Randy Travis photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Nashville.

Randy Travis has recorded the perfect country album.

There is not one out-of-place note nor one false emotion on his superb new Around the Bend collection. His vocals have never sounded more expressive, better phrased or more soulfully shaded. The CD's production is a model of crisp clarity. Each instrumental texture is placed just right.

And then there are the songs. Each seems tailored to suit one mood or another of his sublimely burnished baritone. The bopping "Every Head Bowed," for instance, is one chuckle after another, while "From Your Knees" is a midtempo pounder full of drama and despair. The rocking "Til I'm Dead and Gone" is a working man's lament with a red-hot guitar groove. Around one corner, you'll find "Dig Two Graves" as a ballad of deepening love. Around another, there's the wryly amusing toe-tapper "Everything I Own (Has Got a Dent)."

Travis gives the lilting melody of "Love Is a Gamble" a soft and beautifully subtle delivery while the track sparkles with sighing steel guitar and lovely piano flourishes. Backed by cool fiddle work, his voice eases into slippery highs and lows while toying with the bluesy tune of "Around the Bend." Few artists could be more convincing singing the stunning, cautionary lyric of the ballad "You Didn't Have a Good Time." He rides the punchy rhythm track and moody melody of "Turn it Around" like a master, and even adds a slightly jazzy tone to the Bob Dylan classic "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right." "Faith in You," the album's debut single, is an extraordinarily emotive performance that alternates moments of meditation with flashes of passion.

"There are so many songs on here that I feel good about, which is a wonderful thing," comments Randy Travis. "A lot of people in interviews will ask, 'How do you put an album together?' The way I like to do it is to spend about a year looking for the right songs. That way you have the opportunity to really take care with a record. I don't know how people can say, 'This month we're going to look for the songs and then record them next month.' I don't know how people can do that, but some do.

"And finding those songs doesn't get any easier. Years ago, when producer Kyle Lehning and I started working together, Kyle said to me, 'You know, I want to help you make the best records we can make. But ultimately it boils down to you singing the songs. So if you don't love it, don't do it.' And that's still what it kind of boils down to. If I don't absolutely love it, I don't record it.

"What's been amazing, too, is that he and I have been in agreement almost all of the time. There have been only a few exceptions to that over the years. It's been an interesting relationship.

"As for my singing, I've always had the freedom to do little phrasing things. It's just that as the years go by, I tend to -- for whatever reason -- experiment more with melodic things within the songs and change phrasing here and there. I have a great time doing that."

His heartfelt vocals are the envy of his industry. George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn and Willie Nelson are just a few of the legendary vocalists who have sung with Randy Travis. His singing strikes home with fans as well. To date, he has sold more than 21 million records and is one of the 10 top-selling solo country artists of all time.

During the past five years, his music has brought him some of the highest accolades of his career. In 2003-04 his gospel collection Rise and Shine won both a Grammy Award and a Gospel Music Association honor. Its single, "Three Wooden Crosses," became a No. 1 smash and was named Song of the Year by the Academy of Country Music.

"When that song made that number-one spot and then started getting nominated for awards, I think it surprised us all," says Randy. "I got the song from singer Michael Peterson, who had it first. He thought it would fit me as a singer. And, boy, I'm happy he did. Kyle and I were finished with my album, but we went back into the studio to do that one song. That's how strongly we felt about that piece of writing.