It has taken eight years for The Hushpuppies band to release its second independent CD, but lead vocalist Todd Cowart said fans will find the wait to be more than worthwhile.

Sweet Magnolia follows the band's 2001 acclaimed album Songs from the Big House ; not a reference to Reidsville State Prison, but rather to the band's sharecropper's shack rehearsal spot south of Millen, Ga.

"This new CD blows the first one out of the water," Mr. Cowart said last week from Bogart, Ga., where he works as a mortgage consultant for Wells Fargo.

A CD release party will be held at 8 p.m. Friday at the Country Club nightclub, 2834 Washington Road. Tickets are $5. Copies of the CD will be available for $5.

The title cut is a country kicker that is worthy of any major country label.

Mr. Cowart sings of bluegrass artist Doc Watson in Carolina, Tootsie's nightclub in Nashville and other Southern landmarks, and then notes, "But it ain't that sweet magnolia. Man, it's the way that she holds you that keeps Georgia on my mind. She keeps Georgia on my mind."

You can hear that song and also This Old Town (about Mr. Cowart's growing-up years in Millen) and Free As A Bird (a tribute to the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd) at myspace.com/thehushpuppies.

Other band members include Mr. Cowart's brother-in-law Matt Thomas on lead guitar, Cary Cooper on drums and Jared Stubbs on bass guitar.

Some of the band members came together for a benefit in 1997, but the band really gelled in 1998.

Ben Roberts, of Waynesboro, Ga., writes of the band on the CD jacket of Sweet Magnolia , "They are storytellers, road-weary troubadours, in the likes of REK (Robert Earl Keen) or Waylon (Jennings) himself. You don't have to live below the Mason-Dixon to appreciate their sound, but you'll be reminded of why you do every time you hear 'em play."

I loved the Hushpuppies' first CD and have been writing about the band since February 2002. They've become one of the few area bands without a hit single to consistently pack large nightclubs such as the Country Club.

Mr. Cowart said it was intentional to make this new CD as much of a Southern theme as possible.

"Alan Walden, former manager of Lynyrd Skynyrd, told me one time at a show in Macon, 'If you can make an album that brings dignity to the South and its people, you'll have something.' We have certainly tried to do this with Sweet Magnolia and are extremely optimistic about where it will take us."

It looks like the Hushpuppies have pulled off a good album with Sweet Magnolia . It's a powerful tribute to the South but an even more of a powerful statement to this fine band.

Don Rhodes has written about country music for 38 years. He can be reached at (706) 823-3214 or at don.rhodes@morris.com.

HUSH, PUPPIES

WHAT: Hushpuppies CD release party

WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday

WHERE: The Country Club, 2834 Washington Road

COST: Tickets are $5. Copies of the CD, Sweet Magnolia, also will be available for $5