I'm not into Pop culture, so to my shame, I don't know anything about Jessica Simpson.

But reading that story suggests to me that she is making some seriously good moves.
In my view, she couldn't do better than Hilary Lindsey at present, for a versatile and spirited young co-writer. She's recently won the "best Country song" Grammy (2006), she's guiding Carrie Underwood's ventures into songwriting - and she co-wrote what for me is one of the best songs of this year - "Riverstone" for Lauren Lucas.

Also, with Willie Nelson backing her, and talks with people like Vince Gill - and having lunch with Hank lll's sisters - have we got an Outlaw in the making? (LOL)

Commercial Country Music has had a long flirtation with Pop Music, going back to the 1950s, when people like Owen Bradley and Chet Atkins developed the "Nashville Sound". The irony is that, a few years before, Owen Bradley himself had played a part in bringing Rockabilly down from the hills and introducing it to a wider audience. Later, though, he took a leading part in driving Hillbilly influences back to the fringes and giving commercial Country Music a slick, lush, Pop-leaning feel.

I think the reason for the flirtation with Pop was rooted in the fact that postwar audiences were becoming more affluent, more suburban and more aspirational. Older, rural "folk"-rooted Country music no longer had the image that most listeners wanted - and the audiences for "niche" music like Bluegrass, Rockabilly and Western was too small to sustain a multi-million dollar recording industry.

By contrast, Pop influences could be presented as sophisticated, trendy, and linked to mainstream culture. They could also attract a potentially much larger (and often younger) audience.

But at the same time, there was a dilemma for the creators of the "Nashville Sound" - they couldn't simply become Pop music, or they'd be swamped by it and lose their identity as a distinct genre. They also saw that the new audience for commercial Country music wanted to retain a nostalgic link to rural origins (even if this was often more symbolic than real). So they continued to define a "Country" image around the music - hats, accents, homage to "Heartland" values, themes in the storylines of the songs, slight homage to traditional instruments, a sense of community around the industry, etc.

This did also (but certainly not intentionally) give a loophole to people who wanted to re-emphasize the "Country" aspects of the music - and has periodically led to counter-movements and waves of "authentic" rebellion - the Outlaws, the New Traditionalists - and, yes, artists like the Dixie Chicks - within commercial Country Music (even though many of the developments, like Americana, Texas Music, Red Dirt music, Progressive Bluegrass, Thrash Grass have remained outside and largely functioned parallel to radio and chart "Country", rather than within it).

Today, the "crossover" links between the Pop and commercial Country worlds seem particularly widespread and fluid. With all due respect to their fans, the acts that "identify" as Country, but largely play Pop, don't usually impress me - and I can't get excited either about Pop stars like Bon Jovi and Kelly Clarkson doing occasional duets.

But an artist with a background in the Pop world linking up more substantially with Roots artists can sometimes look much more interesting. I thought this with Michelle Branch linking up with Jessica Harp, and Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins. Although, as I said, I don't actually know Jessica Simpson's songs - the connections she's exploring do suggest this could be a serious move for her.