Eddie Money is hoping to be shakin' in the country music world these days. Money has been in Nashville recording countrified versions of his songs with producer John Ford Coley for an album on Big 7 Records. He's already released a version of "Gimme Some Water" from 1978's "Life for the Taking Album" as an online single, with Vince Gill guesting.

"(Gill) is a lot of fun," Money tells Billboard.com. "He's a big Eddie Money fan. I'm trying to get the money together to do a video, 'cause I think 'Gimme Some Water,' with the hangman's noose and the horses and everything, would make a great video."

Money and Coley have also recorded new versions of "Two Tickets to Paradise," "So Cold Tonight" and "Hard Life." He hopes to record at least four more songs back in Nashville soon and get the album out sometime this year. But he's proceeding cautiously into the country market.

"To me, it's whichever way the wind blows," says Money, whose last Hot 100 hit was 1992's "Fall in Love Again." "I'd feel like a real phony if I said I was a cowboy. I know nothing about being a cowboy, so why put on a cowboy hat? But I sing country really well. I was in country back in 1971, when my probation officer wouldn't let me do rock."

Money hasn't forsaken rock, though. This summer he'll be performing his 1982 album "No Control" -- which hit No. 20 on The Billboard 200 and spawned the hit singles "Shakin' " and "Think I'm in Love" -- in its entirety. "A lot of groups are starting to perform their albums cover to cover," he says. "('No Control') was a great record. There's great songs on it, and it's a challenge for me."

Money is also shopping a musical he's written called "Two Tickets to Paradise," which features both existing songs and "five or six really Broadway-type songs" that he's written especially for it. Already turned down by Broadway producers, he's hoping to stage the show in the San Francisco Bay Area first.