By Stacy Jenel Smith This is going to be a great summer for hot country nights. In case you haven't been paying attention, we're in the thick of an amazing vintage of beautiful young country songstresses. Bursting with fresh talent and sassy ideas - playing and singing about everything from red high heels to men who are like "a sore in your mouth that you just have to bite" -- they come from locales as diverse as Atlanta and Australia, rising slowly or coming into their own in the spotlight as lighting quick as sudden TV fame. Here are 10 of our favorites.

"American Idol" winner Carrie Underwood, 24, leads the way with a bundle of new honors to add to her previous Grammys and CMA honors. The Oklahoma girl won Top New Female Vocalist of the Year and Single Record of the Year at the recent 2006 ACM awards, and picked up Album of the Year for her "Some Hearts" debut album. "Some Hearts" has been also certified sextuple platinum. The vegetarian and animal lover, who entertained troops in Iraq with the USO last Christmas time, has come an awfully long way from that eight-hour wait in line she spent before her first "American Idol" tryout in St. Louis, which led to her first-ever airline flight, to Hollywood. She's currently working on a new album for fall release.

Miranda Lambert, 23, rose to fame via "Nashville Star," and her career got a boost from her 2005 performance of "Kerosene," complete with pillars of fire, on the CMA Awards. Now she has the new "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" album delighting fans and critics alike - yes, even comparing a guy to a mouth sore. In fact, People magazine declared that the Texas talent "blows away the 'American Idol' winner on her crazy good second disc." Crazy! With it all, the blond beauty is determined not to let success go to her head. "I kind of set it up going into this that I know who I am and I'm not going to change," she told us. "I see my family quite a bit. They're really involved. My dad is my merchandise manager, my mom runs my fan club and my little brother runs my website."

Kelly Pickler, 20, also known from "American Idol," has been getting some dissing lately for her glam new style, which some complain takes away from the homespun appeal she brought from her roller-skating waitress days. Also gaining attention is her evidently more ample d?colletage. The effervescent personality - who's shown she's handy with a microphone talking, as well as singing, on "The View" and the "Tonight" show - shrugs all that off, however. Her album, "Small Town Girl," was released on Halloween last year, and entered the country charts at No. 1, including her "Red High Heels" hit. She's currently touring with Brad Paisley.

Taylor Swift is only 17, but she's already being buzzed as "the next Faith Hill." She's won accolades including the 2007 CMT Music Awards' Breakthrough Video of the Year for her "Tim McGraw" crossover hit. The pretty, home schooled high schooler spent part of her childhood on a Christmas tree farm her parents had in Pennsylvania -- but by age 10 was trying to book her own performance dates. Now, Swift is also out on tour with Paisley and Pickler.

Beautiful Aussie import country star Kasey Chambers grew up playing music with her family members when they were living away from civilization, sans modern conveniences, in the Outback. She's gone on to tour the world as she's turned out platinum records including her "Wayward Angel" and "Carnival" discs - and kept the kinfolk close. As she told us a couple years back, "It's cool - my dad plays in the band, my brother produces my albums, my mom does a lot of work on the tours. We do get along really well, actually. I've never worked in an environment without my family close by so it's fully natural for me to work that way."

It's only been three years since Gretchen Wilson's first single, her signature ditty, "Redneck Woman," was released, but with her collection of hits, she seems far more established than possible in such a short an amount of time. Already the former bartender is achieving success with her third album, "One of the Boys." "I know I don't act much like a lady, but I still need to be somebody's baby," she sings in "Pain Killer," a song about a one-night stand. The Pocahontas, Illinois-born Wilson, whose mom was 16 when she gave birth to her, grew up in meager financial straits in trailer parks and quit school in 9th grade. But her tenacity and talent has seen her rise to the top, a protege of Big & Rich. She holds a Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance, a CMA Horizon Award, CMA Female Vocalist of the Year honors, and that Breakthrough New Artist American Music Award that drew complaints from Kanye West. He later apologized - and he's certainly seen by now that Wilson's kudos have been well warranted.

Grammy winner Jennifer Nettles grew up singing in her Southern Baptist church, in school and in regional theater in her native Georgia. She was also a majorette, a homecoming princess and a 4-H camp counselor. No wonder the blond beauty looks like the all-American girl. She's proven to have a wide range, working solo, with Kristian Bush in Sugarland, and with rockers Bon Jovi.

The Wreckers are eclectic music gals Michelle Branch, 23 - a.k.a. the Grammy-winning pop star - and Jessica Harp, 25, who has a classical music background. In other words, their work as a country duo is just one of their manifestations, but, "My, Oh, My," like their song title says, are they taking the country world by storm. Their "The Good Kind" song was heard on "One Tree Hill," garnering them instant attention and a place on 2005's "One Tree Hill" tour. Their "Stand Still, Look Pretty" album made an impressive debut last year, and they served as Rascal Flatts opening act. This summer, they're touring with Keith Urban.

Laura Bryna is fairly new to the scene, but already making a big splash with her "Black Tie & Blue Jeans" album, the latest single off which is the fun "I Don't Have a Thing to Wear." The first single, "Make a Wish," became the theme song for the Make-a-Wish Foundation on its 25th anniversary. She's serving as opening act for Emmylou Harris on her tour. And, no question, she's a looker.