It once took a true sensation, something akin to Charlie Daniels' "Devil Went Down to Georgia," for a country artist to make noise on the pop charts.

These days, it's become commonplace for Shania Twain, Alan Jackson and the genre's other top vocalists to vie for chart supremacy with such popular acts as Eminem, Norah Jones and the Dave Matthews Band.

In fact, three of the six top-selling discs in the United States last year belonged to country artists Kenny Chesney, Gretchen Wilson and Tim McGraw.

Credit Clint Black [ tickets ]--not Garth Brooks--for busting down the invisible barrier that stood between the country world and the pop charts. His 1989 debut, "Killin' Time," was an unprecedented smash that truly paved the way to platinum success for Brooks, Jackson, McGraw and every other pop-savvy cowboy who followed. That debut produced four No. 1 hits, sold more than 2 million copies in roughly six months and helped its author clean house at that year's Country Music Association Awards.

Black remained the biggest star in country music through the release of 1990's double-platinum "Put Yourself in My Shoes" and, although he was soon eclipsed by Garth-mania, he continued to be a model of consistency throughout that decade. With the exception of his holiday album, 1995's "Looking for Christmas," each one of his releases in the '90s was certified gold and/or platinum. Black looks to add to his collection of precious metal with the upcoming CD "Drinkin' Songs and Other Logic," which hits stores on Oct. 4.

Black recently spoke to liveDaily from a tour stop before playing the Big Valley Jamboree in Camrose, Alberta.

liveDaily: Your last effort, 2004's "Spend My Time," is a pretty great record. But it's definitely a little more subdued and mellow than some of your previous outings. Judging by the title of "Drinkin' Songs and Other Logic," it sounds like you're feeling a little bit more rowdy and ready to kick up your boots. Am I right on that forecast?

Clint Black: I don't consider "Spend My Time" so mellow, but I've got a limited perspective, of course, and distorted objectivity. I think "Drinking Songs and Other Logic" is along the same lines--some up-tempo songs, a few ballads. But it's more honky-tonk. More stone country. I think that's the best way to define it. It's really just honky-tonk country.

Do you tackle any other country styles on the album? Or is it all within the honky-tonk boundaries?

With the exception of one song, I would say that the music is all very, very squarely within [honky-tonk] parameters.

I have to state that the title initially surprised me. You've got a pretty squeaky clean image. You certainly don't come across like a hard drinker.

In terms of hard drinking, I've certainly had my moments--but they were just moments.

Besides releasing "Spend My Time" last year, you also reissued your first Christmas album with a few additional tracks. The album (originally titled "Looking for Christmas and re-released as "Christmas with You") has been on my winter-weather playlist for years. Was a holiday disc something that you'd always wanted to record?

I had agreed to do one and, when it came time to do it, the thought was that it would be fun to try and write Christmas songs that felt as timeless as the ones I grew up with. So, I tried to go the full range, from orchestral religious ballads about the birth of Christ to children's songs that felt like the Appalachian versions of "Rudolph" or "Frosty" to the love songs like "Under the Mistletoe." I tried to create that type of diversity. What I found was that Christmas is as deep and rich a subject for a writer as love. I could have just gone on and on. There's so much to write about.

"Drinkin' Songs" will be your second album you've released during an 18-month window. But, before that, there was a five-year break between recordings, from 1999's "D'Lectrified" to 2004's "Spend the Night." There was a lot of speculation that the reason why you put out the unplugged "D'lectrified" was because you felt disenchanted with the state of country music at the time. Was that speculation correct?

No, that wasn't really true. What happened was that, right about when Clapton's "Unplugged" album came out, RCA and my managers had worked out a deal where I would do an unplugged album as an additional album in my contract. I agreed to do it. It wasn't until a few years later when they said they wanted it. By that point, everybody and their cousin had done an unplugged album.

Yeah, even Tony Bennett had done one.

Yeah. I thought, "I don't really want to do this now." My manager said, "You really need to think about it. You agreed to do it. So, try to think of some way to do it that would make it interesting for you." I kept resisting the urge to go back to him and say, "It's not interesting and I don't want to do it and let's find something else that we can do for [RCA]."

I suddenly had this really inspired idea that I would do an unplugged album, but, unless you were told it was an unplugged album, you wouldn't know. The idea was that I was going to find every kind of substitute instrument to put where an electric instrument would normally go. I would try to create the same dynamic of a regular studio album, which would have electric guitars and such, and not use a single electric instrument. I didn't know if I could do it, but I decided it would be a good challenge. It was the first project that I had produced on my own and, as I got into it, I realized that it was really a daunting task and a frightening one.

So, if you weren't disenchanted with the industry, why did you take such a lengthy break?

It was because we [Black and wife, TV actress Lisa Hartman] had a baby. I was going to do "Spend My Time" [earlier] but, when the baby was born, the record company and I decided to put out my second greatest hits collection, because it would require less of my time. I ended up taking the first three years of [daughter] Lily's life off and just touring enough to keep the band in beans, you know?

By the time I'd finished "Spend My Time," I didn't realize that it had been so long [since the last record]. I didn't realize it until I was doing an interview to promote the record and somebody said "Well, it's been five years since your last record." And I did the math real quick in my head and I was kind of astonished. I thought maybe three and half years, maybe 4. But it was right on 5 years. Then I had that little worry in the back of my head, because you always hear folks say, "If you go away for too long, people will forget you."

While on the subject of memory, I clearly remember hearing your debut single, "A Better Man," for the first time back in 1989 and thinking it was a new tune by one of my favorite artists, Merle Haggard.

One of the great moments in my career was when I first met Mel Tillis. Mel said he had heard my new song ("A Better Man"), and when he heard it on the radio he thought to himself, "Merle sounds good." He said that's how much I sounded like Merle. That's a big compliment.