Put your whistles down and your sequins back in the cupboard - 2010 is shaping up to be more about a denim jacket and spurs than Lady Gaga's overexposed avant-garde.

Lily Allen performing at Chanel's spring/summer 2010 catwalk show.

'Not Fair', the second single from Lily Allen's current album, has been described as a "jaunty country romp", with its accompanying video that spoofs a 70s country TV show set the ball rolling for what appears to be 2010 that is heading west.

Ryan Bingham who had the front row tapping their toes at D&G's menswear SS10 show with his Dead Horses' remix of Country Roads. ***Click here to watch backstage action from the show and to listen to the track.***

The Texas-bred troubadour has just released his second album - Roadhouse Sun, a personal and unapologetically political album that features the moving "Dylan's Hard Rain", a stark look into the darker corners of America in which the storm, "Dylan's Hard Rain" blew through.

Ryan Bingham performs (above) "Dylan's Hard Rain" at the studios of KVET-FM in Austin, Texas, 2009.

Making the headlines for all the wrong reasons courtesy of Kanye West - the much overlooked fact was country singer Taylor Swift's rise to worldwide fame in 2009 - set to be continued in 2010 when she hits California and New York on her forthcoming 2010 word-tour.

And finally - making Nashville hipper than thou, White Stripes and Raconteurs frontman Jack White unveiled his two latest projects in his adopted hometown of Nashville this year. A new downtown office for Third Man Records, the imprint that’s offered his White Stripes and Raconteurs releases, and a new band called the Dead Weather.  Could country get any hipper than this?

Kerry Olsen

Source & Photo Credits: Various