Red Clay Strays Poised to Crash the 2026 CMA Awards
On the 2025 CMA Awards Wednesday night (11-19), The Red Clay Strays are not only set to perform beside some of the biggest names in the entire country music genre, they may have a legitimate chance to do something no other group has done in seven years: depose the perennially lame Old Dominion from their inexplicable and completely ludicrous reign as the CMA’s Vocal Group of the Year.
Don’t get too excited though. For some reason, Vocal Group of the Year is a domain of the dynasty. Along with seven straight wins for Old Dominion, Little Big Town won it six straight years before that. Then Lady Antebellum won it for three straight years, and Rascal Flatts for six straight years before that. There’s been a grand total of four winners of the Vocal Group of the Year award in the last 21 years.
The Red Clay Strays have been pretty up front about not really considering themselves a “country” group. They’re more an amalgam of throwback roots and Americana influences, including country. But they have taken the nation by storm, selling out amphitheaters earlier this year, and recently entering the arena realm with big upcoming shows at Madison Square Garden and Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena in 2026. That’s right, The Red Clays Strays are now an arena act, at least in certain markets.
As unlikely bedfellows as they might make at a mainstream country awards show, The Red Clay Strays certainly have the popularity to justify their presence and even a performance slot on the show. This makes one feel good about their prospects of deposing Old Dominion once and for all.
But even if The Red Clay Strays come up empty in the awards department on Wednesday, their victory is just being on the stage. They never sold out. They never catered their sound to country radio. They arrived at the top of the mountain of headlining arenas and appearing on the CMA Awards by being themselves and refusing to compromise.
The Red Clay Strays don’t need the CMA Awards. The CMA Awards need the Red Clay Strays. They’re the kind of cool the CMAs and everyone else there want to be.
See The 2025 CMA Awards Nominees
– – – – – – –
The CMA Awards are at 7:00 pm Central Wednesday night (11-19) on ABC. The only way for a real country music fan to watch them is by tuning into Saving Country Music’s LIVE blog during the broadcast.
November 19, 2025 @ 12:16 am
I have never understood how Old Dominion won group of the year so many times or at all. In my opinion, there have been other much more worthy groups that should have won. I saw the Red Clay Strays on the recent UK tour and they put on a great show. I thought they will not be playing such small venues for long! They said they were not country but they have a fair bit of country and other sounds in their sound. They are the real deal. I am not holding my breath but am hoping that they win (or at least someone other than Old Dominion).
November 19, 2025 @ 2:54 am
…the red clay strays country? no way! at least that’s what brandon coleman said at their concert in zurich, switzerland on cctober 27. here’s the review from europe on a performance that made the ryman live footing on youtube look like… – perhaps a little timid? anyways, a cma award is a cma award and being part of “country’s biggest night” beats those uber-nights in the past by more than a country mile. for what it’s worth – here’s how swiss country music monthly “country style” experienced their gig there (ai translation of the original review in german) three weeks ago:
Strays Through the Southern Soundscape
At their packed show at Zurich’s X-TRA on October 27, 2025, the six rising stars from Mobile, Alabama lived up to their name: the Red Clay Strays. Frontman Brandon Coleman summed up their stylistic sprawl with a shrug: “I don’t know what we’re playing!”
So what was it, then? That was the million dollar question, after they had stepped onstage at five past eight with little fuss. Before them, fellow Alabamian singer-songwriter Early James had opened the Monday night with a metallic-tuned acoustic guitar and a voice as rough-hewn as the hard strings he picked.
It wasn’t country. That might surprise, given the Academy of Country Music crowned them “New Duo or Group Artists of the Year” just last May, and the CMA Awards on November 19, 2025 have them nominated as well in the band category.
With Good Godly Woman and Ramblin’, they offered early answers: classic Southern rock and R&B, delivered at breakneck speed. The follow-up, Moment of Truth, stretched past five minutes into a blues-soaked sermon, Coleman’s youthful voice pressing out lines with urgency—only to flip in an instant into something that recalled a Stapleton moment. Their anthem Stone’s Throw hit hard and kept hitting. Then Coleman cleared up the country confusion: “We play a lot—Rock’n’Roll, Southern Rock, Rock. But Country?! No way!”
From there, Forgive shifted the furious opening into calmer but no less intense waters, drummer John Hall and lead guitarist Drew Nix still driving the current. Bassist Andrew Bishop played with the ease of someone just dropping in for a garage jam, while Zach Rishel’s solos sprinkled spice across the set. With keyboardist Sevans Henderson—added in February 2024—their sound grew denser, layered. At one point, “Swamp Floyd” flashed across the mind.
Then came the hammer again: their latest single People Hatin’ – frustration with the fractured present and a divided people at home poured into hard rock. Just as you wondered if they could balance intensity with nuance, Moments arrived, and Coleman pulled the crowd into its depths. Their Christian background surfaced here, though Coleman insisted they were “no saints.” Later he’d frame it more sharply: “Not a Christian band, but a band of Christians.” I’m Still Fine carried the emotional weight of a Bible Belt service, hands and voices lifted skyward. Born from days when some of them scraped by as Uber drivers, it sounded like coming from a soul barely holding on.
Their biggest hit so far, Wonderin’ Why, had a surprisingly diverse crowd—from twenties to sixties—singing along. Before that, Drowning had already cut deep. And with the gospel Will the Lord Remember Me as encore, they closed their hour-and-a-half Zurich set. The audience had clapped them back out—“so much nicer when you’re clapped back in,” Coleman quipped.
It was a show to savor whether you’re a fan of rock, Southern rock, blues, or gospel—or simply of intense, tight-knit bands led by a charismatic frontman. But if you’re still trying to pin a country badge on them, you’re barking up the wrong tree.
November 19, 2025 @ 3:49 am
Thanks for the heads up on the Red Clay Strays performance AND the SCM LIVE blog. Both are sure to be a treat!
November 19, 2025 @ 4:59 am
I’m so excited for the RCS and all of their successes. A little sad that the 1500 seat venues are in the past tho.
The that said, the song choice for tonight is disappointing. Great message and all, but certainly not the song I’d introduce to someone new to the Strays.
November 19, 2025 @ 6:17 am
What song are they playing?
November 19, 2025 @ 6:31 am
They mentioned on FB that they would be doing People Hating
November 19, 2025 @ 8:39 am
Damn that song is horrendous. Still love the band and stoked for em though
November 19, 2025 @ 12:48 pm
Nooooooooooooooooooo.
Please god no.
November 19, 2025 @ 5:24 am
Good luck dealing with the perennial blog crashes tonight. I’m grateful that you do them and I hope you come up with the usual golden nuggers.
November 19, 2025 @ 5:31 am
I have not seen a group more deserving of their success in recent years than the Red Clay Strays. Not only is the music excellent, so too is their character. I also appreciate the elements of faith in their songs like “God Does” and that they are so open about their faith in a very graceful way. As a devout Catholic Christian in 2025, I see true, effective evangelization in the Red Clay Strays, and I don’t care which denomination they inspire people to come to, they’re almost certainly drawing many listeners closer to Christ.
The Red Clay Strays are more than just a win for good music–they’re a win for humanity and Christ’s teachings.
November 19, 2025 @ 10:02 am
Here’s a novel use for AI! “Country Insider” has used it to predict tonight’s winners. Doesn’t look good for the Strays or anyone but Old Dominion in the Group category.
https://www.countryinsider.com/news/will-lainey-wilson-dominate-the-2025-cmas-we-asked-ai-for-the-odds/article_6666ad26-ea74-4344-94a3-4dcd76f98598.html
Then, AI offers odds on the chances of upsets.
https://www.countryinsider.com/news/potential-upsets-at-the-cmas-according-to-ai/article_ea36695d-cde1-42ee-845e-09a456e9cc42.html
November 19, 2025 @ 10:11 am
Ugh.
November 19, 2025 @ 10:34 am
Do old dominion have fans? Has anyone ever said wow gotta sign up for presale to get those old dominion tickets? Has anyone ever bought an old dominion album on vinyl?
November 19, 2025 @ 11:10 am
Trig’s review from 2015 of one of their awful albums is a thing of poetic beauty. I have it bookmarked and often revisit it when I’m feeling blue and it picks me right up. As for the Strays I cannot think of a more worthy band to get an award. Back in the old days – like 2022 – I chatted with those guys after shows several times. They are humble, kind, generous, all around good humans. My wife loves to show off her pic with Brandon every time someone says “have you heard of the Red Clay Strays?” We talked so long she was certain we were going to be invited to his wedding. But must have meant more to us than him as we didn’t get the invite…probably got lost in the mail.
November 21, 2025 @ 1:09 pm
Happy to report that the AI was just as far from perfect on the winners as it is on everything else. The two sure things it picked were anything but.
November 19, 2025 @ 10:37 am
Gross.
November 19, 2025 @ 10:38 am
It reminds me of when The Mavericks won the CMA Vocal Group of the Year in 1995 and 1996. They, like The Red Clay Strays, weren’t sonically country music. But, if you were to squint your ears hard, “What a Crying’ Shame,” is the most country album of all The Mavericks and RCS discography.
Maybe history repeats itself and The Red Clay Strays win tonight and end Old Dominions run. The Mavericks wins interrupted the Diamond Rio reign (92, 93, 94, & 97).
While I was on the CMA wiki page, I was surprised The Statler Brothers ended Alabama 3 year run as Vocal Group of the Year. A. How did Alabama only ever win 3 Vocal Group of the Year awards? B. What did the Statler Brothers do in 1984 to get back on top?
November 19, 2025 @ 12:46 pm
If they lose, we riot.
November 19, 2025 @ 12:52 pm
I definitely consider them closer to delta blues and southern rock more than anything, but their integrity and quality isn’t in question and they’d definitely be a massive upgrade over Old Dominion in representing the CMA’s best current group if it comes down to that.
Again the CMAs need them more than they need the CMAs: much like the Turnpike Troubadours.
November 19, 2025 @ 4:57 pm
I don’t much care, but my hunch is…just give the award to a cruddy mainstream “country” group (as the CMAs have often done, pretty sure since the beginning), as opposed to further muddying up the waters as to: what is country music? What are the CMAs (or Grammys) for? Who determines what is or isn’t country? Should anyone care at this point?