Album's No. 1, singles are nowhere, and Gretchen Wilson is angry.

Byline: Brian Mccollum

Aug. 4--Gretchen Wilson got her big Nashville break with a defiant approach to country music songwriting and stardom.

Now she's turning that defiance back on Nashville itself.

Three years after becoming one of the decade's biggest breakout stars with the feisty hit "Redneck Woman," Wilson enjoys a triumphant career that is worlds removed from her early life in trailer-park poverty. She says she's found a new comfort -- and creative freedom -- on the concert stage, where she's spending her summer with a recently reconfigured band.

But Wilson remains restless. Despite the No. 1 showing for her recent third album, "One of the Boys" -- what she describes as easily her best work yet -- she's bristling at what she views as disrespect from the country radio establishment: Not one of Wilson's last seven singles has cleared the top 20 of the country singles chart.

Heading toward Michigan for a Sunday show at DTE Energy Music Theatre, the 34-year-old singer-songwriter talked with the Free Press about her frustration, her own musical growth and her friendship with Detroit star and fellow country-rock renegade Kid Rock.

Q: How are you feeling about the reception to the new album and songs?