Blake Shelton may have chosen the amusing title "Pure BS" for his fourth album, but it's the "pure" part of the name that most aptly describes the music. To get that "pure" sound, Shelton pushed himself harder than ever before as a singer and as a writer and stepped out of his comfort zone in the studio to work with some first rate producers who pushed him even more. The end result, Shelton believes, is his best album to date, and one that has already spawned the hit single "Don't Make Me."
As an artist, Shelton has shown steady growth and momentum since his impressive 2001 debut, which earned him the title of Radio & Records magazine's breakthrough country artist that year. His hits run the gamut from the sweet sentiments of "Austin," and "The Baby" through Shelton's powerful take on "Goodbye Time" and on to the hilarious "Some Beach" and the wildly original prison break story song, "Ol' Red." The collection of songs on "Pure BS" is equally diverse, ranging from "She Can't Get That" -- a cheating song with a twist -- to the funny "The More I Drink," in which alcohol turns the song's character into "the world's greatest lover and a dancing machine." Among the album's other standout tracks are a remake of the edgy Chris Knight/Craig Wiseman song "It Ain't Easy Being Me," and the sing-along anthem "The Last Country Song," which features guest vocals from two of Shelton's all-time heroes, John Anderson and George Jones.
"I will never stop looking for that next level of my career and how to get there, but not for the reasons that a lot of people want to get there," he says. "I'm not chasing a dollar and I'm not trying to be the king of the mountain. I want to be that guy who, when some old guy is driving down a back road somewhere 20 years from now, he still has one of my old CDs that he's been listening to all that time. "I want to make those albums that [last] forever that people never throw away. When they break it they go buy another one because I sing songs that they really relate to and my music means something to them. That's what I'm chasing."
