Country artist breaking law endlessly (5)

I believe the answer is:

rural

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'country' is the definition.
(I know that country can be written as rural)

'artist breaking law endlessly' is the wordplay.
'artist breaking' becomes 'r' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'law' becomes 'natural law' (synonyms).
'endlessly' means to look at the middle letters (the ends of the words are removed).
The middle of 'naturallaw' is 'ural'.
'r'+'ural'='RURAL'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for rural that I've seen before include "Countrylike" , "Pastoral or agricultural" , "Not urban" , "Arcadian" , "Rustic" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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