The CMA Nominations Have Me Asking One Big Question

I’ve had about 24 hours to digest the nominations for the 60th CMA Awards.

Ella Langley has 9 nominations including 2 songs in the Single of the Year category

"Be Her" and "Choosin' Texas".

She has had just an absolutely amazing year.

Credit: Garret Doll

I have questions.

Actually, I have several questions, a folding chair, a few beers and apparently way too much time to think about country music.

And before anybody gets mad at me, let me get this out of the way:

This isn’t about trashing the artists who were nominated.

There are a LOT of artists on this list I love. There are artists we play on 97.5 WOKQ every day. There are artists I’ve watched New Hampshire country fans pack into BankNH Pavilion to see.

My problem is pretty simple.

I can’t figure out what we’re measuring anymore.

The CMA Awards are voted on by more than 7,000 country music industry professionals as CMA members, and the eligibility period ran from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026.

I've been around this industry and Country music my entire life.  So when I look at the nominations, I keep coming back to the same question:

What’s the barometer?

Credit: Getty Images

Let's Address the Morgan Wallen-Sized Elephant in the Room

Where is Morgan Wallen?

Seriously.

No Entertainer of the Year nomination.

No Male Vocalist of the Year nomination.

Yet Morgan somehow appears TWICE in Musical Event of the Year, once with Ella Langley for “I Can’t Love You Anymore” and again alongside HARDY, Eric Church and Tim McGraw for “McArthur.”

Apparently Morgan Wallen exists when he’s standing next to other artists.

By himself? Sorry, sir. We have no record of you.

You need to bring a friend for the nomination. LOL

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You don’t have to like Morgan Wallen. You don’t have to like every song he records. You certainly don’t have to invite him over for Thanksgiving.

But can we acknowledge reality?

Credit: Getty Images

Earlier this year, even our own WOKQ coverage noted that Ella Langley had become the second-most-streamed country artist in the world with more than 30 million monthly Spotify listeners.

The only country artist ahead of her?

Morgan Wallen.

And Ella Langley absolutely deserves the CMA love she’s getting and “Choosin’ Texas” even simultaneously topped the Billboard Hot 100, Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts. That is undeniable. She is currently tied with Mariah Carey for the longest run at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100

But that makes Morgan's absence from the major individual categories even harder for me to understand.

New Hampshire country fans know him, too.

Before Morgan Wallen became the stadium-level artist he is today, he played back-to-back nights at BankNH Pavilion in Gilford in June 2022 with HARDY and ERNEST.

So if the CMA Awards are measuring impact, audience, consumption, touring and what's actually happening in country music right now…

Show me the math cause the math ain't mathing for me.

Credit: Getty Images

Now I’m probably going to make somebody mad.

One of the greatest country duos ever.

They've played right here in New Hampshire, including BankNH Pavilion in 2024.

They are touring but, Brooks & Dunn’s last Top 10 country hit was “Cowgirls Don’t Cry” in 2009.

2009.

Barack Obama had been president for about a week.

And somehow, in 2026, we’re still pretending Vocal Duo of the Year is a competitive category.

That's roughly 17 years since Brooks & Dunn had a Top 10 country hit.

That isn't disrespecting Brooks & Dunn.

Their résumé is ridiculous. They've got absolutely nothing left to prove.

Which is precisely why I'm asking:

WHAT ARE WE REWARDING HERE?

Is Vocal Duo of the Year supposed to recognize the duo that had the best YEAR in country music?

Or has it basically become a lifetime-achievement category where Brooks & Dunn automatically gets written onto the ballot because…well…they’re Brooks & Dunn?

This year's nominees for Vocal Duo are:

• Brooks & Dunn
• Brothers Osborne
• Dan + Shay
• Muscadine Bloodline
• Thelma & James.

Where's LoCash?

And here's another interesting New Hampshire connection:

Muscadine Bloodline just opened for HARDY at BankNH Pavilion in June.

So I'm not saying there aren't talented artists in this category.

I'm asking whether there are enough commercially active country duos anymore to justify keeping an entire CMA category for five of them.

Maybe country music has changed.

Maybe the awards should change with it.

Combine Vocal Duo and Vocal Group.

Call it Vocal Duo/Group of the Year.

Boom.

Now Brooks & Dunn, Dan + Shay, Muscadine Bloodline, Old Dominion, Red Clay Strays, Midland, Lady A and everybody else compete for five spots.

Make the nomination itself harder to get.

Because I don't want to take an award AWAY from Brooks & Dunn.

I want being nominated for it to actually mean something.

Nostalgia is great. Legacy is important.

But Vocal Duo of the "YEAR" should probably have something to do with the "YEAR".

And While We're Here, What About Vocal Group?

• Lady A.
• Little Big Town.
• Midland.
• Old Dominion.
• The Red Clay Strays.

Where's Parmalee?

Again, I like these artists.

This isn't personal.

Old Dominion? Absolutely.

But if these are supposed to be the five groups that best represent what's happening in country music in 2026, I want receipts. Where's Parmalee?

• Show me the radio.
• Show me the streaming.
• Show me the consumption.
• Show me the touring.
• Show me the fan engagement.

And if there simply aren't enough commercially relevant groups to create a truly competitive category anymore, that's okay.

Just admit it. Country music changed. The industry changed.

The CMA Awards can change too.

We don't have to keep categories on life support because somebody carved them into a stone tablet in Nashville 50 years ago.

Credit: Getty Images

Then There's New Artist of the Year

Avery Anna.

Carter Faith.

Emily Ann Roberts.

Tucker Wetmore.

Stephen Wilson Jr.

First, congratulations to all five.

Seriously.

This isn't an attack on any of them.  Tucker Wetmore has had the best year of everyone.  That's the barometer for this category.

And there's even another cool New Hampshire connection here: Emily Ann Roberts was just at BankNH Pavilion in July opening for Thomas Rhett.

But you're telling me we're having a conversation about the biggest breakthrough artists in country music…

…and we're NOT talking about:

Gavin Adcock?

Ashley Cooke?

Max McNown?

Hudson Westbrook?

HOW?

And that's an important distinction.

I'm not asking:

“Why THEM?”

I'm asking:

“How are THESE OTHER ARTISTS NOT EVEN IN THE CONVERSATION?”

Because from where I'm sitting every morning at WOKQ, I can actually watch country music change in real time.

I see which songs connect.

I see which artists listeners ask about.

I see the streaming numbers.

I see which names start appearing higher and higher on festival and concert bills.

And most importantly, I see which artists New Hampshire country fans actually care about.

That's why these nominations sometimes feel disconnected from what's happening outside Nashville.

Credit: Getty Images

And One Nomination I Absolutely LOVED

Because I don't want this entire article to sound like I'm standing on my lawn screaming at Nashville…

Stephen Wilson Jr.

THAT was my favorite surprise of the nominations.

Male Vocalist of the Year AND New Artist of the Year.

I love it.

He's also nominated for Song of the Year for “Gary” and Music Video of the Year.

And this is exactly what I mean when I say artistry should matter.

Stephen Wilson Jr. doesn't necessarily fit neatly into the traditional country-radio machine. His music is different. It's raw. It's interesting. He's built an audience by being unmistakably himself.

So seeing CMA voters recognize that?

Good.

More of that.

I can question how Riley Green or Morgan Wallen misses Male Vocalist and, at the exact same time, be genuinely excited that somebody like Stephen Wilson Jr. made it.

Those aren't contradictory opinions.

That's actually the whole point of my argument.

I don't want the CMA Awards to simply nominate the five artists with the biggest radio songs.

But I also don't think you can completely ignore commercial impact, radio, streaming, touring and audience growth.

There has to be some combination of all of it.

Which brings me right back to the question I apparently can't stop asking:

WHAT'S THE BAROMETER?

That's really my problem with the entire nomination list.

I don't need my favorite artists to win.

I don't even need my favorite artists to be nominated.

But I need to be able to look at the nominations and understand why they're there.

Radio matters.

Streaming matters.

Touring matters.

Fan engagement matters.

Cultural impact matters.

And YES... artistry absolutely matters.

But when you've got more than 7,000 country music professionals determining the nominees and winners, the result should represent something more than:

*Well…Nashville really likes this person.”

Otherwise we're not measuring the year in country music.

We're measuring who the industry likes this year.

And Morgan Wallen might be the clearest example.

No Entertainer.

No Male Vocalist.

But two Musical Event nominations.

So apparently he's having enough of an impact to be recognized when he's collaborating with other artists…

but not enough impact to be recognized individually?

Make that make sense.

And I want to be clear about something else.

There are some GREAT nominations this year.

Ella Langley had a monster year, and New Hampshire got to see it firsthand when she headlined BankNH Pavilion this summer after appearing there as an opener just two years earlier.

Luke Combs belongs in the conversation.

Lainey Wilson belongs there.

Cody Johnson belongs there.

Chris Stapleton is Chris freaking Stapleton.

Zach Top, another nominee who has exploded over the past couple of years, just came through Gilford in August.

There are plenty of deserving artists on this ballot.

That's not my argument.

I'm not asking why deserving people were nominated.

I'm asking why some obviously deserving people aren't even sitting at the table.

There's a difference.

So congratulations to everybody nominated.

Seriously. Enjoy the moment.

But to the thousands of CMA voters, from one country radio guy sitting up here in New Hampshire…

I have one question:

WHAT'S THE BAROMETER?

Because right now it feels like we're measuring country music with a ruler…

"that only Nashville gets to see."