I finally heard Jessica Simpsons Country debut...

And despite my own thoughts before hand, I didn't find that it sucked. I was just thinking about this earlier today, actually, before hearing the song. You get a handful of country singers or rock singers who can take a good song, and have it play on top 40 stations, as well as country stations.

Rarely do you find someone who can stop singing top 40 and make a decent go at Country- and Jessica is a fine example. She has a great voice. She has talent. She has a questionable manager in her father (he makes referrences to her breasts- come on, that's sick and wrong in any situation, let alone in trying to market his daughter). She has horrid PR. She has a very public love life. And, lastly, she sells herself as a dumb blond- intentionally.

Country has a loyal following, nad in recent years, it's become a sound that went from twangy and gaudy, to soulful, and with a touch of rock and roll to it. Quite  afew songs can pass muster with the top 40 people (I hesitate to say the rock n roll people, because I don't know that it would hold up well there).

But the people who enjoy Country are typically not into MTV, or the Hollywood parties, and look at Jessica as an interloper into their world.

While I did enjoy the song (and trust me, after hearing about it for a while in a less than positive light, and seeing her caricature perfomances at Country concerts, I was expecting my ears to bleed), I can't see her having a successful go of being a serious country singer.

She tries hard, but in her performances, it's almost like she's making fun of it, walking out all dolled up in daisy duke shorts, rope belts, plaid button downs, and completing the ensamble with cowboy boots and hat, with mile high feathered blond hair.

Her first showing had more than half the crowd booing her. I foresee a difficult road ahead, unless she decides to make a serious attempt, which is a shame, because I think that's where she should have been all along, singing country.