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Two of Georgia's finest contributions to contemporary country music — one a native and one a transplant — are releasing superb new albums today.

Monticello-born Trisha Yearwood is back with her first new album since 2001's "Inside Out." Following a welcome trend, "Jasper County" feels more country than anything she's done in a decade. Perhaps it's only fitting, as the title pays tribute to the county where she was born.

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Trisha Yearwood, 'Jasper County'
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Patty Loveless, 'Dreamin' My Dreams'
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COUNTRY REVIEW Trisha Yearwood "Jasper County." MCA Nashville. 11 tracks. Grade: B Patty Loveless "Dreamin' My Dreams." Epic Nashville. 12 tracks. Grade: A-

Yearwood's pulled back from the slick adult-contemporary strains of her late '90s work. The first two tracks, "Who Invented the Wheel" and "Pistol," are signs of the great things to come. The first is a slow-burning bluesy search for someone to blame for the end of a relationship. It's among the best showcases for her rich, velvety voice that she's ever recorded. And Yearwood sounds like she's having a blast on the rollicking "Pistol."

Some of the ballads still bear traces of blandness, but nothing is as vapid as her Diane Warren-penned hit "How Do I Live." I'll take the sweet and lovely "Georgia Rain" any day.

Georgia-based Kentuckian Patty Loveless was ahead of the return-to-traditionalism curve. Even in the '90s, she never strayed far, but she went back to her bluegrass roots with 2001's critically lauded "Mountain Soul." That mountain soul stuck with her through 2003's "On Your Way Home" and the new "Dreamin' My Dreams."

Loveless' voice doesn't have the lush texture of Yearwood's, but it has a bigger and bolder country spirit. Contemporary country doesn't get much more moving than "On the Verge of Tears." From the moan that leads into the first verse to the way her voice breaks on the word "verge," it's one of the most poignant country tracks of the year.

She takes "Keep Your Distance," a heartbreaker by British folk-rock legend Richard Thompson, and paints it in the colors of Appalachia. Fellow Kentucky native Dwight Yoak-

am duets on a bluegrass-infused cover of the 1971 Delaney and Bonnie hit "Never Ending Song of Love," giving it the feel of a front-porch singalong. Give this album a few spins, and everything on it will have you singing along.

As she approaches her 20th year in the big leagues — her debut was released in 1986 — Loveless is making some of the best music of her career. And Yearwood gets better as the years go by, too.

"Dreamin' My Dreams" and "Jasper County" are a pair of real peaches.

Patty Loveless will be inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame Saturday at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta (ticket info at 770-934-0906).

Trisha Yearwood plays Atlanta Symphony Hall Oct. 17.