To avoid the clichés, just write a lyric to a country and western melody, but don't consciously write a country and western song. I tried to write one a while back called 'House in the country', which was about a couple asking for help to find a new home (well known TV property programme in the UK), but in this case it turned out that they wanted to move because their relationship was tired and they were desperate to rejuvenate it. That gives a slightly different perspective, but still fits the country theme.
So my advice is find an angle, have a basic melody in mind, then sit back enjoy the creative process. Didn't do anything with it in the end, but one of the most fun lyrics I've worked on (pasted below).
Hope that helps.
Mike
House In The Country
These tired old walls are closing in
The rooms are damp and the carpet's thin
The boiler's broke and the doors don't close
And through the hall a cold wind blows
The bedroom's seen much better days
The walls are damp and the bed's unmade
It overlooks a sea of weeds
wilting flowers and fallen trees
Chorus:
Find us a house in the country
We need another place to be
A pretty cottage with a garden
A bed and breakfast by the sea
A country pile with 20 acres
We'll take whatever you can find
Find us a house in the country
So we can leave it all behind
We want to go where the grass is green
Where the carpet's thick and the rooms are clean
And the table's always nicely laid
The linen's ironed and the beds are made
Chorus
It wasn't meant to be this way
We grew apart a little every day
Now we don't know what else to do
So we're putting all our faith in you
Tonbridge Wells or Clitheroe,
Royston, Buxton, John O Groats
Malham Bridge or Peterlee,
Langley, Longford, Leigh On Sea,
Portobello, Glasgow, Leith,
Aberystwyth, Newport, Neath,
Cardiff, Swansea, Belvedere,
Pretty much anywhere else but here
Chorus
