By Ken Tucker 39 minutes ago

NASHVILLE (Billboard) - After a professional dry spell and a period of personal turmoil, country star Chris Cagle has returned to the promised land.

His fourth album, "My Life's Been a Country Song" (Capitol Nashville), debuts at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums this week, his second chart-topper. The set, which sold 37,000 first-week copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, also debuts at No. 8 on the Billboard 200, his first top 10 entry on the big chart.

Meanwhile, first single "What Kinda Gone" is No. 9 on Hot Country Songs. It's Cagle's first trip into the airplay top 10 since "Chicks Dig It" peaked at No. 5 in late 2003.

The success follows a number of setbacks for Cagle. In addition to an ongoing lawsuit involving his former manager, Cagle suffered vocal problems and the shock of learning that a baby he thought was his had been fathered by someone else.

"I was beat up and broken-hearted and locked in a bottle, and there's a lot of the last couple years that I don't remember," he says. "At the same time, I had some growing up to do."

After selling more than 600,000 copies of each of his first two albums and scoring four top 10 airplay singles, including the No. 1 "I Breathe In, I Breathe Out," Cagle's third album sold less than 400,000 units and didn't produce any radio hits.

The new set features none of his own material — a departure from earlier albums. After sifting through hundreds of reviews, his new producer, Scott Hendricks, told Cagle that his material was keeping him from being a bigger star.

"That was hard for me to swallow," Cagle says.

Cagle and Hendricks turned to songs from Nashville's top tunesmiths, including Dave Berg, Craig Wiseman, Brett James, Wendell Mobley and Neil Thrasher.

"I'm a songwriter," Cagle says. "But the bottom line is, as an artist, you got to make the best music, period."

Reuters/Billboard