With nearly 200,000 copies of Hell on Heels sold without much in the way of traditional country music promotional support, The Pistol Annies have instead helped to prove that collaborations can work when the most important thing isn't overlooked: the music.

In our latest edtiorial, we take on the recent discussion that focuses on why there was only one female solo artist (Taylor Swift) in the Top 30 of the country radio single charts the last couple of weeks. Read on to see what we think of this "controversy".

Something interesting happens when taking a look at the various country music charts. While most people take "Billboard" as the gospel and 'taste maker' for chart 'supremacy' the chart often doesn't take into accout many of the stations which play country music. One chart, Music Row Magazine's "Country Breakout" chart does and the charts are often different. Why?

Why do country music labels decide to sign and foster reality show contestants at the expense of nuturing and promoting talent organically? We come up with a couple reasons and a solution to the problem.