TORONTO - Rock and pop may rule most seasons of "Canadian Idol," this sixth one included, but two country-singing contestants who stormed the Top 10 last year certainly proved that twang can thrive on the show.

Now, Jaydee Bixby, who came in second last year, and Tara Oram, who placed sixth, are also proving with new projects out this month that although country singers are far from the majority on "Canadian Idol," they are among the mighty.

"I like to think Tara and I kind of broke a lot of ground for country music on the show and maybe made it available for more people to think, 'Hey, maybe I can try doing it,"' Bixby said by phone last week as his new album, "Cowboys and Cadillacs," hit shelves.

Indeed, Bixby, a flaxen-haired 17-year-old from Drumheller, Alta., did break new ground as he charmed viewers with his mature voice, cowboy attire and Elvis covers to become the first country artist to place as high as second on the CTV show.

The pool of twanging talent among last year's "Idol" contestants prompted Ron Kitchener - manager of big country acts in Canada and the U.S. - to pay serious attention to the show for the first time and eventually take on Oram of Hare Bay, N.L., as his first "Idol" artist, and his first female one, in a management capacity.

"Early on, it wasn't that I wasn't a fan of 'Idol,' I just probably didn't give it the respect that I probably do now," Kitchener, who has offices in Nashville and Toronto, said at a recent party for Oram's engaging new reality TV show, "The Tara Diaries," debuting this Sunday on CMT.

"Now I look at it and go, 'OK, the business has kind of changed in such a way that now you've got all these artists out there who can't break any other way' ... there's a lot of Idols and Nashville is full of them right now."

Carrie Underwood, of course, is perhaps the best-known of the "Idol" country-singing bunch after soaring to fame following her 2005 win on "American Idol." Then there's Bucky Covington, Kellie Pickler, Josh Gracin, Phil Stacey ... and the list goes on.

All of those artists, however, are American, so Bixby and Oram's successful "Idol" turn on this side of the border perhaps signifies that country music on the Canadian series is finally resonating with viewers.

"I've heard people say, 'Ever since I've seen the show and stuff, I never liked country music before but it's pretty cool now seeing somebody who's my age doing it," said Bixby, who was teased in high school for liking country music and is now touring the country, has a deal with HRM Records and is touting his own genre of rockabilly that he calls "Rock-a-Bixby."

Bixby - whose career is picking up so much steam he's had to tell the girl he's seeing that he's too busy for a relationship - said he was criticized by "Canadian Idol" judge Zack Werner for inserting too much twang into his songs on the show.

"I always got flak for the country music and Zack's like, 'What are you doing country music for? Try something different,"' said Bixby, who is relishing news that Werner is now in a country-rock band called Haymaker in Medicine Hat, Alta.

"Obviously Tara and I influenced him quite a bit," Bixby said with a laugh.

"He went from being a rocker to a country album guy so I'm going to go buy that album, I'm going to judge it and if I hear him twang in it once, I'm going to go down hard on him."

Oram can be seen in her new reality show hobnobbing with Pickler and industry executives in Nashville, getting emotional on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry and goofing around with her rocker boyfriend, "Canadian Idol" Season 5 winner Brian Melo.

"I've always visualized myself where I am right now," said the pretty, perky 24-year-old, who recently released the single "Fly Girl" and is working on her debut album that will be released under Kitchener's Open Road Recordings.

"I think maybe if I didn't do 'Idol,' I would've been doing this some other time in my life - maybe not so soon but I would not have given up, ever."