Female self-reliance runs through the country genre from the year dot. Nikki Lane, however, is gunning her engine hard. “But the highway queen/ Don’t need no king,” drawls the daughter of an asphalt paver on the title track of her third album, a set of songs in which feeble hearts are tossed to the side of the road like litter, and Lane gets to drive a monster truck in the video for Highway Queen. Mixing country sweetness with rock swagger, Lane’s set takes in music biz demographics (700,000 Rednecks) and gambling metaphors (Jackpot), while songs such as Companion and Forever Lasts Forever save a little room for vulnerability.
