My husband and 12-year-old son are in Italy right now. And with the vast time change, it’s hard to actually have a phone conversation. But I’ve received a few cryptic texts, and a couple were about how much the Italians love country music. (A love complete with fringed western wear and cowboy hats, they tell me.)

It shouldn’t be that hard to believe that Europeans dig country. Martina McBride just announced she’s going to tour across the pond, with stops in London on July 31, then six shows in Ireland right after that. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been over there,” she told Billboard. “Probably ‘94 was the last time. I’m looking forward to it. We made so many great memories last time I was there.”

Plus I know Alan Jackson is planning a little stretch of shows in Denmark, Sweden and Norway in August. Toby Keith is headed over there, too, starting his tour in Scotland in November. And Dierks Bentley, Taylor Swift and Sugarland have all played a few European dates recently.

But as I sit here with almost 1,000 songs in my iTunes library, and not a single one is from outside the American border, I have to wonder why Europeans have embraced our mainstream country music so passionately and we’ve not returned the favor? Do they have their own brand of country music that just might become some of my all-time favorites?

In my attempt to be more open minded about it, I trolled around some of the Web sites devoted to country music in other parts of the world. And as much as I tried, I just couldn’t quite get through this heavily-accented take on Tim McGraw’s “How Bad Do You Want It.” Audio of the song plays in the background when you reach the page. See what you think.

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