CMA Touring Awards Celebrate Touring Crews Fueling Country Artists' Success On The Road

In 2023 the total number of tours accelerated to greater heights and country music tours were a constant factor in this growth. On Monday (February 12), the Country Music Association honored the touring acts that help keep country music's biggest artists on the road and rocking night after night for packed crowds of fans.

About 900 people gathered at Marathon Music Works in Nashville to honor the road crews that have supported tours for artists such as Dierks Bentley, Kane Brown, Kenny Chesney, Jelly Roll, Miranda Lambert, Old Dominion, Thomas Rhett, Chris Stapleton, Keith Urbanine , Morgany Wilson, Zac Brown Band and more.

Country Music Association CEO Sarah Trahern noted that tour staff make up the largest bloc of the CMA's nearly 7,000 members.

“You tour players have outdone the artists this past year,” Trahern said, drawing cheers from the audience. “Your hard work on the road and supporting those in the spotlight does not go unnoticed. Tonight we want to honor those of you who have stood out among your peers for this honor.”

“2023 was a record year for touring and country music grew in unprecedented ways and expanded into new and uncharted territory,” added Trahern. “From here in Nashville, across the US and around the world, live music has been at an all-time high and we've seen some of our biggest and best tours in the history of our format. The people in this room know better than anyone how much time, hard work and heart goes into creating the magic that takes place when an artist takes the stage with a room full of fans.”

Two-time CMA Entertainer of the Year winner Urban, who at one point in his long journey to stardom worked as a lighting roadie for a band in Australia, returns as host for a second year.

“I really like celebrating you for all that you do,” she said, later adding, “You definitely have a job that's underappreciated, so I love that I get to do that. Tonight is the night for all of you to come out from behind the scenes.”

This year's CMA Touring Awards have expanded to honor more people than ever who work behind the scenes to promote country music's top tours. Not only did this year's CMA Touring Awards feature an expanded number of finalists across all categories, but also the addition of five new categories, bringing the total number of categories to 20. Newly added categories include Backline Technician of the Year, Stage Manager of of the year, support services company of the year and unsung hero of the year.

The evening also presented the CMA Touring Lifetime Achievement Award to the late industry veteran and former head of CAA's Nashville office, Ron Baird. A video tribute praised the many artists and industry members Baird worked with over the years, including Shania Twain, Billy Dean, Martina McBride and Clint Black, as well as CAA's John Huie (with whom Baird worked for the opening of CAA's first Nashville office in 1992 ) and Rod Essig, former CMA executive Ed Benson and WME's Keith Miller. Baird's stepson, CAA's Marc Dennis, accepted the honor on his behalf.

“His lasting legacy will be the people he encouraged to enter our business. Ron was incredibly generous with his time,” Dennis said, noting one of Byrd’s favorite sayings: “Patience, persistence and persistence. The three P's Anyone who was at CAA and was close to Ron remembers the three P's… he was an incredibly nice person, but he was one hell of an agent. He encouraged so many, including me.”

Following remarks from CMA's senior relationship and philanthropy officer, Tiffany Kerns, outlining the range of support benefits CMA offers tour members, the organization unveiled a new CMA tour Mentoring Program designed for those starting their tour careers. Participants will be paired with a veteran tour professional for meetings and job shadowing and project opportunities. Mentor categories will include a tour Manager, Band Leader/Musician, Production Manager, Production Assistant, House Engineer, Track Engineer and Lighting Director/Designer. CMA teamed up with Chris Lisle and Curt Jenkins (both of tour workshop) as well as musician Danny Rader for creating the program.

Touring crews for reigning CMA Male Vocalist of the Year Stapleton and reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year Wilson took home the lion's share of the awards wins Monday night. Both Stapleton and Wilson were in attendance to support their touring families.

Notably, many of the Wilson crew honorees were women, including Coach/Truck Driver of the Year Erin Siegfried, Videographer/Photographer of the Year CeCe Dawson, tour Manager of the Year Meg Miller and Manager of the Year Mandelyn Monchick.

“This is so special,” Monchick said in accepting her manager of the year honor. “I've learned over the last nine years getting to know a lot of you, me and Lainey both, and the people we met along the way, and the people who picked us up and gave us a chance and listened to a demo, I heard a song,” she wrote. a song with her, it all started from there. We have built a very beautiful team along the way, especially strong women.

“It all starts at the top and we have an amazing leader we look up to, Lainey,” he continued. “The way he treats people and leads with grace is infectious and down to earth, and I'm truly grateful to work with people who inspire me every day.”

Stapleton's team earned wins for Stage Manager of the Year (Todd Green), Lighting Director (Mac Mosier), Front of House Engineer (Arpad Sayko), Touring Musician (Paul Franklin), Production Manager (John Garriott) .

The evening concluded with the presentation of the inaugural Crew of the Year trophy, which honors the entire crew of a country music tour (which performed in multiple cities during the eligibility period), with the award recognizing professionalism and skill demonstrated through consistency, teamwork, hospitality and overall excellence. Stapleton's All-American Road Show crew won the inaugural award. After the entire crew filled the stage at Marathon Music Works, several members of the tour ensemble offered thanks to Stapleton, his wife and musical partner Morgan Stapleton, and the rest of their road family.

“This award is really about these guys up here,” Stapleton said. “I don't like to talk and I don't particularly like crowds, believe it or not. I love them coming to the show, but I love playing music and everyone here helps me do that every night in ways that wouldn't be possible in any way, shape or form if everyone wasn't on top of their game and I want to thank them. thank you from the bottom of my heart for allowing me to play music, which is what I love to do, so thank you very much. It's always about the music… we're always serving that and it's so great to do that as a job every day.”

See the full list of this year's CMA Touring Awards winners below: