‘Nashville Star’ cultivates country

IN an otherwise down market, sales of country music went up in 2006. But beyond Jeff Foxworthy’s cottage industry of blue-collar comedy, the stories and concerns of red-state America are still very much at the margins of TV. Certainly, there is no “Friends” or “The Wire” for Appalachia or the farming communities of the Midwest.

“Nashville Star” (USA Network, 10 p.m. Thursday) is as much of a remedy to that absence as the music itself -- loyal to its constituency but rigid about boundaries. Essentially an “American Idol” copycat -- it debuted less than a year later -- “Star” begins its fifth season this week. The winner gets a record deal and an express pass through the archaic modes of production that dominate Nashville’s Music Row, which in turn gets to craft at least one feel-good narrative each season the show airs.

Or at least they would, if the show winners ever achieved something greater than B-list fame. Season 1 winner Buddy Jewell’s 2004 debut was certified gold, and Season 3 winner Erika Jo, a harmless young woman, had a minor hit with “I Break Things.”

The show’s biggest success story has been Miranda Lambert, a Season 1 finalist whose 2005 debut, “Kerosene,” was one of that year’s best records in any genre. Lambert didn’t win, though, probably because a diminutive, tinny-twanged young woman who wrote or co-wrote most of her own material wasn’t a neat Music Row fit -- no music culture is more hidebound than Nashville’s.

The contestants on “Star” tend to fit neat molds -- last season’s winner Chris Young split the difference between platinum superstars Alan Jackson and George Strait -- and if they don’t, they tend to be voted off.

Say what you will about its cruel cultural hegemony, but “Idol” does a good job of nurturing idiosyncratic performers. Rest assured, no one in the record business was seeking out performers like the mook-friendly Chris Daughtry and the awkward blue-eyed soul man Taylor Hicks before they dominated “Idol” last season. Now, they’re something like stars.

And “Idol” has had more success minting Nashville talent than “Star” has. (Ratings help too.) Season 4’s “Idol” winner Carrie Underwood was probably the most important country artist of last year.

Still, “Star” has its charms. Contestants are required to perform at least one song that they wrote or co-wrote. Given Nashville’s reliance on pro songwriters for almost all of the songs that make it to country radio, this is an unusual flourish. And given that “Idol” does nothing of the sort, it’s unusually welcome.

This year’s “Star” has some promising contestants. Former Marine Dustin Wilkes has a mix of bravado and suaveness that recalls a rowdier Dierks Bentley. Kacey Musgraves, at 18, has a crisp, lovely voice that’s suited for roots-oriented pop, a la early Sheryl Crow. Even better, many of the rest qualify as eccentrics of a sort.

Maybe after four seasons of playing the averages, “Star” is prepared for a left-field twist. And if not, the return of “Idol” is just a few days away on Jan. 16, and maybe there’ll be a Miranda Lambert in the making who decided the best way to infiltrate Nashville was to forego it altogether.