Billboard (Jan. 12th 2010)

Blake Shelton “Hillbilly Bone” Album Preview

Blake Shelton's raucous duet with Trace Adkins, "Hillbilly Bone," is proving a strong lead-in for Shelton's new project. "I honestly feel it's my debut album," Shelton says. "I'm at the highest point in my career so far, so I know that's an odd thing to say, but I just feel like this is me completely, finally knowing what I want to do and who I am as an artist." "Hillbilly Bone" is Shelton's sixth studio album, but the Oklahoma native says Warner Bros. is taking a different approach with the new release. "They are doing a thing called a 6 PAK," he says of the six-song set. "It will end up being a few different album releases throughout the year . . . It's a cool concept. It will be [released] right before Christmas." Produced by Scott Hendricks, "Hillbilly Bone" includes songs written by Rhett Akins, Craig Wiseman and Shelton's girlfriend, Miranda Lambert. "I cut a lot of stuff my friends wrote," Shelton says. "Miranda and Hillary Scott [from Lady Antebellum] sat down and wrote a song. They played it for me to get me to [do] the guitar/vocal for them and I made them promise not to give it to anybody else. It's called 'Suffocating.' It's a love-gone-wrong song."