While most genres struggle, country music is enjoying a commercial and creative renaissance. Billboard looks at three strikingly diverse artists -- Joe Nichols, Eric Church, and Laura Bell Bundy -- who took very different routes to reach the charts.

Jump To: JOE NICHOLS | ERIC CHURCH | LAURA BELL BUNDY

Despite the fact that David Letterman and your grandmother still call it "country & western," country music has evolved beyond its cowboy roots. Sure, some male artists still wear cowboy hats-and a few of them have actually ridden a horse-but country is a diverse format, particularly these days when many of its younger artists name check acts as varied as AC/DC and Randy Travis among their influences.

One need look no further than CMT's "Crossroads" series, which pairs country stars with rock and pop artists, to see the impact other genres have had on the format-Taylor Swift rocked easily with Def Leppard, Jason Aldean with Bryan Adams, Zac Brown Band with Jimmy Buffett.

Billboard's Top 25 Country Artists  Of The Last 25 Years Chart

Country radio-still the primary way the country music industry reaches consumers-is one of the only formats that hasn't splintered. Country is country-whether you're talking about George Strait or Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban or Rascal Flatts-and country stations reflect that.

While it could be argued that Swift-the 20-year-old who has circled the globe with her version of country music-has skewed the results because of the volume of her sales-country is widely viewed as one of music's healthier genres. While album sales overall were down 12.7% in 2009, country was only off 3.2%.

The trend has continued in 2010. Through the week ending May 23, overall album sales were down 10.5%, while country was down 5.6%, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Thanks to the slower adoption of digital purchases by country consumers, there's still plenty of room for growth in the category. Year to date through May 23, country digital album sales are up 25% compared with 14.6% for overall digital album sales.

With that in mind, and with Billboard's inaugural Country Music Summit taking place June 7-8 in Nashville, we decided to take a look at three country artists in various stages of their careers, each vastly different from the other, and each with an unusual artist development story.

Joe Nichols, 33, has George Strait good looks with a traditional bent that aligns him with Merle Haggard and George Jones. He's been on the scene since 2002, scoring eight top 10 singles, including three No. 1s, on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, and has sold 2.2 million albums, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

While 23-year-old Eric Church has a country soul, his rowdy live show conjures the best of Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams Jr. Since 2006 he has charted eight singles, including two top 10s, and scanned 572,000 albums.

Meanwhile, the new kid on the block, Laura Bell Bundy, 29, has a deep-seated appreciation for the countrypolitan stars of the '60s and '70s but pulls it off with a modern twist. The former Broadway star's debut single, "Giddy On Up," is No. 35 on Hot Country Songs after 17 weeks, and her major-label debut album, "Achin' and Shakin'," has sold 64,000 copies since its April 13 release.

Jump To: JOE NICHOLS | ERIC CHURCH | LAURA BELL BUNDY

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