Website: Nashville or Bust @ The A.V. Club

We haven't recommended a website for a while now, so the musically interested among you may be intrigued by a new series that's just started at the A.V. Club. In Nashville or Bust, hip-hop writer Nathan Rabin is taking time out to explore the wide world of country music. In his own words:

Throughout the years, I’ve fantasized about correcting my wildly unbalanced musical education by spending a year immersing myself in a foreign genre. (Yes, that is what critics fantasize about. That and elaborate new ways to file their CD and DVD collections.) I daydreamed about correcting the lopsided nature of my musical education by pulling a massive 180 in my listening habits. Instead of listening overwhelmingly to only one genre of music, I’d do something completely different and listen overwhelmingly to a different genre.

While listening to Billy Joe Shaver’s “Been To Georgia On A Fast Train” earlier this year, I had an epiphany. I decided that now was as good a time as any to put my plan into action [...] This year, I decided to stop dreaming about pursuing a super-intense yearlong crash course in country, and start doing it.

Since hip-hop and country are two of America's most distinctive - and misunderstood - musical creations, it'll be interesting to see how this develops. In the first week, Rabin is taking things easy and starting with Johnny Cash's American Recordings.