Rick, you do your best to avoid spending any money on artists you profess to like, too, which pretty much eliminates the impact of your little vow.

Anyone who cozies up with a copy of Whitburn’s country chart history books for a while will see in pretty short order that there were boatloads of so-so, mediocre and downright lousy songs on the charts written solo back in the day. It would be interesting to see the averaging done on, say, a decade-by-decade basis; I’ll bet there was more a steady increase in the percentage of co-writes on the charts than a sudden leap at some point – except perhaps in the last few years, where everyone I know seems to agree that changes in the business have ultra-incentivized (!) writing with artists.

One of the very reasons Taylor Swift has been so successful is because she doesn’t dilute her artistic vision with co-writers. Will the Nashville Establishment learn anything from Taylor’s example? Of course not…

Ashton Shepherd is about as authentic as a down home country girl can get. Thankfully she doesn’t have to write or sing “I’m So Country Because…” list songs like so many of the hacks populating Top 40 AirHead Country Radio at the moment to prove it. Go Ashton!

No way would I ever go on that Opry Cruise! The live music might make me want to jump overboard! And that would bring joy to far too many people, particularly on country music blogs…(lol)

And the new single is of course, another phrase song. . .

I did like “I Can’t See Texas From Here” from his first? album. I just don’t think at this point in his career Mr Strait is going to write anything that’s lyrically personal. And so far his cowrites seem a bit formulaic.