Nashville is putting out right now. But don’t take the lack of polish as a sign of backwoods leanings. The lyrics tend to favor a more metropolitan version of life, eschewing the rural country of Miranda Lambert.

Yet Lambert might be the best artist comparison to the duo. They’ve got fire when they need it, wit in reserves and enough sass to pull you through an album’s worth of music without looking at your watch.

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Sugarland in action

Check out Sugarland live in November in Fort Myers at the Lakeside Country Bash. Tickets for

the Nov. 8 show at Lakes Park,

7330 Gladiolus Drive, Fort Myers, are on sale now at www.ticketmaster.com or Estero Community Center,

9200 Corkscrew Palms, Estero.

$35 in advance; $40 at gate.