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A country song is a song about life.

I think of a song in terms of lyrics and stories, and that's what keeps it country for me.

Country fans and country listeners deserve to have something better... a song that really has something to say, something that makes you feel something.

Well the country songs themselves are three-chord stories, ballads which are mostly sad. If you are already feeling sorry for yourself when you listen to them they will take you to an even sadder place.

My definition of country music is really pretty simple. It's when someone sings about their life and what they know, from an authentic place.

To me, country music tells a story about, and deals with, the way people live their lives and what they do.

Somebody told me once it takes an Americana song five minutes to say what a country song says in three - so I try to write country songs. But really, all good music is just soul music.

Every time I tried writing my own songs, they would come out very country. I couldn't fight it, and the more I listened to country music, the more I loved it, and it just became very natural.

To me, country music has always been the home for a great song.

I know people who have written big hit country songs that are really kind of terrible songs, but for the rest of their life, they're the guy who wrote that. You've got to be careful; if you don't want that to happen, don't write those songs.