New Good Song: Hard To Love by Lee Brice

Here's a new good song -- "Hard To Love" by Lee Brice

How I found this song -- iTunes Top 200, on one of the days I was so dismayed that I ventured into country. I found this song about two months ago, so it's bordering on not being new, but it's still worth mentioning because it shows that sometimes one must cross genres to find new good songs. Most of today's country cross-over attention is going to Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift and Lady Antebellum, but there are other artists who do country music that you can stand, and that in some cases is good, such as "Glass" Thompson Square, which is a nice lullaby and great to listen to when you're at the doctor having blood drawn.

There's quality within country, even if you're not a country fan. Usually the ballads are more digestible because they're more like rock songs, and there's a current dearth of ballads in pop, so if one likes ballads one must often turn to country. The best ballad of 2011, of any genre, was "Wanted You More" by Lady Antebellum, unless one considers "Nothing" by The Script a ballad. The best song of last year, incidentally, was "Super Bass" by Nicki Minaj, in case you missed it.

What makes this song good? Say what you may about country music, but pretty consistently it's clever and rings true, telling familiar and funny stories. "Hard To Love" captures an oft-felt but rarely expressed sentiment: I stink and don't understand why anyone would love me. Also, country uses real instruments, which is a step in the right direction but certainly not a prerequesite for goodness (see "Super Bass").

Is the iTunes 200 a good source for country music? If you seek country, there may be better sources, but if you simply seek new good songs regardless of genre, the iTunes 200 can be your one and only destination for adding country songs to your playlist. It's flooded with country. You may also need Wikipedia open to verify release date, but it's unusual for an old country song to be on the iTunes 200 unless it was recently performed on "Glee" or was features in a TV series.