See all our 16th Annual Country Music Critics' Poll coverage: the full list of results, select factoids from the results, our interview with Chris Stapleton, our feature about how Stapleton and Jason Isbell triumphed without country radio and our critics' comments.
Heartworn Highways
Chris Stapleton's awards-show push was significant, heartening and surprising. That being said, I'm cautiously optimistic. Left-fielders such as Alison Krauss and The Kentucky Headhunters have been surprise winners in the past, but it seems like it never takes long to yank the rug out from under the iconoclastic upstarts and reset the status quo. I really hope that's not the case this time and that this proves to be a rising tide that lifts all boats. There's a deep well of talent that I think mainstream listeners would dig if they had the chance. —Mike Ethan Messick
I'm fine with a Stapleton sweep, because even though I didn't really get clued in until the CMAs this year, he's got more than the goods. Fine songwriter, great singer, excellent album. I hope he gets a little more of that "Drink You Away" influence on his next album, because the Achilles heel of Traveller is that it gets a little samey. —Thomas Inskeep
When I first heard Chris Stapleton with The SteelDrivers, I immediately thought of Bob Seger: Both have the tight, raspy mid-range that can wail for a second, then drop right back into the continuity. Stapleton's got a way with words, but the expression really comes through more in his distinctive vocal sound. He's recommended to jonesing Jamey Johnson fans, though the former has little of the latter's humor. —Don Allred
I look at Chris Stapleton winning a New Artist of the Year CMA Award the same way I looked at Ichiro Suzuki winning Rookie of the Year in 2001. He was sort of a rookie, on a technicality, but that overlooks all the work that he did elsewhere, in The SteelDrivers — just like Suzuki in the Japanese Pacific League. —Sam Gazdziak
As for Chris Stapleton, I like whiskey as much as the next guy, probably more so. But, dude, there are other subjects to write about. And how is this supposed to be something out of leftfield? Hank Williams Jr. was doing the Waylon Jennings-meets-Lynyrd Skynyrd shtick 35 years ago. —Rick Mitchell
Six months after it first ran, I'm still getting hate mail for my Jason Isbell review on Pitchfork. Nothing else I wrote this year elicited such an outpouring of invective (e.g., "disliked because it's not pretentious shite???"). It was odd to be the lone dissenter, especially for an artist I admire and respect, but I still think this is a lackluster album with slick production and humdrum songwriting. —Stephen Deusner
Though major labels aren't investing in the Lyle Lovetts, Dwight Yoakams, Steve Earles or k.d. langs these days, singular artists are still breaking through. Jason Isbell made arguably the year's finest country record, while Sturgill Simpson signed to Atlantic Records and played a sold-out multi-night stand at the Ryman. Both artists prove that, like Willie Nelson all those years ago, you can secede from the system and make your own kind of country music: Trust the people, do the work, play the shows, and they will come. —Holly Gleason
Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves
The two impressive singles from Kacey Musgraves' Pageant Material were ignored by country radio, an outcome she anticipated when she sang on "Good Ol' Boys Club": "Favors for friends will get you in and get you far / But when did it become about who you know and not about how good you are?" And Ashley Monroe, who could get on country radio via "Lonely Tonight" from Blake Shelton's recent album, saw her own material passed on. —Dev Ghosh
Kacey Musgraves' Pageant Material is so smart and witty you could take its musical inventiveness and lyrical insights for granted. Don't. —Randy Lewis
The Ke$ha-fication of country music has led both to the pot-positive, liberal candor of Kacey Musgraves, and the playfully ironic post-feminism of Maddie & Tae. It has successfully diversified what women can say, do or be within the genre. —Carol Cooper
What most impressed me about Kacey Musgraves' 2013 major label debut was the way she returned discussions of class, and its attendant troubles, to mainstream country — most memorably on "Merry Go 'Round." What bummed me out about Musgraves' follow-up this year was its retreat from class. Thankfully, her fumble was picked up by others. By the very texture of Chris Stapleton's calloused voice, of course, but also by Carrie Underwood — of all people — who in "Smoke Break" got away with rhyming "first generation to go to college 'stead of driving a tractor" with "do something that matters." (Not long ago that would've made the country audience mad. Who says farm work doesn't matter?) —David Cantwell
I love that Jeff Bhasker — who made his name producing Kanye, Jay Z, P!nk and fun. — has pulled a Mutt Lange and infiltrated country with Cam's Untamed, a late-breaking December release that's easily my favorite country album of the year. I don't hear echoes of Shania, however, in Cam's poppish country; she harkens back to the '80s, Juice Newton and Janie Fricke. Hell, "Hungover on Heartache" could've come from an early Rosanne Cash album. —Thomas Inskeep
The songs that make the biggest impact on country radio, the most conservative genre on the radio dial, are those that make people balk. "Girl in a Country Song" was last year's sharp stick in the eye, as was "Follow Your Arrow" the year before and Eric Church's "Homeboy" a few years back. This year it was Little Big Town's "Girl Crush," which some misheard as a Sapphic love song. "Girl Crush" describes a rival so fabulous that even the woman left behind has a bit of a crush on her successor. Such a subtle, adult truth with a double-entendre spin was too nuanced for some, but the song went No. 1 anyway. Sometimes good work — and a little media outcry — still works. —Holly Gleason
In late May, radio consultant Keith Hill dressed up advice to limit females to 15 percent or less of country radio playlists for the sake of ratings in what has become a widely panned salad analogy that cast females as tomatoes. This made country radio look like a slow, self-limiting beast that was content, barring some earth-shaking event, to bypass good music with demonstrable market appeal, if the music didn't fit a narrow profile. —Dev Ghosh
Alternatives
Anyone doubting Turnpike Troubadours' country credentials should revisit 2012's "Gin, Smoke and Lies," one of the finest "country murder" songs ever to come along. Mating old-school country fundamentals with youthful vigor, they are the kind of hard-biting red-dirt country act that forces even a dyed-in-the-wool Texan to acknowledge that, yes, good things do come out of Oklahoma. —Jon Black
The "Hurtin' Albertan," Corb Lund, is to Canada what Jason Isbell is to the United States. Maybe it's time we give this guy more of a listen. —Chuck Schultz
Eric Church wins the Badass of the Year Award for name-dropping Jeff Tweedy and Ray Wylie Hubbard in a new song at the CMA Awards show. —Sam Gazdziak
What Is Country Music?
2015 was my first year living in the Middle East, and it seems good things happen when you detach yourself from country radio: I became more diligent in my hunt for quality music and more appreciative of the artists who take risks for their craft. And in Rhiannon Giddens, Maddie & Tae, Jason Isbell and Drake White, I found tremendous new music that, delightfully, sounds nothing alike. Country music doesn't need to be saved; it just needs to be heard. —Tara Seetharam
As mainstream country goes evermore hip-hop and pop, I find myself drawn to both some very popular stuff and burrowing ever-deeper into old, old hardcore country. I like the two extremes: "Girl Crush," and my Kitty Wells/Johnnie and Jack DVD. To me, country music right now is exceptionally fluid and uneven, as tricky as hip-hop to keep track of, because the most interesting stuff can emerge from big stars who'd seem to have settled into formula but haven't, and from obscure artists who lack the commercial muscle or the right radio/Internet format to be widely heard. —Ken Tucker
When I listen to country music, I want to hear amazing voices and smart, well-written songs. When I want to hear hip-hop, I'll listen to actual hip-hop, thank you. —Linda Ryan
The most frustrating thing about the country music world — and you'll find this in every aspect of arts, sports, politics, etc. — is that there are now only two sides to any argument: "I'm right" and "You're an idiot." It leads to very polarized arguments with no room for discussion. If Chris Stapleton won a CMA Award over your favorite artist, it doesn't mean that he's a singer you should check out. It means Sam Hunt was robbed and the CMAs have lost all credibility. If Zac Brown Band released an album you didn't like, it doesn't mean that he made an artistic overreach. It means that he's a sellout to mainstream country. —Sam Gazdziak
I may never hear a song as poignant as "Kern River" or as fiery as "Ain't Livin' Long Like This" on country radio again, but it would be great if playlists didn't have to feel like stupid sloganeering or jingles for trucks, Mary Kay or Cracker Barrel. —Holly Gleason
You don't have to like everything. You're not even supposed to. You're simply supposed to find what moves you and let it be your own soundtrack to your life. A genre, an artist or a song should simply act as a musical compass to find more of what you love underneath this big umbrella of country music. —Ken Morton
Mainstream country radio has probably never been more excruciating. The recycled hip-hop beats are numbing (this is coming from someone who usually likes hip-hop, when performed by people who actually have the knack for it), the checklist approach to songwriting is boring, and the vocals don't really do anything to distinguish the material. It's hard to blame someone for wanting to make a buck in the music business, and I'm sure there's plenty of talent in the studios that churn this stuff out. I just hate that they're settling for this. —Mike Ethan Messick
