George Strait’s latest single, “Here For a Good Time,” has me waiting eagerly for the release of his next album, scheduled some time this fall. Despite King George’s prolific and enduring knack for putting out hit records, it always feels like an endless drought between his albums because today’s country seems to have strayed from its roots and wandered into the commercial wilderness of pop music.

But in the last few years, a young rising star named Chris Young has blown a breath of fresh country air though the radio. His single “Tomorrow,” released earlier this year, immediately hit No. 2 on the Billboard Country Chart, and the full album, “Neon,” was finally released this month. The album proves that glitz and schtick aren’t prerequisites for commercial success, and that folks still prefer plain, down-home songs. The album debuted at No. 4 on the all-genre Billboard Album Chart.

With “Neon,” Young, a Tennessee native who made his mark on the Lone Star live music circuit in Texas, is bringing country back home — to our homes — where it belongs.

There is nothing flashy, complicated or even original about the songs. The melodies are so simple you can’t help singing along. The rhythms are simple enough for two left feet to dance to. Most of all, the themes running through the lyrics are simple.

Traditional country (unlike much of today’s in-your-face-I’m-a-redneck style) sticks to a few basic topics: God, country, family, relationships, good times and bad times. That’s it. No existential ponderings. No avant-garde artistic experiments. And the tracks on “Neon,” stay true to traditional country.

Young’s smooth baritone voice resonates like Randy Travis,’ one of his major influences, but carries a little more giddy-up in the spurs. The lyrics throughout the album give nods to Merle Haggard, Johnny Lee and Conway Twitty. And George Strait fans can take heart that fiddles and steel guitars still play, and real country still lives on Music Row.

The title track, “Neon,” has country sorrow and subtle western swing wrapped around and burning through it. Young’s voice paints a melancholy palette of Cheyenne skies, Santa Fe sunsets and Texas yellow that pales compared with the neon preferred by the heartbroken and lonesome.

But as all country folks know, bad times are just part of life. And life is mostly full of good times. The album includes plenty of variations of lustful, youthful love. “Flashlight” gives due deference and appreciation to a father who taught his son life lessons while working on cars, and “Save Water, Drink Beer” offers tongue-in-cheek advice to save the planet.

We don’t have to always take life seriously. It rarely pays to take ourselves seriously. But more than anything, we take family and those we love seriously. Those ideas are hardly the exclusive property of rural folks in the South. Despite Gretchen Wilson’s red-neck anthems and Jeff Foxworthy’s comic descriptions, the literal definition of a redneck is someone who keeps his hair short and spends a lot of time outside either working the land or playing on it, thus the red neck. There’s no shortage of that in Maine.

Call it redneck. My son calls it hillbilly. I call it country. It’s all about eating watermelon and fried chicken on the Fourth of July. It’s about jumping in cold water and swatting mosquitoes. It’s about sitting on your own porch and watching things grow. It’s about growing old with your mate and growing young with your children.

I can’t tell you that “Neon,” or Chris Young exemplifies any kind of musical genius. But I can tell you it’s simple, it’s sincere, it’s nice, it’s fun, and I like it.

Emily Tuttle is a freelance writer living in Minot. Her e-mail address is [email protected].