18th Annual Country Music Critics’ Poll: Selected Factoids

Mining the data for insights into country music

Photos from left: Miranda Lambert by Becky Fluke, Lee Ann Womack by Daniel Meigs

* Many country artists were able to combine commercial and critical success in 2017. Eleven acts finished in both the top 25 of Billboard’s year-end chart for Hot Country Songs and the top 25 of our poll’s Best Single category: Sam Hunt (No. 1 Billboard/No. 13 in our poll), Jon Pardi (No. 6/No. 20), Lady Antebellum (No. 9/No. 16), Little Big Town (No. 10/No. 9), Luke Combs (No. 11/No. 14), Keith Urban (No. 13/No. 15), Midland (No. 15/No. 1), Carly Pearce (No. 19/No. 6), Brothers Osborne (No. 23/No. 6), LANCO (No. 24/No. 24) and Maren Morris (No. 25/No. 12).

* Only five artists appeared in the top 20 of both Billboard’s Top Country Artists of 2017 and the poll’s Artist of the Year category: Chris Stapleton (No. 2 Billboard/No. 2 poll), Thomas Rhett (No. 3/No. 18), Eric Church (No. 15/No. 7), Miranda Lambert (No. 16/No. 5) and Garth Brooks (No. 17/No. 12).

* Some artists sold a lot of records without impressing the critics. Five of the top 20 singles on Billboard’s year-end chart (Kane Brown’s “What Ifs,” Dustin Lynch’s “Small Town Boy,” Dylan Scott’s “My Girl,” Florida Georgia Line’s “God, Your Mama and Me” and Jason Aldean’s “Any Ol’ Barstool”) failed to gain a vote from any critic.

* Three of the poll’s top 10 albums hit No. 1 on Billboard’s weekly Top Country Albums charts: Jason Isbell’s The Nashville Sound, both volumes of Chris Stapleton’s From A Room and Willie Nelson’s God’s Problem Child. Four other albums in the poll’s top 10 charted on Top Country Albums as well: Margo Price’s All American Made (No. 12 at Billboard), Rodney Crowell’s Close Ties (No. 28), Lee Ann Womack’s The Lonely, the Lonesome and the Gone (No. 37) and Charlie Worsham’s Beginning of Things (No. 44). Only two songs from the poll’s top 10 albums, however, charted on Billboard’s weekly singles charts: Stapleton’s “Broken Halos” (No. 13) and his “Either Way” (No. 17).

* Between them, Miranda Lambert and Lee Ann Womack have won 11 of the 18 votes in the poll’s history for Best Female Vocalist. Lambert won in 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2016, and Womack in 2000, 2005, 2008 and 2017. The only interlopers in the past nine years were Kacey Musgraves in 2013 and Ashley Monroe in 2015.

* This is the 11th consecutive year that Miranda Lambert has placed at least one song in the top 10 of the poll’s voting for Best Single. In nine of those years, she placed at least one single in the poll’s top three. This year she had the No. 2 best single, “Tin Man,” while her ex-husband Blake Shelton’s “I’ll Name the Dogs” tied for the No. 61 best single.

* Allison Moorer’s album with her sister Shelby Lynne (Not Dark Yet), was the No. 18 album in the poll, narrowly edging out Moorer’s ex-husband Steve Earle’s No. 19 album (So You Wannabe an Outlaw). Earle’s son Justin Townes Earle had the poll’s No. 47 best album (Kids in the Street). 

* This year’s top 25 for the poll’s Best Album category included Margo Price (runner-up for the second year in a row), Lee Ann Womack (No. 1 album of 2000 and No. 3 album of 2008), Chris Stapleton (No. 1 album of 2015), Rodney Crowell (No. 1 album of 2003), Tyler Childers (produced by Sturgill Simpson, No. 1 album of 2014), Little Big Town (No. 1 group of 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2017) and Alison Krauss (Artist of the Year in 2001).

* In our 16th annual poll, Jason Isbell was the runner-up in the categories of Best Album, Best Live Act, Best Songwriter and Artist of the Year. He topped all four categories this year.

* Midland is only the third act to win the poll’s Best Single and Best New Act categories in the same year. The only other two were Gretchen Wilson in 2004 and Kacey Musgraves in 2013.

* It was a good year for independent labels. Six of the poll’s top 25 albums were released on labels co-founded with management/marketing/distribution firm Thirty Tigers, and New West Records released three. On the other hand, Universal Music (which includes MCA, Mercury, EMI, Big Machine and Capitol) had half of the top 10 singles. Warner Bros., often an afterthought on Music Row in recent years, placed two albums in the poll’s top 20.

* Of the 11 singles that received Grammy nominations or Best Country Solo Performance, Best Country Duo/Group Performance or Best Country Song, nine appeared in the top 20 of the Critics’ Poll for best singles: Midland’s “Drinking Problem” (No. 1 in the poll), Miranda Lambert’s “Tin Man” (No. 2), Chris Stapleton’s “Broken Halos” (No. 4), Brothers Osborne’s “It Ain’t My Fault” (No. 6), Little Big Town’s “Better Man” (No. 9), Maren Morris’ “I Could Use a Love Song” (No. 12), Sam Hunt’s “Body Like a Back Road” (No. 13), Lady Antebellum’s “You Look Good” (No. 16) and Chris Stapleton’s “Either Way” (No. 17).

* On the other hand, the critics disagreed with the Grammys about albums. Only two of the five Grammy nominees for Best Country Album made it into the poll’s top 30: Vol. 1 of Stapleton’s From A Room and Little Big Town’s The Breaker. Likewise, only two of the five Grammy nominees for Best Americana album made it into the poll’s top 30: Isbell’s The Nashville Sound and The Mavericks’ Brand New Day. Not one of the Grammy nominees for Best Bluegrass Album broke into the poll’s top 90. 

* Ninety-four music journalists voted in the 18th Annual Country Music Critics’ Poll. They wrote for big coastal newspapers such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post as well as smaller heartland dailies such as Memphis’ The Commercial Appeal, Green Bay Press-Gazette and Lincoln Journal Star. They wrote for big magazines like Rolling Stone, Billboard and The New Yorker and for specialty magazines and websites such as The Bluegrass Situation, Texas Music and The Bitter Southerner. 

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