In the middle of her first-ever appearance at the Country Music Association’s CMA Fest, Melissa Etheridge mused that the experience was “like speed dating.”

Her 30-minute June 5 set, she added a few days later, was just enough to give the audience a taste: “Do you like me? You want to see me again? Okay. Bye.”

Pop and rock artists have played the country-centered festival for years. Acts who’ve graced its stages include Joan Jett, Lenny Kravitz, Don McLean, The Beach Boys, Steven Tyler, Richie Sambora, Jason Mraz, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Backstreet Boys and Pharell Williams, and most of them found their way to the big stage at Nissan Stadium.

During the latest edition, June 4-7, yacht-rock prince Michael McDonald and rapper Fetty Wap landed on the main stage. Etheridge and rap’s Waka Flocka Flame played the Dr. Amp Stage on successive days, and they made additional stops on the CMA Closeup Stage. Etheridge had a public conversation with Gretchen Wilson, while Waka Flocka joined The Nappy Roots for “Country & Rap: The Black Southern Roots of American Music.” Additionally, Bon Jovi’s Nashville bar, JBJs, presented more than two dozen rock and alternative acts, topped by Cage the Elephant, in the heart of the festival’s footprint.

Etheridge was there to work, using the occasion to promote her new album — Rise, featuring a Chris Stapleton duet and production by Shooter Jennings (Tanya Tucker, Charley Crockett) — and the 27-date Raised on Radio Tour, featuring co-headliner Wynonna Judd.

“When you’re a legacy artist, it’s not so easy to release a new album,” she told Wilson on the Closeup Stage.

The 2026 country audience, Etheridge reasoned, includes some of her fan base, and her music is compatible enough with the genre that she would likely attract some new followers. She already has her own history with country — her first two bands, as a teenager in Kansas, were country groups; she teamed with Dolly Parton in a 2003 episode of CMT Crossroads; she penned a Trisha Yearwood single, “You Can Sleep While I Drive”; and she became friends with Tammy Wynette back in the day.

“My lifestyle and stuff was always sort of outside of the country music realm, but in the last decade or so, it’s opened up,” Etheridge says. “The country music world is a place now where people are still buying albums, they want to go on the whole journey, they want to go see the artist live. That excitement for music is still there, and the kind of rock ‘n’ roll that I play, it’s country now.”

Country is extraordinarily wide in its current stylistic range,  as demonstrated at CMA Fest. It still boasts artists with strong traditional roots — Riley Green’s “Worst Way” and “Change My Mind” brought old-school vibes to the stadium, while newcomer Braxton Keith injected agile and authentic western swing into his June 5 appearance at Billboard Country Live.

There are plenty of other sonics, too. HARDY packed thundering hard-rock chords into “God’s Country” and Nirvana guitar tones into “Truck Bed” at Nissan; Stephen Wilson Jr. used a buzzing guitar texture and from-the-gut intensity on “Gary” the same night; Atlus evinced 1980s and ‘90s power pop in his June 5 performance at the Good Molecules Reverb Stage; Kameron Marlowe utilized a meaty, soulful vocal resonance that’s mindful of Paul Carrack or Bad Company’s Paul Rodgers; and Graham Barham infused hip-hop influence into several songs in his June 4 set at the Chevy Vibes Stage.

While it might fold in those other influences, country has a reputation for a more tangible bond between artist and fan, and that’s evident from some of the other activities at CMA Fest. Carly Pearce brought her annual Carly’s Closet auction to the festival to raise money for the CMA Foundation; Ty Myers, Tyler Braden, Randy Travis and Walker Hayes were among the acts who signed autographs and posed for fan photos; and numerous performers met their most ardent followers at fan club events.

Hunter Hayes, as an example, hosted four intimate performances at the Vinyl Vault, inside Mel’s Diner, for about 50-70 people per show. He took requests, answered off-the-cuff questions and even had one fan — experiencing her 385th Hayes performance in 15 years — duet with him.

“CMA Fest is phenomenal,” he told one group of fans on June 6. “You could see anything and everything at any time, and I wanted a moment where I could just kind of be human with you.”

That kind of personal interaction, even if it is somewhat orchestrated, unites artists and fans, and while country has plenty of egos, it’s an experience that reminds the industry as a whole how much it depends on the interest of millions of ordinary people to keep it humming.

“It’s not normal to be famous,” Clint Black told the audience on June 5 in a Country Closeup Q&A with Lorianne Crook and Charlie Chase. “You guys are watching as Ella [Langley] or Riley Green are skyrocketing, and they’re there in a storm swirling around them, and they’re learning, and I think they’re handling it really well. But if you watch people rise to stardom and all of that stuff, pray for them, pray for them to be able to handle the weirdness.”

Changes are afoot for the festival, which is scheduled to take place again June 10-13, 2027. The nightly shows will likely be moving into a new stadium, and CMA will have a new CEO, as current leader Sarah Trahern preps for retirement. Luke Bryan closed out the final Nissan night, wrapping with his party number “Country Girl (Shake It for Me)” and sending a shoutout to Trahern from the stage.

The festival will be back, Trahern has indicated she will still attend as a fan, and Etheridge demonstrated why pop, rock and R&B acts would want to keep dipping their toes in the festival water.

She was impressed by the professionalism she witnessed as CMA handled the on-and-off logistics of staging hundreds of acts, and felt like she was playing to an audience that suits her music.

Etheridge was enthusiastic about returning “if,” she said, “they’ll have me. I think it’s a great experience.”

10 Years Ago

When Dierks Bentley’s ‘Black’ Eyed The Summit On Top Country Albums

The project took its title from a song conceived after his 10th wedding anniversary

In the wake of Dierks Bentley’s diamond anniversary in 2015, he wrote a song inspired by his wife, Cassidy, branding it “Black” in recognition of her maiden name.

That song emerged as the title track of his eighth Capitol Nashville album, and on June 18, 2016, Black topped Billboard’s Top Country Albums in its first chart week, becoming the sixth of Bentley’s seven trips to the list’s summit.

Produced by Ross Copperman (Darius Rucker, Gabby Barrett), the project was shaped around the topics of love and sex, exploring some of the dark feelings and inner fears that are, at times, tested by relationships. The first single, “Somewhere on a Beach,” burned its way to No. 1 on Hot Country Songs for three weeks beginning on the April 30, 2016, list, ahead of the album’s May 27 release. “Different for Girls,” a collaboration with Elle King, rose to No. 3, while “Black” painted the list at No. 4.

King wasn’t alone among the album’s familiar contributors. Also on the Black list were Maren Morris, who showed up on “I’ll be the Moon”; and New Orleans’ Trombone Shorty, who appeared on “Mardi Gras.” Black earned a Gold album from the RIAA on Feb. 22, 2017, and was elevated to Platinum status on Oct. 28, 2022.

Bentley’s inaugural run to No. 1 on Top Country Albums came with Modern Day Drifter, which led the chart dated May 28, 2005. His most recent return to the summit came with The Mountain, which peaked on the list dated June 23, 2018.

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