Trisha Yearwood, "Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love" (Big Machine), A-

Even 16 years ago, as a young adult starting her career, Trisha Yearwood was exceptional at delivering songs that probed the tangled emotions of adult relationships. On her 12th album, "Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love," she shows how she's grown even more effective with experience.

Her alto can soar with the strongest and loudest, but typical to this Georgia singer, what makes her so powerful is how she uses her tender upper range and her growling lower register. As one of Nashville's best singers in front of an orchestra or solo piano, she breathes layers of emotion into ballads as well-conceived as "The Dreaming Fields" and "Help Me." Similarly, few singers rock with as much ferociousness as Yearwood does on the title song or cop a groove with as much feistiness as on "Drown Me."

Yearwood has never been the most prolific or hardest-touring artist, and she's slowed down more since her 2005 marriage to singer Garth Brooks. To her credit, she continues to make every album an event worth celebrating - as "Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love" truly is.

Oh yeah!!