When Jack Ingram won the 2008 Academy of Country Music award for "Best New Male Vocalist," thousands of people in the audience had to be smiling to themselves about that whole "new" thing. They knew the thirty-something, steel-eyed veteran accepting that trophy on that stage in Vegas had been rocking roadhouses, theaters and stadiums relentlessly since 1997, that he'd been celebrated by critics and fans of hard-core country music for more than a decade, and that as a Texas-born songwriter and performer, he'd been on the short list of next generation artists who could fill the boots of Lone Star legends like Willie and Waylon and the boys.

But the award did mean that Ingram, after trials and setbacks that would have buckled other artists, had at last matched the commercial success he'd always wanted with the integrity on which he'd always insisted. So he told the crowd with no small measure of pride and triumph that night that "big dreams and high hopes" can come true.

Now, as if to validate and amplify that truth, Ingram remains in the forefront of country music with the album Big Dreams & High Hopes, the seventh studio disc of his career and his third for Nashville maverick indie label Big Machine Records. Its eleven tracks range through the many facets of Ingram's unique take on country music and songwriting. There's the textured and contemplative "Seeing Stars" sung in ethereal tandem with Patty Griffin. You'll find a couple of superb roots rocking country songs Jack wrote with compadre and mentor Radney Foster. And you've probably already heard the swimming hole party anthem "Barefoot and Crazy" which quickly became a radio smash and a soundtrack for the hot summer of 2009.

The position that Foster enjoys in the country music landscape is remarkable. Mainstream country music and independent Americana tend to occupy separate orbits. Yet for 24 years Foster has thrived in both as a songwriter, recording artist, live performer and producer. His songs--solo, with Foster and Lloyd and recorded by other artists--have topped the country, Texas, Americana, and AAA charts alike. At the same time, he's earned the respect of his peers and a devoted audience as intent on listening as they are eager to dance.

Foster's latest release, Revival emerged when the Texas native plunged into the rolling waters of change--his father's death and the end of his twelve-year, 5,000-mile separation from his son--and came up with renewed conviction.

Arriving a full decade after the intensely personal See What You Want To See and recorded with the same trusted studio team (Darrell Brown and Niko Bolas), the twelve songs on Revival are a solid bookend to the watershed record.

True to its title, Revival is the boldest and most spiritual thing Foster has done to date. But it would be a mistake to pigeonhole it strictly as a gospel release; what Foster is preaching here is the gospel of truth, and having the guts to choose love over fear. And like any good revival, this one will have you dancing, crying, laughing and ready to testify. Like he sings in the opening and closing track, Amen to love.