Suzy Bogguss enjoys cheering on country's new crop of performers, but she admits she has a special fondness for Carly Pearce. After all, both artists cut their teeth performing at Dollywood at the outset of their respective careers.

"Yeah, I think that's so cool!" Boggus exclaims to The Boot. "When I play Dollywood, we all talk about her. I also think she's really talented. I enjoy that style of voice that she has."

Bogguss adds that watching Pearce and her contemporaries from the perspective of an artist who rose through Nashville's ranks in the '90s makes her think back on the camaraderie she enjoyed with her fellow rising stars during that time. "We were so lucky, all of us, that we had [the TV channel] the Nashville Network. It was so much easier for the fans to get our personalities, where we came from, why we picked the music we picked. We were on TV every two weeks when we were coming up through the ranks!" she reminisces.

"Downtown was rocking," Bogguss goes on to say. "The publishers, we would all be hanging out together, having beers at night. People like Kathy Mattea, these were my best friends. We would actually be rooting for each other for different things that were coming up."

Now, Bogguss hopes that country's younger set of stars enjoy the same benefits she did as a rising artist. "I'm sure that's still there for some of these folks. You see somebody like Miranda [Lambert], who's really trying to support the songwriting world. I think Blake [Shelton] does that, too," she points out.

"Because that's what brought me to Nashville: the day-dreaming about Kris Kristofferson walking down the street with a song in his pocket, that kind of thing," she continues. "So I hope that stuff is still going on, and that [younger stars are] still getting that kind of opportunity. I wish I could get to know them more."

Suzy Bogguss' Best Live Shots

More From TheBoot