It would seem that on both sides of the pond there is a huge difference in the music business.

What is accepted as the norm in the USA especially in Nashville and the country scene is totally alien here in the UK.

In the UK most songwriters come from a performance background. They are usually performers first who after years of experience performing live decide to write their own songs and record their own stuff. The exception are the ESTABLISHED people who write for others to record and there are precious few of them. I do not know of anyone who pays for a critique or goes to any writers workshop (do not think such things even exist over here)or pays for song writing classes or coaching. There is no secondary industry that I know of where people make money out of offering to pitch music on others behalf or to provide demos for music to be pitched to someone else or provide music for lyricists, or the whole host of other “services” provided to wannabe songwriters.
On the other side of the pond it would appear that a whole coat tail industry has been formed exploiting wannabe country songwriters. It also seems to be the case that few of these songwriters actually aspire to record their own material preferring to pitch it instead to established acts or just sit on it. This probably accounts for the fact that most country songs follow a very similar pre determined template…as if they all have been written by the same person for the same person who wants many clones of the same songs/subject matter instead of fresh new ideas.

It is also worth noting that country music is not mainstream and is considered a tiny percentage of the music market.

Most American household name country stars are almost complete unknowns here in te UK. I looked at the USA country charts and am ashamed to say I had not even heard of most of the names never mind the songs.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=687727&songID=5238055