No Beyoncé, Lots of Jelly Roll, and More Takeaways From the CMT Music Awards

Jelly Roll at the Moody Center on April 7 (Photos by David Brendan Hall)

Red Solo cups were raised in memory of Toby Keith. A Phil Collins song was covered by the members of Little Big Town and Sugarland. Keith Urban fist-bumped with the Buc-ee’s beaver mascot.

Following last year’s notable move from Nashville to Austin, the CMT Music Awards presented a not-always-cohesive collage of ideas about the state of country music, the Country Music Television channel itself, and the state of Texas. The fan-voted award show, which landed on Sunday night at the Moody Center, places Video of the Year as the top category (which went to Jelly Roll). A block of actors who were available to present awards on the busy pre-eclipse weekend, from Emma Roberts to Jane Seymour, added to the zany mix.

Despite some early dazzle – like host Kelsea Ballerini joining Melissa Etheridge for a few lines of the singer-songwriter’s 1994 hit “Come to My Window” – the show plateaued in energy. The most Austin representation showed up in the Longhorn Band outside, and Huntsville native Cody Johnson’s opening performance of “That’s Texas” in front of a backdrop meant to look like bats flying out of the Congress Avenue bridge. Unlike last year’s on-point inclusion of Gary Clark Jr. and Jackie Venson, Lukas Nelson accounted for the only instance of an Austin musician onstage in a show sorely lacking local relevance, and genuine star power. Read more of the Chronicle’s takeaways below.

Tanner Adell, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts, and Brittney Spencer

In the Shadow of Cowboy Carter

One question hung over this year’s CMT Awards, which landed just a week after the release of Cowboy Carter: Would Beyoncé make a surprise appearance? The answer was ultimately no – despite the album’s explosion of discussion around the history of country, and the artist’s own admission that she was inspired by criticism following her 2016 CMA Awards performance with the Chicks. Instead, the stage welcomed four other collaborators from album track “Blackbiird.” Following Brittney Spencer’s earlier standout duet with Parker McCollum – making her the evening’s only Black featured performer – Tanner Adell, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts, and Spencer all came onstage together to present one of the evening’s awards. Though Cowboy Carter was mentioned in a short introduction to the group of bedazzled women, that probably could have used a bit more context, or hell, even their own take on “Blackbiird.” The four revealed more in red carpet interviews, including that they’ve all since gotten matching cartoon bird tattoos. Side note: Whoever played the Chicks’ “Wide Open Spaces” as the Moody Center house music right before the Toby Keith tribute is my hero. – Rachel Rascoe

Lainey Wilson

Lainey Wilson, CMT’s Hillbilly Hippie Representative

A high-wattage star with high-energy performance sensibilities, Lainey Wilson was rightly one of the most featured artists of the night. If you saw her at the Austin Rodeo last year, you know this is how she rolls: using the whole stage and never slowing down in those dang bell-bottoms. Wilson seems to be the country industry’s golden child of the moment. After just about stealing the show in 2023, this year she took home two awards and was the only young artist in the night’s three-song tribute to Toby Keith, who died in February.

She seems to be tapping into the same allure that has young country fans rabid over folkier artists like Zach Bryan and Tyler Childers. Those two genuinely-huge stars weren’t in attendance, but received some of the loudest cheers for their nominations for Male Video of the Year. Though Wilson’s repertoire includes more radio-friendly ballads and funk infusion than her male counterparts, the self-identifying “hillbilly hippie” shares some aesthetics and fans with them. They’re all using the ye olde Willie Nelson formula: a traditionalist sound with concerts that smell like weed. “If it takes you back to that certain time, that place, that smell, that sound – that’s what country music is right there,” Wilson said after winning Female Video of the Year for “Watermelon Moonshine.” For what it’s worth, the CMT Awards smelled strongly of perfume. – Maggie Q. Thompson

Jelly Roll and Kelsea Ballerini

The Jelly Roll Olympics

CMT Awards organizers must have been thanking God for the continued cooperation of Tennessee-born country rapper Jelly Roll. From the very first round of between-set shenanigans hosted by Ballerini, most shticks relied heavily on the singer as a friendly mascot for the show (alongside his wife, Bunnie XO). One portion literally just featured him hugging other celebrities, including Gayle King. Last year, Jelly Roll’s performance of "Need a Favor" proved a genuine breakout moment as his first-ever set at an awards show, and a connection to the Grammys as he was later nominated for Best New Artist. It’s hard to imagine any sets this year making a similar jump to national relevance, but the Jelly train kept rolling with his three speeches for Video of the Year, Male Video of the Year, and CMT Performance of the Year. Though he didn’t recruit a local gospel choir like last time, he did make one local nod before a hard-rocking performance of “Halfway to Hell”: “I stand here a man that plans to party on Sixth Street and go to the Comedy Mothership.” Ballerini said it’s her fourth and last year hosting, so maybe we can expect Jelly up next? – R.R.

Why Is Jason Aldean Even Here?

If Wilson’s star power represents a country wave that the industry is trying to catch, Jason Aldean’s spotlight tells you exactly why it’s struggling. The song wasn’t “Try That in a Small Town,” but the performance sure rang a bell.

CMT stopped airing his “Try That” music video last year after widespread backlash to what critics called racist dog whistling and glorification of gun violence. In the lyrics, Aldean condemned cussing out cops and flag-burning, warning that small towns “take care of our own.” The video featured clips of protesters at Black Lives Matter protests spliced together with Aldean singing in front of a courthouse in Tennessee, the site of the 1927 lynching of a Black teen and, later, race riots. At the awards, Aldean sang “Let Your Boys Be Country” in front of the UT-Austin tower, all lit up in red, white, and blue. Overall, the CMTs provided several big branding moments for UT, including all the prerecorded outdoor performances being shot in front of the tower (instead of last year’s Congress Avenue setup). Aldean’s placement felt in especially poor taste given that the university made national headlines this week for nullifying its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, laying off 60 people in the process. – M.Q.T.

Trisha Yearwood

Trisha Yearwood Steps Into Songwriting

Looking low-key in jeans and backed by just two acoustic guitarists, Trisha Yearwood offered a much-needed blast of soft country tenderness midway through the show. She smartly used the performance to emphasize that her next album will be her first of all tracks she’s written. Her longhand lyrics to song-about-songwriting “Put It in a Song” – “if it’s too hard to admit, if it’s a memory that won’t quit” – scrolled on screen behind. Earlier, her gracious acceptance of the first-ever June Carter Cash Humanitarian Award offered another opportunity for vulnerability. “June Carter Cash was a force and she was also married to a force. I know a little bit about a life like that,” said Yearwood, going on two decades of marriage to Garth Brooks. “I know it wasn't always easy, but she found ways to make sure to keep shining in her own light and she had no bigger fan than her husband Johnny Cash. I also know a little bit about that.” – R.R.

Sam Hunt

Visions of Incarceration

In-person attendance allows for some interesting peeks at how the televised sausage is made, like being told when to clap, and seeing which celebs get up to chat with each other. During one commercial break, some on-the-floor fans were shuffled to clear the stage front for a pack of men in blue button-downs and straw fedoras. An expanded barbershop quartet? No, turns out the guys were cosplaying Sixties prisoners for a performance of Nashville artist Sam Hunt’s new single “Locked Up,” which was introduced as having “Folsom Prison vibes.” Beyond the strange institutional homage, the slow jam certainly wouldn’t earn Johnny Cash comparisons, and the inmate actors looked like they’d been told to “swing their arms and act old-timey.” More in line with Cash’s outspoken support for prison reform, Jelly Roll ended his second speech with a shout out to “those who are looking for second chances [...] the kids down here in Austin’s juvenile detention facility are watching this tonight. I’m cheering y’all boys on. You can be this guy. You can change.” – R.R.

Dasha

Dasha Chooses L.A. Over “Austin”

The fact that up-and-comer Dasha’s song “Austin” was the most Austin-centric song of the night begs the question, why are the CMTs in Austin? Dasha’s song is a total bop, no doubt. It offered what was likely the most compelling new country-pop melody of the night. It also felt on-the-pulse in a way much of the night didn’t – the massively popular TikTok hit was propelled to fame, in part, by its accompanying line dance. At six billion listens, it currently sits higher on the TikTok Billboard chart than Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em.”

Dasha’s onstage admission that it was her first time in town was a personal aside that stood out in the mostly scripted night. But it also highlighted the disconnect between the song and the city it’s named for. The song tells the story of a woman leaving her boyfriend and moving back to Los Angeles from Austin, with the Texas capital cast as the proverbial Dodge to get out of. The hook goes: “I made my way back to L.A./ And that's where you'll be forgotten/ In 40 years you'll still be here/ Drunk washed up in Austin.” We wish Austin was affordable enough to be “washed up in,” and, for the record, Austin is not a line dancing city. The Broken Spoke literally hangs signs reminding people that line dancing is forbidden, to make room for two-stepping. This not-Austin-Austin song wouldn’t have stood out so much had the CMTs made a greater effort to capture something true about the city. – M.Q.T.

Cody Johnson in front of the CMT Awards' Congress Avenue Bridge backdrop