Country Music gets back to it's roots - HAPPPPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Trent Tomlinson: That's How It Still Oughta Be
My PICK OF THE WEEK!

Superb, brilliant - a mega hit for 2009!!

At last, Trent Tomlinson - a singer who's undoubted talents have scraped the surface but not broken through, now has THE song to make it to the top.

As the PR blurb says, this has traditional production and a "message". I'm going to say no more.

If you don't buy a copy, you should at least get a listen.

Lyrically it's a wonderful piece of work and Tomlinson gives it his all.

As I said: Superb, brilliant - a mega hit for 2009!!

Blue Side Of The Mountain: The Steeldrivers

Amazing: I haven't heard one of these for ages: it's a COUNTRY song!!!

The music is made by a bunch of folks with voices, a double bass, a banjo, a mandolin and a fiddle and a guitar.

This doesn't stand a chance in the charts ... way too Country ... and I wouldn't hang around your local Country radio station waiting to hear it either.

But well done to the folks at the Grammys for giving this a Nomination for Best Country Performance by A Duo Or Group With Vocals.

It should win that which means it has no chance on Country radio and every chance on mainstream radio after the awards are made.

Keith Anderson: She Could've Been Minel

Anderson has one of the finest voices in the business and this, the latest single from his album simply stresses that fact.

It's a gentle ballad about times past, about love that never happened.

While I prefer the guy giving it his all on upbeat numbers, he may well get a big break with this. It's so gentle that, while it is undoubtedly a Country song - it has the soft edges to make it into the mainstream charts too - if it can find it's way past all that caterwauling hip-hop grunge garage rap rubbish!!

Potential Number 1.