The trio that was to become the band Midland met separately around Los Angeles, where Jess Carson and Cameron Duddy were in a number of bands through a number of years. After Carson left L.A., Duddy and Mark Wystrach met and formed a country-rock band called The Young Whiskey. The trio met up in
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for Cameron Duddy's wedding in August 2013; both Wystrach and Carson acted as groomsmen. As Duddy recalls the story, Carson and Wystrach arrived in Jackson Hole for the wedding a week early. After playing songs together on the front porch of Carson's cabin, they proposed starting a project together. Six months later, in January 2014, Duddy called Carson and Wystrach to suggest that they record some songs, Wystrach and Duddy then both moved with their families to Texas where Jess Carson lived. They named the band after a song by
Dwight Yoakam that was called "Fair to Midland". Mark Wystrach grew up surrounded by music as his parents were both fans of live music. His parents owned a country music venue. In addition to being a lead singer, frontman Wystrach is also an actor and model. Wystrach was signed to IMG Models. Jess Carson grew up on a small farm in
Oregon where the main genre was country music. His sister and father were musicians, so he started playing guitar. Duddy is also a
music video director; he won an
MTV Video Music Award for "
Locked Out of Heaven" by artist
Bruno Mars. He has directed over 20 music videos in his career, working with several top artist. Midland's first song, "Fourteen Gears", was around 2015. The song, according to Duddy, was "another one of the early moments that defined and solidified the band."
2016–present On March 9, 2016, the trio signed to
Big Machine Records and released the
Midland EP featuring their debut single, "
Drinkin' Problem", which charted on
Billboard's
Hot Country Songs and
Country Airplay. The band wrote the song with
Shane McAnally and
Josh Osborne, the former of whom also produced it. Duddy directed the song's music video. Their debut album
On the Rocks was released in September 22, 2017, produced by Dann Huff, Josh Osborne, Shane McAnally. Midland released "
Make a Little" as the second single. "
Burn Out" as the third single and it was released in late 2018. Midland was nominated for two
Grammy Awards in 2018:
Grammy Award for Best Country Song and
Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance, both for "Drinkin’ Problem". Midland released "
Cheatin' Songs" in August of 2019 as the second single to the album. The album,
Let It Roll, was released on August 23, 2019. The band began a tour in June in support of the album. In 2019 Midland's album
On the Rocks was certified Gold by the
RIAA. In February of 2020 Midland launched three new expressions of their own tequila, called "insõlito". In March 2021, Midland released an album titled
The Sonic Ranch, which served as the soundtrack for the documentary film on their origin story, focusing on their first recording session at The Sonic Ranch in 2014. On July 16, 2021, Midland released their latest EP,
The Last Resort, which hit Number 47 on the Billboard Album Sales Chart. The band followed the EP with their third studio album titled
The Last Resort: Greetings From, released on May 6, 2022. They released "
Sunrise Tells the Story" as the first single, and "
Longneck Way to Go" with
Jon Pardi as the second single in late 2022. Midland released their fourth studio album on September 20, 2024 titled
Barely Blue, the album consist of eight songs and was produced by Grammy Award winner
Dave Cobb.
Rolling Stone rated Barely Blue one of the top 30 best country and Americana albums of 2024.
Vulture.com listed the title track "Lucky Sometimes" as one of the best songs of 2024. Midland also released their new cigar line, called the Palomino Longneck, in a special collaboration with Kingsmakers Cigars in late September 2024. Midland kicked off 2026 with new music, releasing their first single "Marlboro Man" on January 16, 2026, which is described as a wistful, red-dirt- country tune. ==Band members==