NASVHILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Country has gone mellow when it comes to presidential politics.

The Music Row Democrats, a group of industry insiders and recording artists that formed during the '04 race between President George Bush and Sen. John Kerry, has petered out. Likewise, big-name Republicans like Brooks & Dunn and Lee Ann Womack who actively supported Bush four years ago are sitting on the sidelines this time.

Brooks & Dunn weren't even fazed when Barack Obama used their hit "Only in America" after his nomination speech. The duo said they were pleased that the song, which, ironically, Bush had used in his campaign four years earlier, appeals to both parties.

"There's not as much anger," said producer and songwriter Don Cook, who organized the Music Row Democrats, which received a lot of national attention and saw its membership swell to more than 2,000. "I think people are more worried about what's going on in the world than in what's going on in the election. I think the economy and the war and all the other realities stole a lot of thunder from our efforts."

Cook also believes interest in his group, which included songwriters and recording stars such as Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris, waned because it largely accomplished what it set out to do: Dispel the notion that the country music industry is a Republican stronghold.

He cited the absence of Bush and his then strategist Karl Rove — whom he described as polarizing figures — and a long cool down period since the Dixie Chicks ruffled country music fans with their well-publicized criticism of Bush in 2003 as other reasons why the group lost steam.

Chris Willman, a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly magazine and the author of "Rednecks & Bluenecks: The Politics of Country Music" (New Press, 2005), also notices a drop-off in vigor.

Willman thinks the declining popularity of President Bush has a lot to do with it, but he also suspects that Sen. Barrack Obama is more palatable than Kerry was in country music's traditional base of Middle America.

"For the mainstream country community, I think people are more open to Barack Obama than John Kerry because he had that sort of snooty Northeastern thing about him. Correctly or not correctly, he was considered the antithesis of the Midwest and the South. Obama doesn't have that, and I think Southerners, both white and black, are a little more open to him."

There might be something else, as well. Unlike the first President Bush and, perhaps to a lesser degree George W. Bush, Sen. John McCain doesn't present himself as a big country music fan. His Top 10 favorite songs listed by Blender magazine in August included one country entry: Merle Haggard's "If We Make it Through December." Obama's Top 10 didn't have any county songs.

"Stars like to be courted, and George H.W. Bush certainly courted them," Willman said. "I think George W. Bush didn't have that genuine love for country music" that his father had ... "but still there was that relationship based on his father and he could sort of talk the talk."

Country and bluegrass star Ricky Skaggs actively supported the elder President Bush and then his son in 2000 and 2004, but he hasn't been nearly as involved in McCain's campaign.

Skaggs, an evangelical Christian, said he backed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in the Republican primary and when Huckabee dropped out he switched to McCain, whom he met for the first time at the Rev. Billy Graham's home earlier this year.

"I've made myself available. I've let them know that I'm willing to do whatever I can do, but I haven't really heard back," Skaggs said.

This year's presidential race certainly hasn't been devoid of celebrity involvement from country stars. Hank Williams Jr., John Rich and Gretchen Wilson have campaigned for McCain or Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, while the Dixie Chicks have lent their voices to Obama and Sen. Joe Biden.

But Willman said it isn't the same as in '04, and not just in Nashville, either.

"I think entertainers are pulling back in general a little bit. In '04 there was the Vote for Change Tour. Where are all the big package tours this time around? It's sort of like celebrities felt the backlash — 'Who are you to speak to us about this?' Maybe they think they are going to mess it up for their guy."