Needed: A Country Music Trope

This morning, the Butcher and I were sitting around watching TV and wishing that Comcast would devise some way for us to reorder our channels so that all of the music video channels would be right together on the dial, when on came Gary Allan, who is this country music singer who's not quite a star. This got me thinking that there are quite a few people like Allan (like Blake Shelton), who aren't megastars, but who you can count on to deliver good song after good song after good song. I told the Butcher that, if country music were like baseball and Allan were on my team, I'd have him batting third. He's not got the explosive speed of, say, a Big & Rich, so you don't want him batting first or second. And he's not a heavy-hitter like Tim McGraw. But you can count on him to consistantly get on base. If he were in professional wresting, he'd be a solid mid-carder, someone you can count on to give consistantly good matches, but just doesn't yet have the size, charisma, or proper persona to be at the top of the card. But there must already be a term for artists like this.