The Red Clay Strays Dethrone Old Dominion as CMA Vocal Group of the Year

The Red Clay Strays just dethroned Old Dominion by taking home the 2025 CMA Vocal Group of the Year title. Old Dominion practically owned the category for years, winning seven times, but this year The Red Clay Strays stole the crown. 

Once the shock wore off, the excitement kicked in, especially for fans of the country rock band.  

Brandon Coleman, the band’s lead vocalist, said of the award (via Whiskey Riff): “We’re very thankful for it. We were a lot of different genres when we started playing together. John was more hard rock, Andrew was more funk and blues, Zach was more rock, Sevans was more jazz, and I was more country. I was the hick of the group. So country music has a very special place in my heart, and that’s the reason I always say we don’t really play country music, because when we get ready to make an actual country record, it’ll be country music.” 

He added, “I think country music deserves to be recognized as a genre, so if you’re just playing rock n’ roll music, but calling it country music, I think that’s doing country a disservice. So that’s why I always say that. But we are all country boys and we’re Southern gentlemen, so we’re very happy to be accepted by the community — and we’ll eventually make some actual country music, too.” 

For some traditionalists, what Coleman said might come across as disrespectful to the genre, but what the band meant was that if they were to consider themselves country artists, they would release an “actual country record,” no hesitation about it. This is also, perhaps, a way to shush critics who don’t consider them country in the first place. 

The Red Clay Strays winning the award could also signal that the genre is no longer as strict as it once was. After all, country music has welcomed artists from outside the genre like Beyoncé and Post Malone, and more and more country artists have experimented with and succeeded in cross-genre sounds.