There's always been an uneasy balance between country music's fidelity to its establishment priorities and its reliance on inspired renegade outsiders – Hank Williams being the classic case – but in recent decades, those roles have become strangely confused. These days, it's the supposedly conservative Nashville music establishment that has been steadily broadening its reach by diluting its core values with the commercial pop imperatives of the likes of LeAnn Rimes and Taylor Swift, while
Travis "Travie" McCoy made more UK chart impact with the recent ersatz reggae-rap hit single "Billionaire" than he did in over a decade as frontman of pop-rappers Gym Class Heroes, and while there are a couple more hits to come from Lazarus, it's unlikely to make him a household name ...
When Gwen Stefani walked into the Anaheim house she shared with her brother and bandmates, she heard Eric Stefani playing a tender piano figure that stopped her in her tracks. The pair immediately set about writing the song that would become "Don't Speak". Gwen gushed out some lyrics: "I can see it all in an eye blink/ I know everything about how you are/ I can understand exactly how you think/ Between you and me, it's not very far." The verses celebrated Gwen's long-standing relationship with