A (Country) Star is Born

Last week I read with some dismay that many of my fellow country radio programmers were planning to ignore the debut singles by American Idol finalists Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina, citing (mostly) their youth and lack of professional "polish".

If you were listening, you know we already have both singles, and to be honest, I really like Scotty's, so I was very happy to see this story  on TasteOfCountry.com. Scotty's "I Love You This Big" is expected to set a new high watermark for country debuts when this weekend's Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart is released.

How long it will stay on the charts, how high it goes, and how many more hit singles there will be are all to be decided, of course, but he's off to a great start.