Tracy Byrd - Keepers: Greatest Hits (2000)

This journeyman country singer hails from the same East Texas stomping grounds that produced honky-tonk greats George Jones and Mark Chesnutt. Tracy Byrd puts a slightly smoother, more contemporary spin on his twang and has yet to forge a musical identity as distinctive as the aforementioned masters. Yet his expansive, burnished baritone can effortlessly fill the dance floor with feet or your beer with tears. Versatility is the operative word with this vibrant, somewhat uneven 11-track collection that surveys the commercial high-water marks of Byrd's seven-year recording career. With assured confidence, he covers all the dancehall mood swings, from the rollicking humor of "Watermelon Crawl" and "Lifestyles of the Not So Rich and Famous" to the world-weariness of "Heaven in My Woman's Eyes" and the romantic dreaminess of "Keeper of the Stars." Byrd's only sin is that at times he makes it all sound a little bit too easy.