Nineteen years ago, George Jones questioned country's fate via "Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes." He dropped names like Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Conway Twitty - all of whom are now gone.

Those shoes of which Jones eloquently sang remain largely unfilled. Who will come next? George Jones, meet Joe Nichols.

With his new album, the aptly titled "Revelation," Nichols appears well on his way to making a name for himself.

Served 11 tall glasses of the real thing, Nichols knocks'em back like a seasoned pro. Not since Alan Jackson has country music heard a voice on par with Joe Nichols'. Set'em up, Joe.

Laid-back opener "The Shade" sets a low-key tone, which Nichols follows with a perspective-setting "Singer in a Band." Ego vanishes as Nichols touches ground with an easy-does-it dose of country common sense in this song co-written by Mechanicsville native Tim Mensy.

There's meat in Nichols' music. For example, Harley Allen's message-riddled ballad "If Nobody Believed in You" finds Nichols square in the center of several ongoing - and head-scratching - controversies. "We take His name out of the schools, the lawyers say it breaks the rules," Nichols sings softly. "Pledge of Allegiance can't be read and under God can't be said." Now that's cracking a hit.

Elsewhere Nichols ably covers Gene Watson's "Farewell Party," revs a fiddle-flaying "What's a Guy Gotta Do" and falls to his knees on a repenting "Revelation," the latter from the mighty pen of Bobby Braddock.

Nichols heralds hope for the future of country music. He stands upon the shoulders of country's greatest singers, and looks forward to a future in which the real thing becomes the thing again. A

- Tom Netherland