"I'm not on the dark path - yet,'' Albertan-in-Nashville Duane Steele smiles.

Thanks to a fairly publicized divorce after 12 years of marriage, Steele gets ribbed about that one a lot.

Making music in Nash Vegas is a taxing business. Sometimes things get muddled and sometimes they get downright dirty.

But, thankfully, sometimes you can walk away from it all and still feel like living.

"I guess it's all perception,'' the friendly cowboy from Hines Creek perceives. "But reality out here is people get treated pretty much according to what they put in. Luck helps, too.''

Steele, playing Cook County tonight, is a little more in control than, say, newcomer Wade Hayes, who recently expressed frustration at the fact that super-producer Don Cook has the final say on his cuts, even though it's Hayes' name on the record.

"A lot of people have to wait their turn,'' Steele says. "They occasionally sell out to become stars.

"I'm hoping the key will be to hang tough.''

Well, Steele's had five hit singles and enough nominations to get him noticed. As his second single off his second album, If I Could Just Get to You, is in the top 10. The album, This Is the Life, hardly speaks of a man on the tail-end of desperation. I've talked to Steele three or four times and this is the happiest he's sounded.

"You look at your work as a songwriter and ask yourself, 'Am I past Songwriting 101, or what?' I think I am. That and just the whole music thing keeps me going.''

Now Steele's new Montreal girlfriend wouldn't have anything to do with all of this, would she? I mean, it's one thing to have a really good night or two of songwriting at Nashville's honored Bluebird Cafe, but all this joy has to come from the heart.

"For sure. That's a definite to keep you going through things. I'm weak, I admit it,'' he laughs.

"She lives in Montreal and she's a video director.

"You know, it just kind of happened. Before we knew it, it was, like, hey, what's going on here?''

Sort of like life, is this.

Well, good news comes in threes. New girlfriend. Hit single. Maybe Steele's about to get his long-awaited break after all. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Catch Steele at Cook County tonight.