Many American country music fans won’t want to hear this, but your favorite genre of music has long since blown past national borders. Shania Twain? Canadian. Keith Urban? New Zealander. Jo Dee Messina? Boston – American, yes, but not a bastion of country music. And frequent guest of this show Amy Rose? Redneck Canadian! HICKS podcast excerpt: "I'm Mama's favorite... sometimes. When she hears 'Mamas Kitchen' on the radio, she calls me and says, 'They played my song today!' She's proud." Still, we’re going out on a bit of a limb today introducing you to an up-and-coming county singer/songwriter named Hicks. He hails from Sweden. And as is often the case with British rockers, you’d never know he wasn’t from these parts when he is singing. I’m sure we’ll talk about that. HICKS podcast excerpt: "This journey has been crazy. The first song I put on YouTube was 'Mama's Kitchen.' It took off, way beyond my wildest dreams. DJs from all over the world said, 'How can we get that song? We want to play it on our show!' At the time, I didn't have a website; you couldn't find it on iTunes or Spotify, either. I did everything backwards. But the song found its way onto the charts and I got nominated for awards. I still can't believe it. I'm living my dream." Hicks has written songs for the late Jimi Jamison (of Survivor), Giant, Little River Band, Bobby Kimball (of Toto) and others. He's the first Swedish artist to have his first two singles reach the New Music Weekly Top 10. And he's got a new single out, “I Belong to You,” written with Erik Martensson and Jorgen Elofsson, the writers of two hits – “Stronger” and “A Moment Like This” -- for Kelly Clarkson. Hicks performs two songs exclusively today on Mr. Media, “Mama’s Kitchen,” and the world premiere of “I Belong to You.” Hicks • • • •