The Red Clay Strays Win Group of the Year at ACM Awards
the red clay strays left Las Vegas with Group of the Year and a prime-time performance of “Demons In Your Choir” at the ACM Awards. For a band that began as a cover act, the win puts its climb from viral momentum to the national country stage into plain view.
Las Vegas and Group of the Year
Group of the Year gives the band the night’s clearest business result, and the performance slot put them in front of the same audience that just rewarded them. Shania Twain hosted the ACM Awards for the first time in her career, giving the show a familiar host and a new headline of its own.
The Red Clay Strays formed from a cover band that included Brandon Coleman, Andrew Bishop, and Drew Nix, then turned “Wondering Why” into a breakout after it went viral on TikTok in 2022. That path matters because the ACM win is not arriving out of nowhere; it lands after the band already moved from local-stage material to a wider audience that followed the single online.
Brandon Coleman on Grateful
In 2022, the band released its debut album, Moment of Truth, and in 2024, Made by These Moments landed on streaming platforms. Brandon Coleman tied those records to the group’s own arc, saying, “Moment of Truth was a big album about having faith in dark times, looking to a higher power and Made By These Moments focused on realizing those dark times that you were having to have faith through, which made you who you are. You made it through when you didn’t think you would.”
He added, “Now we’re at a point where we’re grateful.” Andrew Bishop put the title in the same frame, saying, “We’re grateful for how we came out of Made By These Moments and what we have now.” The title of the next album, Grateful, is set to arrive only a few weeks after the ACM Awards, which keeps the band in release mode while the award win is still fresh.
Doctor Sleep to Twisters
The Red Clay Strays have also lent their talents to films like Doctor Sleep and Twisters, a useful reminder that their profile now reaches beyond one awards show and one viral song. The ACM appearance turns that broader footprint into a cleaner industry signal: the band can now sell itself as an award-winning live act with a new album coming soon.
