18th Annual Country Music Critics’ Poll: The Comments

Our voters observe how mainstream country embraced Chris Stapleton, tried to keep politics at arm’s length and more

Photos from left: Chris Stapleton by Eric England, Miranda Lambert by Ivor Karabatkovic

Country Music’s Political Problem

The way artists engaged our fraught political moment, or didn’t, was the story in country music this year. And don’t tell me country doesn’t, or shouldn’t, go there. Great artists don’t shrink from social commentary: Loretta, Johnny, Merle, Willie; Margo Price, Jason Isbell, Kacey Musgraves, Brad Paisley, and the list goes on. —Will Hermes

The CMA initially barred reporters at its award show from asking any questions about the shootings in Las Vegas or about politics or gun control. The CMA backed off after significant backlash, and the embargo was made with the best of intentions. But the sentiment was clear: We’re all a big family, but act the way we tell you to. This is what you get when the homogenized attitude and inherent sameness of the music values playing it safe over everything else. —Jake Harris

For me, the best moment in country music this year was Sturgill Simpson’s protest outside of the CMA Awards, singing some songs, offering to answer any question on any issue and accepting tips, which he said he’d donate to the ACLU (he later said he’d taken in $13). But while he was outside raging against the evil corporate overlords, inside Bridgestone Arena those overlords were giving awards for Male Vocalist and Album of the Year to none other than Chris Stapleton. This doesn’t mean that Simpson’s complaints against the country music industrial complex aren’t valid, but Stapleton’s success is a ray of hope. —Steve Terrell

2017 was also the year when practically every celebrity in the public eye took a stand on one side of the political spectrum or another — except country artists. Even after a mass shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas killed more than 50 people, you’d be hard-pressed to find a mainstream country singer who was willing to offer even a remotely controversial opinion on gun control. This is the real result of country music’s shunning of the Dixie Chicks for their comments about George W. Bush 15 years ago — an entire genre of musicians so terrified of losing their fan base that they live by the “shut up and sing” motto. —Sam Gazdziak

It’s interesting that the genre most identified with “shut up and sing” has yet to be rocked by widespread #MeToo accusations, with the exception of publicist Kirt Webster (allegations against whom surfaced in the fall). I suspect that’s because in a genre that leans toward the conservative end of the spectrum, it still might be harder for those who’d like to speak out to be believed or avoid repercussions. I am absolutely certain many people have stories to tell, but the balance of power hasn’t yet shifted to a place where they can. —Lynne Margolis

Most of the songs about women on country radio this year were sung by men. We heard men calling women “Baby” or “Girl” but not by their names. We heard men valuing a woman based on how tight her jeans are. We heard men comparing women to drug fixes and back roads. On the other end of the spectrum, we heard Keith Urban all but deifying women in “Female,” portraying them as something mysterious and pure. The one thing we didn’t hear much of on country radio was women singing about actual women — highs, lows and in-betweens — like Brandy Clark did with “Three Kids No Husband” or Cam did with “Diane.” Will 2018 be any better? I’d hope so, but I have a bad feeling that the first single called “Me Too” will end up being written by three dudes at a writing session and will be sung by Thomas Rhett or Michael Ray. —Sam Gazdziak

Freedom Highway’s heartbreaking narratives about America’s original sin, made more palatable by Rhiannon Giddens’ gorgeous vocals, created a genuine sublimity in the traditional sense of that word: terror and beauty, isolation, being torn apart and reassembled into a spirit of America which we don’t deserve. —Anthony Easton

In the future, a lot of critics will point to “The Songbook of the Trump Era,” and Jason Isbell’s The Nashville Sound will have a prominent place. The songs here are about a Southern white man reconciling his (and his ancestors’) place in this country while never forgetting the working-class Alabama town he came from, all the while hoping that the world his baby daughter has been born into will be better off by the time she is old enough to inherit it. Regardless of your own political beliefs, that’s something anyone can relate to. —Jake Harris

Jason Isbell gets my pick as artist of the year for writing not only the best love song of 2017 (“If We Were Vampires”) but also the song that best summed up 2017 (“Hope the High Road”). “Last year was a son of a bitch for nearly everyone we know.” Truer words were never written. —Sam Gazdziak

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Sisters Doing It for Themselves

Sometimes a woman wants to hear music from another woman. One of the year’s most emotional moments for me was hearing Margo Price perform at Farm Aid, knowing that her own parents had lost their family farm years ago. Hopefully one day she will be able to buy it back. And Angaleena Presley’s “Cheer Up Little Darlin’ ” helped me during the passing of my grandfather. —Jessica Bray

Yes, sonically, you have to compete, but let’s get honest about how women think and feel. The double-X-chromosome set responds to female artists, especially to women who write their own songs and/or pick their own material. Maybe those 40- to 50-year-old white males shouldn’t be the sole gatekeepers for terrestrial radio. —Holly Gleason

Margo Price is the type of country artist you want to see succeed. She is the real deal, a late bloomer with a distinctive voice who writes her own material, produces her own albums and records with her own band. The problem with All-American Made is that some of the material is not all that terrific (“Pay Gap” stands out), the engineering and production is sub-standard for a major release (her vocals tend to get lost in the mix), and the band lacks punch. Despite all of the above, is it better than most of what’s on the radio, including the SiriusXM country channels? Sure. Is it better than the 10 albums on my list? Nope. —Rick Mitchell

Miranda Lambert’s “Tin Man” is a classic weeper, all vulnerability and a soul laid bare, absolutely worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” —Kendra Meinert

With The Lonely, the Lonesome and the Gone, Lee Ann Womack stakes her claim as one of the greatest country singers of all time. Recorded at Sugar Hill Studios in Houston, the music casts an eerie spell that feels about a million light-years away from Nashville’s mundane, assembly-line approach to hit making. But it’s Womack’s voice — sultry, somber, soulful, neither old nor young — that will put a chill in your spine. —Rick Mitchell

Angeleena Presley’s sly honky-tonk songcraft is put to great use on her second album, a consistent pleasure from start to finish. The best moment, though, is “Outlaw,” a subversion of expectation and cliché that laments the singer’s lack of success on the pop charts and desire to be embraced by the mainstream. In the aftermath of “Tomatogate” and the #MeToo moment, Presley’s demand to be taken seriously feels more subversive than most of the standard “outlaw” moves of Stapleton, Simpson, et al. —Charles L. Hughes

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A Different Kind of Bro Country

I find it curious that Chris Stapleton has been embraced by both mainstream country and Americana audiences, but so many of his equally worthy contemporaries can’t seem to cross back and forth. Why that border wall exists I have no idea, but it’s mainstream country’s loss. —Lynne Margolis

Chris Stapleton is undeniably the biggest star in country music right now. Ironically, he has succeeded in spite of the lack of support from radio, the only part of the industry that refuses to fully embrace him. He’s dominating country awards shows and his albums are selling better than not just everyone in country music, but the majority of all music. Not to mention he’s got great touring numbers, has solid streaming numbers and tons of critical acclaim. Yet I don’t really see a strong enough effort from the industry to sign more artists in the mold of Stapleton (the Stapleton wannabes don’t count). This is an industry fearful of losing its control of the genre. —Josh Schott

I was playing Volume 2 of From A Room and Gregg Allman’s Southern Blood back to back, and damned if I could rationalize why one might be “country” and the other not. —Mitchell Cohen

How did Isbell’s The Nashville Sound get nominated for the CMA’s Album of the Year when there aren’t more than a handful of mainstream country radio programmers or promoters who could pick “If We Were Vampires” out of a blind listening test? —Holly Gleason

The Turnpike Troubadours have always had a way with turning the short-story form into song. A Long Way From Your Heart is the Troubadours at the top of their game, creating an Oklahoma landscape filled with recurring characters — someone lamenting the loss of a friendship to crime, someone else warning a friend about the dangers of dating a much younger woman, a man grieving the loss of a loved one, a budding romance set to a tornado. —Jake Harris

Charlie Worsham’s “Cut Your Groove” was my favorite single, even though it was a radio no-show. It’s a fine song but a fantastic, turn-it-up-and-sing-along single, demonstrating the difference between songwriting and recording. But who in the world thought that “Life’s a record, baby / Cut your groove” would ever be a hit with listeners who no longer even get the metaphors? —David Cantwell

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Commercial Radio Country 

Why do all the country guys have names like TV actors in the early ’60s? Chase Rice, Dustin Lynch, Austin Burke, Walker Hayes: Is this the cast of Surfside 6 or Hawaiian Eye? Does country radio not care that these guys are interchangeable? To switch analogies, how is this any different than Bobby Vinton, Frankie Avalon and Paul Anka? I keep telling my rock-centric friends to give country music a shot, but I’m afraid if they turn on CMT — or if they hear “Like I Loved You” by Brett Young — they’ll think I’ve gone bonkers. —Mitchell Cohen

This year brought another round of the same tired authenticity debates that have structured country music since the beginning. It makes sense, then, that many of the most interesting mainstream country records were those that seemed to have little use for this debate entirely. Midland and Kip Moore are two examples. A third is Old Dominion, who paired arena-rock rush with post-bro sweetness in a way that I found quite compelling. —Charles L. Hughes

Thomas Rhett’s songs are the most pop thing on country radio. The Georgia-born singer — with multicolored tennis shoes and a faux hawk that he’s growing out — has no hint of an accent or pedal steel guitar. In fact, his band has a saxophone. Not that Rhett used it to great effect in concert. Think Jason Mraz trying to be Justin Timberlake. —Jon Bream

Authentic? Poseur? Fashion victims? Commitment to art? Ooooh, the trouble with Midland. Three guys who’re not quite as young as the other kids, dressed up like drugstore cowboys — if the drugstore was on Hollywood and Vine or inside Laurel Canyon Country Store — with résumés that suggest high-level show business ties (MTV videos, modeling, tabloid dating). The reality of “Drinkin’ Problem” is it evokes that sweet spot of mellow country-rockery that made the Eagles inescapable. At a time when the genre is so pop, so urban-channeling, Midland satisfies ears yearning for that kind of acoustic-driven country. Will they last? Who knows? —Holly Gleason

In a world of machined, high-gloss singles and Sam Hunt chasers doing big business, a country singer with both commercial and artistic ambitions needs to make the format more sonically aggressive (as Dwight Yoakam did), ignore the format and let the chips fall where they will (as Steve Earle did), or figure out how to split the difference for a single or two (as Mary Chapin Carpenter did). —Holly Gleason

Where do I begin with the genre’s problems? Radio seems like a great place to start. The blatantly transparent chart-jacking by the major labels and the radio industry’s willingness to go along with the whole charade is a black eye for the entire genre. It says to people from the outside that country music is not a free market that rewards worthy efforts, but rather a dirty plutocracy. The only reason this antiquated model still works to any degree is due to the lack of technology in rural areas and the lack of knowledge by older consumers that better ways of consuming music exist. A more informed listener is the most dangerous threat to a major label’s standing and bottom line. —Josh Schott

Country radio’s truth is selling advertising, and they’ve done that with a steady diet of jacked-up compression pounding out go-down-easy tropes over accelerated beats and turning everything wonderful about Lori McKenna’s writing into golden-syrup, MOR ooze. If that’s the context, how does Isbell’s “Vampires,” or even any Chris Stapleton single find a place in that mix? —Holly Gleason

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What Is Country Music?

It seems to me that Eric Church and Miranda Lambert are rock stars, however you want to define that, and that Maren Morris’ “80s Mercedes” is the definition of a pop hit, so the whole thing is confusing. I’m really not sure what’s going on, and I’m completely mystified by Florida Georgia Line as well as Blake Shelton’s “I’ll Name the Dogs.” Seriously? How is that a song? —Mitchell Cohen

When male country stars write praise songs for their ladies, they reduce character to clothing, agreeability, capacity for drinking and, most interestingly, taste in music. Thomas Rhett’s girl loves Coldplay, Dylan Scott’s digs Eminem, and Jon Pardi’s is into Motown. This is lazy, automatic writing. But when you look at other musical name-drops this year — Aaron Watson mentions David Bowie, Old Dominion cites John Mellencamp, Thomas Rhett (him again?) mentions Guns N’ Roses — one indication seems clear: Young country singers and audiences have no second thoughts about breaking away from the South’s traditions and embracing a more worldly scope of influences, tastes and passions. The horses are out of the barn. —Rob Tannenbaum

It’s a tough road for artists such as Mark Chesnutt or Joe Nichols, who have released new albums in the past couple of years. They’ve aged a bit past today’s country format, but aren’t quite edgy enough to be embraced by Americana. Perhaps that’s why Nichols released a cover of “Baby Got Back,” in an attempt to connect somewhere beyond country, however tenuous that might be. He and his musical peers must feel they’re in no man’s land, never a desirable landing spot. A place for them needs to exist. —Bob Paxman

Listening to Bear Family Records’ At the Louisiana Hayride Tonight box set, I was reminded that country has always been a big-tent music, most amenable in live performance to the variety-show format. Fittingly, I found myself veering back and forth between inter-genre extremes this year. At this point in time, I’d much rather listen to Carly Pearce’s pop-country aperçus than read another explanation of why Sturgill Simpson is the genre’s outlaw savior. Pearce and Sunny Sweeney were as enjoyable and valid a country act as Jason Isbell, and I got a lot more pleasure out of the pop side of country in 2017 than I did with burlier Americana traditionalists. Of course, that could change next year — all it would take would be stronger albums from the boys. —Ken Tucker

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