Jessica Simpson going country on new album

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Jessica Simpson is in the early stages of recording a country album in Nashville, a project slated for a 2008 release via Columbia Records.

Simpson said she had always wanted to make a country album, but was waiting until the right time.

"I think there is a strength in female country artists," Simpson said, citing Martina McBride, Shania Twain, Faith Hill and Reba McEntire as some of her inspirations.

She said she would be involved in the creative process.

"Writing is a release for me," she said. "It's a way for me to tell my story. That's not to say I wouldn't record a song that I didn't write."

Her last album, "A Public Affair," spent just nine weeks on the Billboard 200 in 2006. Her most recent movie, "Blonde Ambition," was recently released in a handful of theaters in her native Texas en route to DVD stores.

Reuters/Billboard