Country music is a unique genre in how it boasts strong trade organizations, its own autonomous awards shows, major festivals, and a robust and hallowed Hall of Fame where the greats are remembered, and history is archived. It happens to be that one primary organization also encompass all of these things: the Country Music Association, or CMA.
Along with producing the CMA Awards in November, the CMA puts on CMA Fest every June, manages the Hall of Fame selection process, and has strong ties to the mainstream country radio format. If you think about country music like a governing body, the CMA would be like Congress, and the CEO of the CMA would be like the President. For the past twelve years, that President has been Sarah Trahern. On Wednesday, January 14th, she formally announced her retirement at the end of 2026.
Sarah Trahern’s tenure at the CMA wasn’t really marked with any especially remarkable achievements or catastrophic mistakes. She wasn’t really vilified by purists or lauded by the industry. Instead, she did a good job keeping her nose clean, remaining out of the headlines, steering the ship steadily, including through major calamities like the COVID-19 pandemic, and the racial tension sparked due to Morgan Wallen’s N-word incident, and Lil Nas X’s and Beyoncé’s big “country” moments.
“Unremarkable” might be the best way to succinctly describe Trahern’s tenure. One frustration more independent country fans might have with Trahern and the CMA is that the last 12 years haven’t seen the CMA fully embrace the broadening popularity of the performers beyond the fold of Nashville’s Music Row and radio playlists, even as independent music has dramatically increased its market share.
Then again, The Red Clays Strays just won the CMA Award for Group of the Year in 2025. 2017 saw Jason Isbell’s The Nashville Sound nominated for the CMA’s Album of the Year, and Isbell was also named artist-in-residence at the Hall of Fame. That was a moment maybe the mainstream could’ve embraced Americana. But Isbell eroded that good will in 2020 after fairly criticizing the CMAs for the lack of an extensive In Memoriam segment on the CMA Awards honoring John Prine and others. Isbell ultimately turned in his CMA membership card.
The lack of In Memoriam segments at the CMA Awards is one fair criticism that emerged under Sarah Trahern’s leadership. There was also some controversy in 2017 when in the wake of the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, reporters on the CMA’s red carpet were asked to refrain from asking questions about the shooting or political topics surrounding it. It was blown up as a speech issue, but was just as much about not triggering survivors of the shooting. That request was later lifted.
2017 was also the year that Sturgill Simpson famously stood outside the CMA Awards in Nashville and busked with his Grammy Award for A Sailor’s Guide to Earth sitting in his guitar case, once again illustrating the outside nature of country music’s independent stars.
It’s also worth pointing out that even though Trahern’s tenure in part was marked by a lack of success for women in country music, for the past twelve years, it’s been a woman at the helm of the CMA. Similar to things opening up for independent artists at the end of Sarah’s tenure though, you’re seeing a similar spring for the women of country, with Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” completely rewriting the possibilities of a single from a solo woman, and Lainey Wilson reigning as CMA Entertainer of the Year, even if the honor feels a little forced.
But now that the Sarah Trahern era is coming to a close, what could or should we look forward to whenever a new CEO is named?
The first thing we would love to see is a more open embrace of country music’s more independent side, especially when it comes to the topmost commercially successful and critically acclaimed artists. For too long, country music has been defined by whatever is played on mainstream country radio, while the popular country farm system has been controlled by Music Row interests when there’s incredible talent waiting to be tapped in east Nashville, Texas, and beyond.
One of the biggest opportunities the Trahern departure opens up is a fresh approach to the Country Music Hall of Fame. The CMA doesn’t pick the new Hall of Famers directly. This happens through a secret committee selected by the CMA. It’s really not the voting process that is in need of reinvention. It’s the process itself that enacts such severe limits on new inductees (three per year) that has resulted in an incredible backlog of talent has persisted for going on two decades. Revising this process or offering a bulk induction could help clear the backlog.
Of course, a new CEO won’t be able to snap their fingers and make stuff happen overnight any more than Sarah Trahern could. But what they could do is use the position to more effectively lobby for important changes, a fresh perspective, and a modernized approach as things like AI that will undoubtedly disrupt country music in significant ways if not addressed properly. “Tech savvy” feels like it should be and essential resume point for the new leader.
But the CMA and its CEO has never really had the ability to shape the country genre significantly. It more reacts to moments and events, and does the bidding of the major labels. But maybe a new leader could be more open, more reactive to the new realities within the greater country music landscape, and be an asset to moving the country genre forward as opposed to just a functionary, however steady-handed.
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