Jo Dee Messina

Jo Dee Messina didn’t waste much time in leaping to the loftiest rung of the country music ladder — right from the start her songs were chart magnets. It probably didn’t hurt that a whole lot of gals could identify with the redheaded spitfire’s stance as a strong — but still sexy — woman of the world. On “My Give a Damn’s Busted,” she’s a no-nonsense lady proudly puncturing the balloon of a faithless lover’s lies. “Bye Bye” is Messina’s carefree kiss-off to the ruins of the toxic relationship receding in her rearview mirror. But Jo Dee’s realm isn’t all romantic-train-wreck territory — she gets all worked up revealing her soft spot for tattooed, leather-clad road dogs on the racy, rockin’ “Biker Chick.”

The sassy country siren shows her softer side, in Next Steps.

Sure, Jo Dee made her name in Nashville as a brash, outspoken girl — the kind with no qualms about wrapping her arms around an eye-catching new L.A. arrival fresh from his Wichita home, and telling her hunky new boy-toy “You’re Not In Kansas Anymore.” But there are other sides to the country siren’s story too. She taps into a deep-seated sense of spirituality to marvel at all the Lord’s earthly miracles on the ballad of wide-eyed wonder “That’s God.” And she leaves all the romantic bust-ups of the past behind her to open her arms and heart wide when the man of her dreams becomes a reality on “Welcome to the Rest of My Life,” an ideal wedding song if ever there was one.

When Jo Dee Messina emerged in the mid-’90s, it wasn’t easy for new country gals to get noticed, what with the likes of Faith, Shania, and Martina casting such a long shadow. But Messina was star material from the start, scoring hefty hits straight out of the gate. And when she continued charging up the charts with the records that followed, it wasn’t because she was country’s flavor of the month — her success stemmed from that most crucial of qualities for all great artists: honesty. Whether she’s the gal done wrong, relishing visions of vengeance on “Lesson In Leavin’” or just a sentimental soul savoring the spirit of Christmas on “A Joyful Noise,” she’s always 100-percent Jo Dee, and that kind of open-book approach resonates far and wide. Fans will find all their faves in our Messina montage, but Jo Dee newbies will discover exactly what they’ve been missing all this time.