Lee Ann Womack Autographed 93Q T-shirt and media pass.

When Lee Ann Womack walked onstage to accept the 2005 Country Music Association Album of the Year Award for There’s More Where That Came From, she wasn’t striking a blow for modern country music. She’d already won Single of the Year for “I May Hate Myself in the Morning” and Vocal Event of the Year for “Good News, Bad News,” her duet with George Strait – and that night spoke pretty loudly about the things that the petite Texan with the pure voice valued: great songs, real life and classic country music.
         

“You don’t ever make records to win awards – or even to make big statements,” says the woman who’s won six – including Female Vocalist of the Year -- and been nominated for 20 CMA Awards. “You’re trying to catch a moment of someone’s life, and in my case, make the best kind of country music you can, because country music – to me – is real life.”
           

Not that Womack’s kind of country doesn’t blur formats and cross genres. Her ubiquitous 6 week #1 “I Hope You Dance” was heard on every kind of radio station except Urban, and her duet partners range from Willie Nelson to Harry Connick, Alan Jackson to the Blind Boys of Alabama, Buddy Miller to George Strait.
           

She has also cut songs from progressive roots writers Julie Miller, Jim Lauderdale and Bruce Robeson, as well as young writers like Natalie Hemby, Marla Cannon and Waylon Payne and legends Dean Dillon, Ronnie Bowman and Rodney Crowell – and written the seminal “Twenty Years and Two Husbands Ago.” For the mother of two, it comes down to one thing: “Trying to be true to the music, the story and what I can sing>”
           

Womack comes by her mission honestly. Raised the child of a pair of teachers, her father was also a country music disc jockey who would take his small daughter to the radio station where he was on the air near Jacksonville, Texas. It was there that the Grammy-winner was exposed to the best classic country music: Nelson, Merle Haggard, Western swing, vintage Dolly Parton and Ray Price.
           

A stint at South Plains Jr College in Levelland, Texas – the first college that offered a country music degree – led to a stint at Belmont University’s Music Business program. But the Grammy Award-winner’s heart was always in making music, and it wasn’t long before she’d found an internship at MCA Records and a songwriting deal at legendary music publisher Sony/Tree.
           

With her firsat album yielding the breakout hit “The Fool,” as well as the pristine Wurlitizer jukebox feeling “Never Again,” Womack found herself established in a big way Winning the Academy of Country Music Top New Female Award and Billboard’s Top New Artist, she was on her way.