#64 | Backstage at the 20th Annual CMA Touring Awards
The CMA Touring Awards are the only peer-voted recognition in country music dedicated entirely to the people behind the artists. Not the headliners. The ones who make the headliners possible.
For the 20th anniversary of the awards, Giggs was backstage at The Pinnacle in Nashville — the same week as CMA Fest, the same week the entire touring industry converges on one city. We sat down with over 20 winners, nominees, and industry leaders across a single night. Bus drivers. Tour managers. Monitor engineers. Publicists. Unsung heroes. The people wearing black.
Setting the Stage: 20 Years of the CMA Touring Awards
The evening opens with the two people who helped build this event into what it is: Sarah Trahern, outgoing CMA CEO after 13 years, and Tiffany Kerns, SVP of Industry Relations.
Sarah calls this her favorite night of the CMA calendar. Not CMA Fest. Not the CMA Awards. This one. Because people bring their parents. Because someone who has been on the road for years gets to walk on stage and thank their spouse for all the nights spent alone.
“We’re wearing black. We’re behind the scenes for a reason. We don’t need the spotlight. But it is nice to get that recognition.”
Her advice to the next generation of leaders is unexpectedly personal: stop being so hard on yourself. She spent 35 years in live production before becoming CEO. She still remembers stopping a tape live on air and the broadcast going to black for half a second. Her reminder, 35 years later, is that it doesn’t matter. You learn. You move on.
Tiffany talks about what makes the peer-vote format uniquely meaningful. You’re not being judged by fans, or even by industry members who don’t fully understand what you do. You’re being seen by the person doing the same job, who knows exactly what it costs.
“I want people to walk taller. I want them to be really proud of the role that they individually play in our business.”
The Night’s Headline: Lainey Wilson’s Camp
Lainey Wilson’s Whirlwind World Tour crew won Crew of the Year. They also took Tour Manager, Stage Manager, Front of House Engineer, and Monitor Engineer. It was a sweep, and the people who made it happen each had something different to say about how.
Meg Miller — Tour Manager of the Year, second win — started with Lainey driving the van and selling merchandise. She said yes to everything, including the first tour manager gig she ever had, which she thought would be a 20-year goal.
“I kind of just feel like if I didn’t say yes to everything, I would never get here.”
She’s now serving on the CMA board. She talks about international country touring like someone who can’t believe she gets to be there and refuses to take it for granted.
Allison Noah — Stage Manager of the Year — is one of the few female stage managers working at this level in country music. Being nominated alongside people who mentored her was the honor. Winning was something else entirely. She describes stage management as a service role, which initially sounds understated. Then she explains what she means: it’s about knowing your crew, knowing what kind of day they’re going to have based on the venue, knowing what kind of space they need.
“I’m looking forward to getting back out there with my people and making one hell of a show.”
Ryan Dell — Front of House Engineer of the Year — brings his daughter Leila to the awards. He says the thing he loves most about being on the road is the people he’s on the road with. The people you spend that time with are your second family.
Curt Armstead — Monitor Engineer of the Year, nearly four years with Lainey — talks about what makes a great monitor engineer: the psychology, the ability to not lose your cool, understanding that the musicians on stage are in a vulnerable position and need to trust that you’re handling it. At Stagecoach this year, he was running 17 performer mixes and 6 crew mixes simultaneously — 23 total, around 110 channels.
“Being able to fix it without losing your mind — that’s really the stuff that all the monitor engineers I know who are really good have going for them.”
What Every Winner Had in Common
Across 13 award categories, the same themes kept surfacing.
Believing in who you work for. Caleb Garrett — Coach/Truck Driver of the Year, 17 years with Luke Bryan, nominated 8 times before this win — went to Walmart and bought Luke’s second CD before his first show with him. Listened through it. Heard We Rode in Trucks. Decided this was the guy he moved to Nashville for. Going from beer joints to stadiums, he says, is one hell of a ride.
Taking the leap even when it’s terrifying. Kerri Edwards — Manager of the Year, KP Entertainment — spent five years developing Luke Bryan in A&R and publishing before he asked her to become his manager. She said no at first. She did songs, not management. Then she looked at what she’d built and realized it was scarier not to be a part of it than to leap.
“It was scarier to not take the leap.”
Twenty-two years later, she manages Luke Bryan, Cole Swindell, Chase Beckham, and Dillon Scott — and she’s still most excited by the songs that show up in her inbox every morning.
Finding the balance. Zac Coren — Lighting Director of the Year, currently on the road with Morgan Wallen — talks about what keeps the LD role interesting year after year: if the creative side is clicking, the technical side challenges you. If the technical is grinding, the creative pulls you forward. There’s always something keeping it interesting. He’s still in mild disbelief that people voted for him.
Showing up as yourself. Olivia Hanceri — Publicist of the Year, OH Creative — built her firm during the pandemic because she understood that when everything changes, the job is still to connect. The thing she believes in above everything else is the power of storytelling. Every artist has one. If you can be the vessel that helps people connect with who they’re trying to reach, that’s the work.
Not needing the recognition to keep doing the work. Diana McBride — Unsung Hero of the Year, Grand Ole Opry — goes by “Lemonade.” A stage manager named Mike Snyder saw her one night and instead of calling her name just hollered hey, lemonade! It stuck. Now when she introduces herself at debuts and to film crews, she says she’s Lemonade — and nobody forgets.
Her job description: whatever needs to be done backstage. She comes in early. She stays late. She holds babies if babies need to be held.
“I hope that when they come in backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, they feel like their family is there. They feel like home.”
The Red Carpet: New Faces, Long Careers, First Gigs
The night wasn’t only winners. The red carpet gave the episode its full range.
Brothers Sam “Sambo” Coats and William Coats have been with Eric Church for 16 and 14.5 years respectively — a stage manager and a backline technician, both nominated. Brad Baisley has been running monitors for Blake Shelton for 14 years; his first gig was Clint Black in 2002, and he got to work with Clint again this year filling in. Full circle.
Aslan Freeman, bandleader and MD for Lainey Wilson, was nominated for Touring Musician of the Year. He moved to Nashville from North Carolina specifically because he wanted to tour, and Lainey was the first person he met when he arrived. He’s been out with her essentially every week since 2021.
“There are a lot of people in our crew that maybe wouldn’t be doing this for anyone else. But we do it for Lainey, with Lainey, and for each other.”
Megan Truesdell is on her first tour — camera and LED tech through Moo TV with Chris Stapleton. She talks about the mental preparation required for a physical job: morning affirmations, internal reflection before hitting the floor, knowing her attitude is going to impact every person around her.
Josh Phillips — pyro on Hardy’s Jim Bob Royal Tour — got his first touring gig through Giggs. He met a contact at a Giggs event a year and a half ago, which led to CMA, which led to Hardy. He’s doing pyro for the first time. He didn’t get burned. He calls it probably the best tour he’s ever been on.
And Margie, who just graduated college, flew out to Charlottesville, Virginia, and started her first job as a production assistant on a stadium run with Chris Stapleton. She’s still figuring out what she didn’t know she didn’t know. But she got good shoes.
Why This Night Matters
Twenty years is a long time to keep doing something. The CMA Touring Awards don’t fix the realities of freelance life — the inconsistent income, the health insurance gap, the time away from family. But they do one thing that matters: they make the people who do the work feel seen. By their peers. By the community they built their lives around.
Sarah Trahern’s last Touring Awards as CEO was a good one. Lainey Wilson’s camp swept the night. A kid who got his first gig through Giggs won pyro on one of country’s biggest tours. Diana “Lemonade” McBride cried a little in a hand-painted lemon jacket.
And somewhere in Nashville during CMA Fest week, a bus driver who believed in his artist 17 years ago finally took home the hardware.
Listen to the full episode here and please follow the show and leave a review. Find your next gigg and join the #1 live events community at Giggs.
