There's been a lot of disparaging ink thrown in the direction of new country, hot country or whatever-you-want-to-call-it country over the last couple of years on these pages.

Image seems to be way more important than substance these days down in Nashville, and the process of putting out new records with twang seems to be about as complicated as slapping together a greasy burger at the local fast-food joint.

Which is why it's nice to see an act like Deana Carter's, who opens for Alan Jackson tonight at the Coliseum, getting a lot of attention. Although she's inarguably as much pop music as country, she steps up to bat with a lot of credibility, not to mention talent, and obviously one hell of a record collection.

The best part is she seems to come by it all naturally.

But seeing as we're talking about image, Deana talks on the phone about hers, specifically on last week's Academy of Country Music Awards.

"I was a big mess!'' Carter says with a big laugh. "I was freaking out because the girl who normally does my hair wasn't around and there's this huge awards show going on and I'm in the back, head in a sink, washing my hair.

"I've learned to carry Pepcid (antacid) on the road.''

Nonetheless, Carter emerged from the mist like the figurehead on a beautiful ocean liner and performed a Celine Dion-style ballad.

She was previewing one of the songs from her upcoming sophomore album, still title-free, in front of all of country's royalty. And though born in Nashville and around music all her life, Carter had this going through her head: "What am I doing here?

"I mean, you don't want to throw up in front of everybody in country music. Five buckets stage right, please!'' she laughs again. As you can tell, Carter's pretty silly, but she did take her song seriously.

"Olivia Newton-John was in the crowd and I sang to her. She's such a hero of mine. That was a thrill.

"You always try to pinpoint someone in that vast crowd in these situations and it was a pleasure to sing to her. She seemed to like the performance.''

Her new single's out in June and the follow-up to Did I Shave My Legs For This? is hitting the shelves, tentatively, in August. (She's honored to be parodied recently by Cleetus T. Judd's Did I Shave My Back For This? incidentally.)

"I'm still going the way I have been,'' she says, meaning pop-sensible music that ends up in the country section. The kind of stuff you hear on the radio and don't know what station you're on, but you turn up the volume nonetheless.

Oh, if you're interested, Carter came out unscathed from Nashville's recent disastrous storm, though her mom's car lost its windows in the affair between the land and the air.

"My parents were safe,'' she says gratefully, obviously having heard the question a few times. Carter's dad, by the way, is a famous session guitarist. You can hear Fred Carter Jr. on Marty Robbins' El Paso, and on Simon and Garfunkel's The Boxer.

See what I mean by it all coming naturally?

Now, Carter may not have the bare-armed muscle of Jackson, but she can put on a great show, last evidenced by her sunflower of a performance last summer at Big Valley.

Of America's favorite truck-advertising cowboy, she says: "He's the real thing." But they don't get to hang out that much.

"He flies home a lot.''

Geez, I thought he'd drive one of those big red trucks, for sure.

Catch the two of them tonight. Tickets are still available (though not too many) at 451-8000.