Texoma Shore

Eighteen months after If I’m Honest detailed a tough, tabloid-drenched year, Texoma Shore paints a delightfully upbeat portrait of Shelton’s newly peaceful state of mind. The album is billed as a nostalgic tribute to small-town Oklahoma (“I Lived It”, “At the House”), but it’s equally heavy on pinch-me moments inspired, purportedly, by a certain red-lipped lady (“Turnin’ Me On”, “Why Me”). He sounds ready to recreate the bucolic bliss from his childhood on Lake Texoma. “You and me with the same street name/Same last name, same everything,” he sings on the splendidly sappy “I’ll Name the Dogs”. “Laying next to you every night/Sounds like a damn good life.”