The last time I spoke to Jo Dee Messina she was doing the laundry in the basement of her Nashville home. Well, three years have gone by and the redhead with the raucous laugh has since rung up double platinum sales of her sophomore CD I'm Alright. She's scored four consecutive Top 10 singles and, with the release of her third album Burn, she's poised to attack the charts again. In fact, the new album's first single, That's The Way, may enjoy the same type of crossover pop success that Faith Hill had with Breathe. In three short years, Messina has certainly come a long way from the washer.

"That's so funny", she laughs. "Right now I'm downstairs on my cell phone, kneeling at my suitcase, folding my clothes. We're flying to a gig this weekend so I'm packing my bags. I guess you and I have some sort of a clothing connection happening.

"I'm really excited about That's The Way. It would be cool for it to have the same success as Faith's song. There's been some discussion down here about whether That's The Way is pop or country, but that's not going to change what I am. I'll always be country. Dolly Parton has been on the pop charts so it's not really about swapping formats. It's just that more people are listening to your songs."

That's The Way is a track that advocates the philosophy that if something doesn't kill you, it will make you stronger. Messina sings about having "crashed and burned in order to live and learn", a line she can certainly relate to.

"My first album came out with the single Heads California, Tails Carolina. That song did really well but then we had three singles stiff off of that record. When we stopped getting airplay, we couldn't get any work. I had all these buses, employees and other expenses and, at Christmas time in 1997, my manager, accountant and lawyer drew up bankruptcy papers for me. My mother was living with me and I couldn't let her know we didn't have money for Christmas. I held off signing the papers and, thank heavens, due to radio and the fans things started to turns around for me with the song Bye Bye. So, yeah, I know what it's like to have crashed and burned badly."

Bye Bye led to Best New Artist Awards for Messina from both the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music. In addition, the Massachusetts native beat out the likes of Aerosmith, Paula Cole and Rob Zombie at the Boston Music Awards. ("Yeah, it was like who is this country bumpkin", she jokes) In the last year, Messina has found time to do some acting, having appeared in the TV series Nash Bridges and Touched By An Angel. She has also written some original songs, two of which have been snapped up by Julie Reeves and LeAnn Rimes. Messina's main focus, however, is her new record and she's particularly pleased with a new song called Bring On the Rain, which features Tim McGraw on guest vocals.

"Tim and I have been friends since before either one of us ever had a record deal," she says. "He's produced all of my albums. For years I've wanted to sing something with him, but he's got his life long duet partner in Faith Hill. When he heard Bring On The Rain, which is about finding hope in the darkest hour, he loved it so much that he wanted to sing on it with me. He's like a brother so it would have been weird to do a love song together."

Aside from Bring On The Rain and the title track, Burn is an uptempo album that provides great fodder for Messina's powerful live show. Songs like Closer and There's Nothing I Can Do (her current show closing number), take the singer and her audience to another energy level.

"When choosing the songs for the record I think about how they will go over on stage. Can you dance to it? Can I get down to it?, that type of thing. My shows are pretty exhausting. There's no 'Hey, I'm a beauty queen up here'. It's all about entertaining and having fun with the audience. It doesn't matter what it looks like when I walk on stage. I always come off looking like I just crawled out of a lake. I'm sweating, my make-up is running…it's gross but it's fun."

Given Messina's self-deprecating wit, it's not surprising that her infamous laugh is her calling card. You can even hear a little giggle in the opening notes of one of the new tracks, If Not You.