Country soul. It's not an oxymoron in 2008. James Otto can prove it.

Listen to his recent No. 1 single, "Just Got Started Lovin' You," and the way his bourbon-and-molasses voice caresses the lyrics to deliver a tune for breezy Southern nights. One spin is proof enough that Mr. Otto deserves a second shot at stardom. He sounds like a merger of Hank Williams Jr. and Ray Charles, channeled through Travis Tritt and Willie Nelson, then dotted with Ronnie Milsap and Conway Twitty.

"The reason that I play country music today is Hank Williams Jr. He made country music cool to me," says the 34-year-old by phone from his home in Nashville. "Prior to that, it was what my grandparents were listening to, the gospel stuff. Not that I didn't think those things were cool. But when you're a kid, those things aren't cool to you. Even Willie Nelson ... the style of songs that he wrote and he picked were very much R&B-influenced and jazz-influenced."

He pauses for a moment, as if to set up anticipation for his kicker, and then says this: "Country music is nothing but the white man's blues. I want to sing the blues the way I feel them, and country music is where I'm coming from."

Sunset Man, Mr. Otto's breakthrough second album, co-produced by John Rich, brings country soul into the age of iPods and digital downloads. Through the course of 11 songs, the Washington state native injects plenty of rock 'n' roll swagger into his brand of barroom twang. But he never ignores his full-throttle R&B muse.

On the power ballad "For You," Sunset Man's upcoming second single, Mr. Otto achingly captures the pain of letting go and moving on from a failed relationship. He explores temptation and infidelity on the scorching "When a Woman's Not Watching." And before he closes the disc, "The Man That I Am" finds the rhythmic balance between love and lust.

Sunset Man is Mr. Otto's shining second chance, a rarity in the music business. A founding member of Nashville's famed Muzik Mafia, the eclectic consortium of artists that produced Gretchen Wilson, Big & Rich and Cowboy Troy, Mr. Otto was the first to secure a record deal. It was 2002, and he was signed to Mercury Nashville.

His first single, "The Ball," a touching story song about life's pivotal failures, stalled at No. 45. Three more tunes from his debut disc, 2004's Days of Our Lives, were released, all stiffs at radio. Mercury dropped him from the roster.

"Gretchen Wilson and Big & Rich blew up, and my record went away without a whimper," he says. "The opportunity to succeed wasn't really there. I probably wasn't ready. The artist development that happened over the course of the next few years led me to make the best music of my life. I learned a lot of lessons with all the things that happened at Mercury. I need to be myself. In the end I will be happier that I did that, and if I'm successful, even better."

And now, six years after his inaugural single, Mr. Otto is finally armed with a hit single and album. He's now lived enough to color his art. Plus, his soul quotient's sizzling.

"During the course of the last record to this record, I got married. That was a big life change. All the different life experiences that happened to me in the last five years have changed me as a person, certainly as an artist. It made me pliable and hard in the ways I needed to be. It made me a better artist."