The 2025 CMA Awards took Nashville by storm this week, crowning new winners and welcoming fresh faces. In this special bonus episode of Rolling Stone ’s Nashville Now podcast, we break down the good, the bad , and the “what were they thinking?!” Country music journalist Marissa R. Moss joins host Joseph Hudak to heap praise, talk smack, and question if the country music establishment finally got it right.

For instance, did Lainey Wilson deserve to win the top prize of Entertainer of the Year? “Hell yes,” Moss says. “I think she’s a great entertainer. Everybody knows who Lainey Wilson is now. She brought country music into a lot of different living rooms, which is the whole point.”

Wilson also took an opportunity to jab at online commentators, their hands deep in a bag of Ch

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