Are the Red Clay Strays — the genre-fusing six-piece out of Mobile, Ala. — country music’s best-kept secret?
If so, they won’t be for long.
Even before the band won the Vocal Group of the Year Award at the 2025 CMAs, in a surprise upset over long-running winners Old Dominion, the Red Clay Strays were already generating a massive grassroots fanbase. Their listeners are passionate, and growing in number.
Read More: The Red Clay Strays Plan to Make a Real Country Album, Someday
New fans may know them best for “People Hatin’,” the song they performed at the 2025 CMA Awards, but that’s just the very beginning of what the Red Clay Strays have to offer. So much so that that song doesn’t even make our Top 10 list of the best songs the band has out there.
The group formed in the mid-2010s, but their big breakthrough didn’t come until 2023, when their love song “Wondering Why” enjoyed a viral moment on TikTok.
That song — a slow, romantic ballad with a vintage feel — is representative of what the band can do, but there’s simply no one song that exemplifies the Red Clay Strays sound.
That’s because this band combines a slew of different influences. Southern rock, gospel, rock, folk and the blues are all in the mix, and in fact, traditional country is a ways down the list in terms of what their songs often sound like.
But the band connects with a country audience, in part because their lyrical precision and depth. The Red Clay Strays’ songs are often world-weary and tell relatable stories about life’s highest highs and lowest, most devastating lows.
Below, Taste of Country has rounded up a 10-song primer on songs to listen to for new Red Clay Strays fans.
This is a band that’s sure to be an in-demand opening act for country’s biggest names in 2026 — and potentially a solid headliner in their own right.
The 10 Best Red Clay Strays Songs
Are the Red Clay Strays, the genre-fusing six-piece out of Mobile, Ala., country music’s best-kept secret? Not for long. Even before they won Vocal Group of the Year at the 2025 CMA Awards, the band began to generate a massive grassroots fan base. Frontman Brandon Coleman’s vocal versatility rivals Chris Stapleton’s, and the group’s emotional depth and sharp songwriting are some of the best in the game. It’s time that mainstream country fans caught up with what Red Clay Strays fans already know: This group is one to watch.
Gallery Credit: Carena Liptak
