After a couple of flirtatious false starts, success has caught up with Jo Dee Messina with a vengeance.| In the past year, the New England-raised country singer's platinum-certified, modestly titled sophomore album, I'm Alright, has spawned three country No. 1s, a slot on the blockbuster George Strait Country Music Festival and six nominations at the recent Boston Music Awards. She walked away from that affair with three wins, including the Act of the Year award against a field that included such heavyweights as Aerosmith, Rob Zombie, Paula Cole and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.

But for the twenty-eight-year-old native of Holliston, Mass., who began performing country music in local clubs as a young teen, all roads lead to the Academy of Country Music Awards in Hollywood on May 5.

"I grew up watching the ACMs, and it was always so far away," says Messina, who now finds herself nominated for three ACMs: Female Vocalist, Top New Female Vocalist and Album of the Year. "It's such a big dream that I kind of can't wait to get out there and get a chance to perform on the show. I actually get to perform."

This star-struck attitude is characteristic of Messina. Although hardly an overnight success (she moved to Nashville at nineteen and has been pursuing her career non-stop ever since) she still possesses a sincere, wide-eyed, small-town-girl-in-the-bright-lights attitude towards her acceptance in the country music community. On the phone, she's somewhat shy and prone to words like "golly" when counting her blessings. But in person, meeting with media-types at an informal tea at a New York hotel, she bubbles over with an excited animation that would shame a Rugrat. She's unabashedly mainstream (a die-hard fan of both Reba McEntire and Shania Twain), and songs like "I'm Alright" and the kiss-off anthem "Bye Bye" are modern country pop at its most exuberant and self-assured. Asked if she sees herself as a player or a shaker on the Nashville scene, she laughs at first and says she simply sees her self as "existing," but ultimately concedes, "I hope I'm a player."

It's hard to imagine any contender in the rock world, no matter how mainstream, owning up to playing the industry game. But the Nashville game goes by a different set of rules entirely, wherein virtually any show of rebellion gets you a few good reviews and a boot out the record company -- and radio -- door. Messina's worked too long and hard to get where she is now to recklessly piss off the powers that be. She's dreamed of being a professional country singer since she first started singing in clubs in her hometown at the age of thirteen, and ever since hitting Music Row she's had her eye on the prize. "A lot of people where I come from were like, 'Oh, we'll see you in six months. If you last past six months, you're doing good,'" she says. "There were all types of formulas, but I just got down and met people and started doing stuff, and I didn't have any timelines like that."

One of the people Messina met was singer Tim McGraw, who shared career advice with her and helped her shop her tapes. A year after arriving in town, Messina landed a deal with RCA. Two months later, she lost it. It would be another year of temp work and competing for talent show money before she secured a deal with Curb after cornering an exec at a McGraw show and brazenly telling him the label needed a redhead. "I just made a goofy remark, and after I said it I couldn't believe that I'd said it ... and wished that I hadn't," she says. "But he thought it was cute, thank heavens."

Messina's first Curb album produced a couple of hits before sputtering out and leaving her high and dry without enough songs for a timely follow-up. "I didn't think of packing it in, but I hated being in limbo," she says. "I think we pretty much didn't realize how long it was going to take to find all the right songs for the record. Musically we wanted to show some growth from the first album, but we had to keep it kind of the same, but not ... you know what I mean? It was so difficult to find the songs. That's really what took so long."

The success of I'm Alright has raised the bar even higher for Messina. It's fine to be the first female act in country music history to score three successive multiple-week No. 1 singles, but it sets a dangerous precedent for the follow-up. Currently in the process of recording her third album, Messina still looks to her friend and producer, McGraw, for inspiration. "Tim, every time he makes a record, it's better than the last. And when you think he can't top it, he comes out with something even better. And I hope some of that rubs off on me."

RICHARD SKANSE(April 29, 1999)