Gretchen Wilson gets to work on summer trek, new album

Country singer Gretchen Wilson [ tickets ] has put together a summer tour that will take her through nearly 30 North American citiesThe performer is set to kick things off June 4 in Nashville, as she joins the star-studded lineup of Marty Stuart's Late Night Jam. From there, she'll visit a host of US clubs, festivals, fairs and casinos from the Midwest to the East Coast through late August. Wilson will wrap the summer in Canada with shows in Nova Scotia and Ontario. She's also started on her fall/winter schedule, with a Chicago date booked in October and a two-night stand in Las Vegas in December. Details are listed below.Wilson continues to support her third album, "One of the Boys," which surfaced a year ago and became her third No. 1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart. The set features Top 40 country hits including the title track and "Come to Bed," which was produced by the singer's longtime collaborator, John Rich of Big & Rich.Meanwhile, Wilson has started work on her fourth album, which has a heavy Southern rock feel to it, according to Great American Country."The record is awesome," Wilson told radio show GAC Nights in a recent interview. "It's been like making the record that I was supposed to make the first time around, sort of."Not that her first time around was anything to sneeze at. In 2004, Wilson burst onto the music scene with her debut, "Here for the Party," which spawned her signature hit, "Redneck Woman," went five-times platinum and won the singer a Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.Wilson has been in the news lately for adding high school diploma to her list of accomplishments. The 34-year-old entertainer, who dropped out of school in the ninth grade, passed her General Educational Development exam in April and donned a cap and gown during a Tennessee graduation ceremony last week, according to the Associated Press.