Lady Antebellum

Plenty of music-biz tastemakers see Lady Antebellum as the next big country crossover act. So a 2009 Grammy nomination as Best New Artist, which pitted the Nashville trio against Adele, Duffy, Jazmine Sullivan and the Jonas Brothers — and Adele's eventual victory shouldn't be seen as a slap against this particular Lady. Singers Charles Kelley and Hillary Scott make up a male-female duo so young, hot and photogenic that they seem to have been created by the CMT promo department, and Dave Haywood's guitar-and-mandolin skills represent a merger of accessible rock and country rudiments that's as marketable as Faith and Tim — and it sounds better, too. Not that the band's self-titled debut breaks any new ground. But tunes such as "Love Don't Live Here" and "I Run to You" are palatable mainstream fare as opposed to sheer shlock in a Stetson. Given the alternative, we should count ourselves lucky — though not as lucky as Lady Antebellum.