10 Country Music Questions for 2024: Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris

After a decade of singing about tailgates, tanlines, and parties that never end, country’s been getting in touch with its feelings. With the success of introspective songs like “Hey Driver” and “Heading South,” delivered with zero varnish but a whole lotta ache, Zach Bryan made it cool for an army of troubadours to crack their voices and bare their souls. Charles Wesley Godwin, Dylan Gossett, the band 49 Winchester, and Wyatt Flores are all dabbling in a subgenre best described as “emo-country” — Flores even released a cover of the Fray’s pleading 2006 hit “How to Save a Life.” And while the dudes, like always, are at the forefront of the commercial boom, singers like Morgan Wade and Kaitlin Butts are tearing hearts out with the best of them. Expect to hear more truck-dash confessionals this year — but probably without eyeliner.

Like it or not, country music became increasingly tangled up in politics last year, and this year — a pivotal presidential election — could highlight that often thorny union like never before. Two big concert tours in particular have the potential to become musical campaign rallies: the Rock the Country Tour, anchored by a pair of Donald Trump’s golfing buddies, Kid Rock and Jason Aldean, and Aldean’s own headlining Highway Desperado Tour. The Rock the Country Tour descends upon Southern small towns from April through July, while Aldean’s solo tour runs through the heart of the campaign and ends with an Oct. 5 show in Georgia just one month from Election Day. Neither Rock nor Aldean have been silent about their MAGA support, so the chance of an “FJB” chant breaking out is as likely as a “Bawitdaba” pit.

After having his name and song mentioned everywhere from TikTok to a Republican presidential debate last year, “Rich Men North of Richmond” rabble-rouser Oliver Anthony is taking his protest anthems and Bible readings on a world tour in 2024. He’ll start overseas in Sweden before playing mainly rural markets in the U.S., including places like Estero, Florida; Tupelo, Mississippi; Beaver Dam, Kentucky; and Council Bluffs, Iowa. Some gigs, like two at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, are sold out, but others, like shows in Alexandria, Louisiana, and Jonesboro, Arkansas, have nearly whole sections still available, with seats starting around $25. The success of Anthony’s first major tour could portend the direction of his career: Will it have legs, or disappear faster than a fudge round at a picnic?

Did Maren Morris say she was leaving country? Or did country leave her first? Either way, this will be a decisive year for the singer-songwriter, as she figures out where exactly she fits in. Country? Pop? Adult Contemporary? We’re both curious and excited to see how Morris answers that question and how her tendency to go deep in her songwriting — as an outsider, a mom, and a social-justice warrior — translates to new spaces. If the crossover success of “The Bones” proved anything, it’s that pop is just the tip of the iceberg.

If you need any further proof that Nashville is trending westward, you only had to look at last fall’s BMI Awards. Ian Munsick attended in a suede ranch coat, turquoise kerchief, and cowboy hat, looking like he just left a cattle drive. Lainey Wilson and Jackson Dean seemed ready to rob a Wells Fargo stage in black hats. And the sister trio the Castellows were radiant in bohemian prairie dresses. Yep, the big ball’s come to Cowtown, and after years of unfortunate wallet chains, baseball hats, and bro-country streetwear, we’re not complaining. But country music’s Yellowstone fashion shift is just a reflection of the music we heard last year, from Wyoming native Munsick’s The White Buffalo to Wilson’s “Wildflowers and Wild Horses.” Look for more wide-open flair in the months to come.

Kacey Musgraves is ready for her comeback. After the disappointing commercial success of 2021’s Star-Crossed, which had the unfortunate pressure of having to match or exceed her masterwork Golden Hour, Musgraves is poised to have a redemptive 2024. She’s expected to release a new album this year, one that arrives on the momentum of a string of high-profile collabs. In September, Musgraves scored her first-ever Number One with “I Remember Everything,” her duet with Zach Bryan. A month later, she joined Noah Kahan on a remake of his “She Calls Me Back.” “Don’t Do Me Good” with Madi Diaz dropped in November. All three no doubt introduced Musgraves to a new audience, one ready to worship a true country queen.

All Tyler Childers ever wanted to be was a country singer (See: his Americana Honors acceptance speech in 2018). But who predicted he would actually become a mainstream one? His song “In Your Love,” off his 2023 album Rustin’ in the Rain, just became his first single to chart on country radio, and he’s staring down an upcoming tour of arenas and amphitheaters, including two nights at that hotbed of Appalachian country music, Madison Square Garden. If Childers has been playing the long game since 2017’s Purgatory, 2024 has him looking ready to cash in.

Zach Bryan and co. may be leading a charge of rootsy solo artists at the moment, but we’re also knee-deep in a country-rock band renaissance. Red Clay Strays are breaking big after a tour with Eric Church, Shane Smith and the Saints have a new album on the way on the heels of selling out Red Rocks, and Turnpike Troubadours are continuing their reunion momentum with headlining gigs and a slot on Bryan’s summer stadium tour. Add new music from Josh Abbott Band, Mike and the Moonpies, and Blackberry Smoke, along with band-heavy fests like Under the Big Sky, Jackalope Jamboree, and Key West’s Mile 0, and it’s shaping up to be a great year to rock a band T-shirt.

One weekend, Jelly Roll was bear-hugging Ryan Seacrest in Times Square, the next he was crying on CBS Sunday Morning. So goes the ubiquity of America’s favorite tattooed ex-con, a profile that may get boosted even higher into the stratosphere if he wins Best New Artist at the Grammys on Feb. 4. Win or lose, however, the wildcard is where Jelly goes after the media blitz dies down. While he’ll always have his core fan base, a group that is disciple-like in its fervor, getting casual fans to follow his journey past the feel-good narrative may be more of a challenge in 2024. But we bet this Nashville multi-hyphenate will never stop hustling.

If there’s a safe prediction for 2024, it’s that Morgan Wallen will remain mainstream country’s biggest star. But Bailey Zimmerman is right on his heels. The Illinois native’s Religiously. The Album. was the most streamed debut country album last year, establishing the former pipeline worker as a new voice with a natural level of ease with non-country sounds. He’s cited Machine Gun Kelly and Drake as influences right alongside Luke Combs and Wallen, and will open stadiums for Wallen in the summer. But that’s after he wraps his own headlining club tour, which, in a sign of things to come, sold out instantly.