1) Singing ability
2) Songwriting ability
3) Instrumental ability
4) Showmanship

I do not include areas of production, promotion and arrangements although they are important, too. Let’s look at George Strait (BTW I really like George Strait and I have all of George’s CDs dating back to 1981′s STRAIT COUNTRY whereas I don’t have all of Keith Urban’s or Vince Gill’s CDs and albums)

!) George is a pretty good singer, no doubt and he is very consistant
2) George isn’t much of a songwriter – he’s written a couple of songs(“I Can’t See Texas From Here” being the best, and, I think, the only one recorded by other artists) but they were mostly nothing special and he goes to outside writers for his single releases – he (or his management) is very good at song selection
3) George strums his guitar onstage – he is not a virtuoso musician on the level of Brad Paisley, Vince Gill, etc and he would never make that claim
4) Showmanship – George is a seasoned veteran – he puts on an entertaining enough show but George basically relies on his singing ability

Actually George Strait is a modern day Webb Pierce in terms of his basic talents (and if George can get his records to #1 for another 27 weeks he will pass Pierce for #2 on the all-tme most weeks at #1 list) . I’d compare him to Conway Twitty but Twitty was a very talented songwriter

In terms of sheer talent, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Steve Wariner and Vince Gill are the most talented performers out there . This should be Paisley’s year to win big