Amidst the flurry of important year-end music awards (the CMAs last month, the ACMs next month, my old college roommate’s mom’s Spotify Wrapped on Instagram last week), we have finally reached the holy grail of music awards: the 2024 Country Central Awards. 11 of your favorite country music journalists put their heads together this past week and nominated the best of the best in 10 different categories. For each category, we voted for a winner and four honorable mentions.
The winner for Male Artist of the Year is Riley Green. In a year that felt like a romp for Green from start to finish, it was only fitting that he took home our top award for male artists. Everything he touched seemed to turn to gold, with songs like “Worst Way,” “Jesus Saves,” and even his collab “you look like you love me,” staying true to his established sound while showing some thematic diversity to put him over the top. Hot on his heels in our voting was Luke Combs, whose thoughtful album on fatherhood, Fathers & Sons, was a great follow-up to last year’s success. Morgan Wallen, Wyatt Flores, and Zach Bryan acknowledged our honorable mentions.
The winner of Female Artist of the Year is Megan Moroney. Moroney has proven herself the queen of country for the second straight year with Am I Okay? picking right up where she left off with Lucky last year. In a genre where it can take years for an artist to move from somewhat popular to stardom (much like our Male Artist of the Year, Riley Green), Moroney has felt like a meteoric rise since “Tennessee Orange” first kicked off the current college football-themed craze we’ve experienced the last couple years. She’ll look to defend her three-peat next year from another breakout star in Ella Langley, who took second in our voting. Langley came out of nowhere (she wasn’t even on the CC50 at the start of 2024) to become one of the top stories of 2024. Lainey Wilson, Kacey Musgraves, and Maggie Antone were the other honorable mentions for female artists.
The winner of Best New Artist is Zach Top. The current #1 artist on the CC50 predictably took home our award for artists that broke out in 2024. Top’s neotraditional instrumentation, familiar twang, and heartfelt delivery took the country world by storm this year, with “I Never Lie” generating interest in Cold Beer & Country Music. In a market oversaturated with underproduced Zach Bryan wannabes, Top has felt like a breath of fresh air, and audiences have taken note. Vincent Mason, the Castellows, Ty Myers, and Gavin Adcock were the honorable mentions for New Artist.
The winner of Best Song is “Jesus Saves” by Riley Green. Another piece of hardware goes to Green, and the only 10.0 song score given by Country Central reviewers this year is in the tightest vote of any category. Green uses stripped production and a thoughtful delivery to tell the story of a veteran he passes on the road. It’s an admirable reflection of how much more there is to people when we take the time to know them. The writing is masterful, and the choice of depth over cliches can be an easy pitfall for emotional songs like this. “Sober Sundays” was neck-and-neck in the voting, narrowly taking second place, but spoilers didn’t leave our awards empty-handed. “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma,” “28”, and “I Never Lie” were the honorable mentions for Best Song.
The winner of Album of the Year is NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE by ERNEST. While Ernest Smith has been around the industry forever as one of the top songwriters, he’s been gaining more and more recognition for his undeniable singing talent. This album celebrates all things country and showcases ERNEST’s songwriting through an impressive array of styles. The Western swing “Why Dallas,” the contemplative “Would If I Could,” and the driving rhythms of “Smoking’ Gun” were all standouts on an album that had something for everyone yet still felt cohesive. Wyatt Flores narrowly missed out on another award, with his standout Welcome to the Plains falling just short in our voting. Cold Beer & Country Music, Keepin’ the Lights On, and Made By These Moments rounded out our top 5 for Album of the Year.
The Collaboration of the Year winner is “Sober Sundays” by the Castellows featuring Wyatt Flores. One of the honorable mentions for Breakout Artist and last year’s winner teamed up to make one of the most emotional releases of the year. Blending optimism with a real acknowledgment of the battle fighting for sobriety is masterfully executed by the Balkom sisters and Flores in both the writing and delivery, balancing dark and light tones to create a reflection that was an immediate favorite of the Country Central team. “I Would If I Could”, “you look like you love me”, “Santa Fe”, and “Take Me as I Come” were the Honorable Mentions for Collaboration of the Year.
The winner of Best Cover Art is the album art for F-1 Trillion by Post Malone. Gonzalo Lebrija designed the cover. This eye-catching cover of a Ford poised nose-down above water was the perfect art to introduce Jelly Roll to country music and did, in fact, involve dropping the truck into the lake via a crane. Wyatt Flores’ cover art continued to turn heads after taking the category last year. Welcome to the Plains art took second place, followed by fellow honorable mentions Am I Okay? The Coast Plains, and $10 Cowboy.
Our pick for Worst Song of the Year is “Lonely Road” by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Jelly Roll. Just one year after the derivative and uninspired “Chevrolet” featuring Jelly Roll won Worst Song of the Year, the derivative and uninspired “Lonely Road” featuring Jelly Roll had us scratching our heads in deja vu. This was easily the most unanimous category, with the Country Central staff universally disliking the song that manages to rip off all-time icon “Country Roads” while simultaneously not sounding particularly country at all, an impressive feat. The Honorable (or dishonorable?) Mentions were “M.I.A”, “QUIT!!”, “Kiss My Boots,” and “Saltwater Cinderella”.
The winner of Best Group/Duo is Muscadine Bloodline. After last year’s triumph, the southern rock-infused duo took home their second straight win in this category. Muncaster and Stanton followed up last year’s Teenage Dixie with The Coast Plain, a tight story-telling album that stands out in today’s world of albums that can feel cobbled together. Fewer artists can paint such a vivid depiction of Southern living (and no, that doesn’t mean stringing together a bunch of “country” nouns and calling it a day) as Muscadine Bloodline does. The Honorable Mentions for Best Group/Duo are The Red Clay Strays, The Castellows, Midland, and Flatland Cavalry.
The winner of Best Songwriter is ERNEST. The Best Album of the Year winner was heavily involved in writing on NASHVILLE and TENNESSEE, co-writing most of the songs and writing the song “How’d We Get Here.” Beyond that, he was also involved in writing for other artists this year, being credited on “Wrong Ones” and “I Had Some Help” for Post Malone, “I Could Spend Forever Loving You” for Thomas Rhett, and “I Owe You One” by Dylan Scott. Songwriters are the heartbeat of country music, and it’s always great to see them get success singing their songs, as ERNEST has done in the last few years. The Honorable Mentions for Best Songwriter were Wyatt Flores, Zach Bryan, Ashley Gorley, and Chase Rice.
We also want to hear y’all’s opinions on who should have won, so keep an eye out for the audience-voted awards this week on Instagram!
