Country Music Chat

I just discovered that the Nashville correspondent for USA Today, Brian Mansfield, is conducting online chats on country music. I don't know if this was the first one or not (I find USA Today's chat archives hard to navigate), but I'll definitely be checking in for more.

On Lonestar's CD I'm Already There:
"The album and the single did extremely well. The industry might have perceived it to be a little too similar in nature to 'Amazed' (which won a ton of awards) to give the awards to the band again. I've liked some of those ballads, too, but they pretty much turned into country's REO Speedwagon after they got rid of John Rich (now of Big & Rich)."

Other topics touched on during the chat that are always swirling around in my head: lack of variety on today's country music stations, female country artists earning airplay and raves for one of my faves, Joe Nichols.

(Okay, I just found an archived chat from June 15 that I'll have to go back and read. Maybe it's only once a month for country.)