Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Give Kellie Pickler this, she passed that sophomore jinx problem with flying colors.

And her journey to a third album will bring her to Lancaster Thursday night.

Kellie is performing at 8 p.m. at the American Music Theatre. And when I checked at about 2 p.m. Tuesday, plenty of mezzanine seating remained, though the orchestra seating is just about sold out.

Tickets are $52; Thursday’s show starts at 8 p.m. You can go here for ticket information.

Kellie comes to Lancaster with a new single, “Tough,” which was released in June, but has yet to crack the top 30 on Billboard’s country singles chart.

The song was written by Leslie Statcher, specifically for Kellie, based on conversations she had with her.  She said it’s only the third time she’s written a song specifically for an artist, the previous two being “Troubadour” for George Strait and “You Remain” for Willie Nelson.”

Said Kellie: “She knows me, she knows my heart and she captured who I am.”

In several interviews, Kellie has said she wants her new album to have a more traditional country sound.

Her debut album, “Small Town Girl,” from 2006, peaked at number nine on the Billboard 200 and yielded three top 20 country hits.

Her followup album, self-titled, from 2008, also peaked at number nine on the Billboard 200, yielded two top 20 county hits, a third song (“Don’t You Know You’re Beautiful) that reached number 21 and her biggest hit to date, “Best Days of Your Life.”

Not bad, considering how many former Idol contestants get tripped up by the second-album blues.

If you haven’t heard “Tough,” here it is.