After a hard day on the road, Deana Carter's ready to wind down.

Calling from Louisville, Kentucky, she's a little miffed at her bus.

It's been misbehaving again. "Don't get me started ..."

There's no questioning how beautiful Deana Carter is, but she doesn't think it affects things that much. "I don't care about gender or looks. Everybody's the same, man. Everybody's equal."

Like Tim McGraw, she's got a famous daddy. Fred Carter Jr. played guitar on Marty Robbins' El Paso and Simon and Garfunkel's The Boxer, for starters.

"He travelled the road with people like Roy Orbison and Ronnie Hawkins. I think that was the key. He gave me a wide appreciation of music."

Which explains the pop sensibility of Did I Shave My Legs for This?, Carter's breakthrough album.

"I'm proud of growing up in Nashville, but I'm very in love with rock and pop and blues and R&B, too.

"I'm a '70s fanatic." So that's where the trademark bell-bottoms come from. And last time Carter blew through Edmonton, she performed barefoot.

"Oh yeah, man, I'm totally into that."

Her philosophy is simple enough: "I think it's healthy to keep a well-rounded set of influences around you. If it's impossible to be totally original, you might as well be diverse.

"Dad was probably the only parent in America that did not want me to go to college." But go she did, and picked up a degree in rehab therapy. Then, country.

"I could use it now. When I got out he was like, `Now we can go on with it.'

"Not that I am comparing myself to these people at all, but Springsteen and Elvis give a lot of good lessons on how to deal with it all. What they made of it was their choice. Sometimes you say no."

That can mean to drugs or even bad tunes. Carter's learning that, writing for her new album.

"I'm a little bit nervous. But I won't let bad songs be on the record. I will wait a year if I have to.

"I don't want filler. I'm a fan, too. I hate when I go to a record store and there's nothing there. It's a betrayal."

Deana Carter plays Big Valley Sunday night at 7.