Kracker’s country comfort

Uncle KRACKER knows that even on his third solo album it will be tough to creep out of the rap-metal shadow of Kid Rock, his former boss and close friend. Oddly, he’s trying to do so by following Kid’s footsteps into country music.

Rock’s “Picture” duet with Sheryl Crow was a huge country and pop hit two years ago. Kracker (real name: Matt Shafer) got a taste of success with his duet appearance on Kenny Chesney’s recent “When the Sun Goes Down,” which marked the first time in more than 20 years that an artist without a previous country history was featured on a No. 1 country single.

With the release of his album “72 and Sunny” on June 29, Uncle Kracker will be moving even further into the country world.

Chesney returns the favor and is featured on the album’s song “Last Night Again,” which will be promoted as a country single. And starting in late May, Kracker will be the opening act on Chesney’s arena tour that will run through September.

“I’ll get bored if I just did the same thing,” says Shafer, who previously broke the mold of the Rock-associated rap-metal image by becoming a staple on adult contemporary and pop radio with his breezy singles “Follow Me” and a version of Dobie Gray’s ‘70s hit “Drift Away.”

“I did that thing with Kenny last year and the reception was good,” he says. “Some of this new record was written before that thing got released, so it wasn’t really planned to go more country. I don’t ever really plan anything. But I always have liked that country tinge. I did do more of it this time around, but I don’t know how it happened. I always liked that pedal steel, even from my first record. I’m moving in that direction just because. Maybe I’m just getting old.”

The music initially, he says, was inspired by the Band and Jerry Jeff Walker, acts that straddled the country and rock lines. What he ended up with reminds him of the folky lilt of Rod Stewart’s early-’70s solo breakthrough, “Gasoline Alley.” The music also is likely to remind fans of Steve Miller and Jimmy Buffett in places.

Shafer knows it’s a risk to focus the first months of touring around the album on an audience that may not be that familiar with him, despite the “When the Sun Goes Down” success.

“I don’t think they know me, but maybe that’s me not giving them enough credit,” he says. “I don’t know what they’re expecting. I don’t think I’ll do any of my rap stuff. Don’t aim to freak anyone out. I won’t cuss, probably. That’s mainly it.”

Brian Phillips, senior vice president and general manager of the Country Music Television cable channel, doesn’t think he has much to worry about, as least as far as the country audience’s embracing him is concerned.

“He’s everyman, with a capital E,” he says. “Look at him in the video. There’s one of him at every party. The audience certainly took to the song with Kenny.”

CMT helped bring Kracker and Chesney together in the first place, booking the former to perform on a concert special headlined by the latter. The channel was also a big supporter of that single, and Phillips eagerly awaits a video for the new duet.

“I hate bells and whistles,” Shafer says. “I like songs. Gimmicks? I don’t have one. I’m not good-looking. Not skinny. Not anything. I just like writing songs.”

And the banned played on

As a pop culture historian, Peter Blecha has some discouraging observations for those supporting the Federal Communications Commission’s recent crackdowns on indecent or obscene material coming in the wake of Bono’s inadvertent expletive, Howard Stern’s standard crassness and, of course, the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction.

“Looking at centuries’ worth of censorious efforts, they have almost always failed,” says Blecha, who spent more than eight years recently as senior curator for Paul Allen’s Experience Music Project in Seattle. “It’s a hopeless cause.”

That’s a conclusion he reached in the course of writing “Taboo Tunes: A History of Banned Bands & Censored Songs,” a book exploring the contentious controversies of several generations of pop music, scheduled for publication by Backbeat Press in June.

From Elvis’ hips through Janet’s body jewelry, he says, attempts to quash even extreme forms of expression in the context of art have generally backfired -- not that he isn’t sympathetic with those who believe that the public has a right to be shielded from things that cross certain lines.

With the current run of events, it seems Blecha’s publication timing is perfect. But he notes that it would have been just as perfect last year with the controversy over the Dixie Chicks’ criticism of President Bush, or a dozen years ago with the Ice-T “Cop Killer” controversy. And actually, he finished the book before the Jackson flap flapped -- he’s supplementing the book by chronicling ongoing developments on his new website, www.tabootunes.com.

“I keep coming back to the thought that what a coincidence this is, or isn’t, that this is happening in an election year,” he says.

For those who think the crackdowns are excessive, though, he does remind about earlier eras.

“In ancient Rome, if you were the censor and felt a balladeer in a tavern was mocking the Empire or singing blasphemous tunes, you could impose death sentences by clubbing,” he says.

Makes a $500,000 fine seem almost lenient.

Music for guys to go wild by

Little has been pointed to as an example of moral decline in recent years as much as the “Girls Gone Wild” video series which documents spring-break debasements of all-too-willing coeds.

So it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that someone in the music business would want to link up with the name brand.

Jive Records has done just that, with a “Girls Gone Wild” tie-in compilation album due July 13.

The collection includes such theme-appropriate songs as Dirtbag’s “Dirty Woman,” Too $hort’s “Shake that Monkey” and Shaggy’s “Sexy Body Girls.”

Curiously, there’s only one actual girl going wild among the artists represented, with Kelis’ steamy “Milkshake.”

So guys who want to watch girls would rather listen to guys?