A bigger twang

Nashville hitmaker Lee Ann Womack has a few pet peeves. Here's one of them: ''Nothing irritates me more than seeing someone at college age decide to become a country singer," she says.

Womack certainly didn't wait that long to make her decision. She can't even remember when she didn't want to be onstage. As the daughter of a country disc jockey in East Texas, she was indoctrinated early. She helped pick out some of her dad's songs -- and then came her Dolly Parton fascination.

''I remember watching Dolly Parton on TV as a kid and thinking, 'If this is what country singing is all about, then I want to do it,' " says Womack, who opens Toby Keith's ''Big Throwdown II" tour, along with Shooter Jennings, at the Tweeter Center tomorrow.

Womack, 39, has become a vital advocate of traditional country music. Her biggest hit was the inspiring ballad ''I Hope You Dance," a No. 1 country song that also crossed over to the adult contemporary charts in 2000. But after some observers claimed that she became a little too slick with her next album, she responded with her latest (and fifth) disc, ''There's More Where That Came From," a persuasive return to neo-traditional style with twangy country-rock tunes and heartfelt ballads.

''Ever since Shania Twain and Faith Hill, there's been this unspoken expectation in Nashville that females should be beautiful, pop-crossover goddesses," says country historian Robert K. Oermann. ''But Lee Ann is a real country singer who is drawing on the Dolly Partons and Loretta Lynns of old."

Womack's latest album has a hazy, retro-looking cover photo of herself designed to remind listeners of Tammy Wynette's original covers.

''I collect old album covers," says Womack. ''I have a lot of them framed. I've got covers of Tammy records and Jeannie Seely, Dottie West, Connie Smith, and Dolly and Loretta, all hanging on my wall."

Womack accented her commitment to country's roots by releasing the album on vinyl as well as on disc. And she debuted the record by performing all of its songs at a show in Nashville's hallowed Ryman Auditorium, where country's legends used to play.

''She did a wonderful job at the Ryman," says Jay Orr, senior director for museum programs at the Country Music Hall of Fame. ''The new album is a real statement for her. It is saying, 'Here's who I am and here's where I'm going.'

''Lee Ann has always impressed me as being an artist who is as deeply into the music as she is into the prospect of stardom," adds Orr, who also is the executive director of the Journal of Country Music. ''She has a real integrity and she has always championed great songwriters like Buddy Miller and Rodney Crowell."

Womack has also done enough living to back up her choice of songs about the vagaries of love. Her album includes the ruthlessly honest ''Twenty Years and Two Husbands Ago," an autobiographical song that she co-wrote. It has the worldly-wise verse, ''Water under the bridge / I guess that's all life really is."

She's already had two hits from the record: ''He Oughtta Know by Now" (fleshed out with acoustic guitar and mandolin, it's about a woman who felt alone for many years and finally left her husband); and the cheating song, ''I May Hate Myself in the Morning," which has a classic, Ray Price feel.

She didn't write either of them, but she can relate to their themes.

'' 'I May Hate Myself in the Morning' is essentially a country booty-call song," says Womack. ''It couldn't be more different from 'I Hope You Dance' (which was about her two daughters). But I'm a grown woman, and a lot of women are grappling with these issues."

What also distinguishes Womack, apart from having some real-life ups and downs, is her expert knowledge of country music. ''I heard it early," she says. ''Like most kids, I was at the mercy of what was around the house to listen to -- and in my case, my dad was playing Buck Owens and Bob Wills. . . . Then I remember seeing Asleep at the Wheel and the Playboys in different offshoot groups. By the time I got to high school, I was listening to a lot of George Strait and you could go to the honky-tonks and see Gene Watson and Conway Twitty. . . . And then Reba McEntire was probably the first female act that I'd go see."

A few critics have questions whether Womack could hold her own on the ''Big Throwdown II" tour with the gruffer Keith and Jennings, but they needn't worry.

''The three of us are having a lot of fun jamming on the buses after the show," she says. ''We sing old George Jones and Ray Prices tunes and whatever. We have similar tastes. It's been great."

Lee Ann Womack appears with Toby Keith and Shooter Jennings at the Tweeter Center tomorrow, 7:30 p.m. Tickets $28.50-$64.75, 617/508-931-2000.