After years of playing at talent contests, bars and weddings, Angela Hacker finally made her breakthrough by winning the USA Network's televised talent show, Nashville Star. For her first album, the 29-year-old Alabama native has given fans something they'll recognize -- a collection heavy on songs she sang on the fan-voted competition.

The Winner Is… revisits classics that pushed Hacker to the top of the competition, but here they are enjoyed in full-length form. With vocals that sound like a marriage between Wynonna Judd and Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles, Hacker is a welcome addition to the country music landscape and it will be intriguing to see which direction she takes her talent in the future.

The girl is all country, and was born to sing this style of music. "Love Me Wild," the disc's opener, is an original that Hacker co-wrote and it's a great intro to her style. It's an enthusiastic, freestyle song about cutting love lose and following your heart instead of your head. Hacker's attitude shines through on every note and makes it a pleasure.

Nashville Star fans will recognize several cuts in the lineup, and also will appreciate being able to enjoy them in their full-length form. Excellent renditions of Deana Carter's "Strawberry Wine" and Aretha Franklin's "Do Right Woman Do Right Man" appear early on, but it's her makeover of the Bonnie Raitt classic "I Can't Make You Love Me" that really jumps off the disc. She delivers a beautiful acoustic rendition that makes her normally sassy voice sound vulnerable and wistful.

Of course, fans all know that Hacker and her brother, Zac, who made it all the way to the finals with her, both have been writing and performing most of their lives. On The Winner Is… she treats us to the catchy "Emotionless," which has the feel of some of Sugarland's better work. Anyone who's ever passed a former flame on the street will relate to this song, which feels like a country cousin to Jann Arden's 1995 hit, "Insensitive."

Further showing her songwriting skills, Hacker delivers "Total Loss," a song that she first introduced on Nashville Star and which sounds even better here. It's a tasty, twangy song that finds her discovering a strength she didn't even know she had after a devastating breakup. As she goes down the checklist of what she's gained, the loss suddenly doesn't seem so great, and she gives a couple of great zingers that will make some ex-boyfriend, somewhere, cringe when he hears it.

She closes out the album with a trio of covers -- Barbara Mandrell's "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool" and Linda Ronstadt's "When Will I Be Loved" are followed by another Nashville Star flashback. Her duet with brother Zac on the Black Crowes' "Hard to Handle" is an unexpected addition to a country disc but, just as they did on the show, the siblings make it work. They attack this cut with everything they've got and, while it's just this side of country, it's a great way to make an exit.

By Paula Felps