When the Country Radio Seminar (CRS) comes to a close on Feb. 21, five artists — Warren Zeiders, Dasha, Ashley Cooke, Drew Baldridge and Zach Top — will have 20 minutes apiece to make a lasting impression on programmers at the New Faces of Country Music show.
That 20-minute slot may not sound like much, but it’s significant. In its original incarnation, New Faces allowed artists to perform just two songs, which meant they had about seven minutes to win over a room of professional skeptics. Because of decisions made 25 years ago, this year’s class has nearly triple the amount of stage time to influence programmers from across the country. Many of those gatekeepers will be evaluating these artists’ work for the rest of their careers.
The long-tail importance can’t be discounted. In just the last week, Lee Brice had a conversation with a radio executive who recalled specifics about his New Faces appearance in 2011.
“I knew that you got to get your face out there, and that people talk about it,” Brice says, recounting the obvious benefits of that appearance. “But they’re still talking about it [14] years later. That I didn’t realize.”
The New Faces show had make-or-break moments in its earliest years, building a reputation as a star-making platform. Alabama in 1980, Randy Travis in 1986 and Tim McGraw in 1994 all impressed the crowd with their two-song sets, solidifying support from broadcasters who inevitably helped them become significant ambassadors for the genre.
Conversely, a few artists snuffed out their possible futures with appearances that ran from amateurish to over the top. In one particular instance, an independent artist thanked the crowd for making her a “star,” though she had never reached the top 25 on Billboard’s country singles chart. The room’s influencers groaned audibly, and she only made one more chart appearance with a single that peaked in the 60s.
More stringent qualifications have since been instituted. The annual lineup was halved in 2000 from 10 artists to five. More recently, CRS instituted a vote of radio employees and other members of the music industry and media to select performers. That has changed the impact of a New Faces appearance. It previously represented an introduction to an artist; now it’s a confirmation of the industry’s embrace.
“The purpose of it is different,” Country Radio Broadcasters executive director RJ Curtis says, “but I still think it has significance and meaning for our event and for the artists’ careers.”
A Billboard study of the 413 artists who appeared at New Faces from 1970 to 2024 underscores the change. During the first 30 years, when the lineup usually featured 10 artists performing two songs apiece, more than half of them — 52% — reached the top 10 on Billboard‘s country singles chart in their careers. Since 2000, when the lineup was reduced to five acts performing for 20 minutes each, a whopping 91% have gone top 10.
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The difference is significant, reflecting changes in not only the New Faces show but also the structure of the entertainment landscape. During the early days of CRS, there was no internet or even a country cable TV network. Programmers may not have seen an 8 by 10 glossy of all the artists or, in some cases, even received a 7-inch to sample. A New Faces appearance was literally a chance to make a first impression.
McGraw’s 1994 appearance is a case in point. He had had a polarizing hit with his novelty “Indian Outlaw,” but his second song that night was a still-unreleased “Don’t Take the Girl.” It effectively changed the narrative around his career.
“I’d never heard that song before,” Curtis recalls. “Tim nailed it. It was mind-blowing. The room was beside itself, and rightly so, and Tim has acknowledged that, yes, that was a big moment for him.”
Under current conditions, most attendees have likely met some of the New Faces artists and even had them sing in their conference rooms on radio promotion tours or had them perform for an acoustic, station-sponsored benefit. And with 20 minutes to play, the artists are better able to shape — if they’re so inspired — a set list that represents a musical journey. Curtis points to Eric Church in 2007 as an example.
“It was like an introduction or an autobiography, a statement about who he was as an artist, what he believed in and what his shows were going to look like if you hadn’t seen him live,” Curtis remembers. “To a lot of people who were the big Eric Church fans, it was about the live show. That was an experience — it wasn’t just a concert, it was like a shared experience — and Eric Church came out in 2007 and did a really clever [show], all tied in together. Very strategic.”
The decision to cut the lineup from 10 artists to five was likewise a strategic move by CRS. The late Charlie Monk, one of the seminar’s founders, told Curtis that in the show’s early years, performance slots were based less on the artists’ accomplishments than on their teams’ ability to pull strings.
“I hate to say this, but back in the day, it was kind of a smoke-filled room,” Curtis admits. “There were deals, there were ‘I scratch your back, you scratch mine’ [agreements] — that’s the way the business was back then.”
That meant there were acts appearing on the show who didn’t necessarily warrant the opportunity. The board decided to shrink the field from 10 performers to five in 2000 and institute criteria for the first time, including benchmarks related to airplay charts. (Beginning with the 2026 show, Billboard‘s multimetric Hot Country Songs will figure into eligibility.)
Naturally, requiring a specific level of success led to stronger lineups, and with only five slots, there have been plenty of instances where a worthwhile performer missed one year, but was eligible again the next year and made it. Zeiders, who will perform this year, is a prime example. That also strengthens New Faces, though it also means the showcase experience is different from its original concept. There’s less suspense about the artists, and a surprise breakout is far less likely. Instead, it’s more a celebration of the developing acts that the industry has already generally embraced.
“It was a predictor,” Curtis says, “and now it’s a validation.”
