Ask Jess Carson where Midland's sound comes from and he names Gary Stewart, Mickey Gilley, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens and Dwight Yoakam, the line the trio has worked since their 2017 debut, On the Rocks. The band's own origin is less of a honky-tonk story. The three were friends from the Los Angeles music scene, and Cameron Duddy was a music video director whose credits include Bruno Mars's "Locked Out of Heaven." Mark Wystrach and Carson reconnected at Duddy's wedding, and the three cut songs at the Sonic Ranch studio in the Texas desert before they had played a single show together. They took the name from Yoakam's "Fair to Midland," call Dripping Springs, Texas, home, and signed with Big Machine. "Drinkin' Problem" reached No. 4 on Hot Country Songs and earned two Grammy nominations, and Let It Roll, The Last Resort: Greetings From and Barely Blue followed.
Stages, out June 12, 2026, through Blue Highway Records, is ten songs with more outside material than they'd ever cut, Carson told MusicRow. "Marlboro Man" is a Dean Dillon, Tim Nichols and Josh Thompson song; Ryan Beaver sent them "Shooting Memories With Tequila" as an iPhone recording. Clint Black sings on "Up In Texas," Mackenzie Carpenter's duet "I Wish You Would" made the cut, and "Vaquero" is a stripped-back acoustic song Carson likens to Marty Robbins. The title points at the road, since, in Carson's words, they've basically been on tour for over ten years, and in September the CMA nominated them for Vocal Group of the Year. Fiddle, something fans hadn't heard much from them lately, is all over it.