“How to buy…” is an occasional series in which I offer profound insights into the record store buyer’s craft. This week: acquire instant expertise in country music.

In R&B, the words are merely a vehicle for the performance. People with amazing voices perform fearless acts of vocal agility over what are usually banal and uninspired lyrics.

For country music, which must, sadly, be performed by country singers, this is usually impossible. As a result, we must judge country singers by the content of the lyrics that were written for them by somebody else. Thankfully, this is easy to do, since all good country songs include certain key words and concepts. By assigning values to them, we can accurately distinguish the good from the bad. (more…)