This March, Frisco became the 42nd Texas city designated as a “Music Friendly Texas Certified Community” under the Texas Music Office’s pioneering music business-related economic development program. Two months later, the 58th Academy of Country Music Awards show came to town. Co-hosted by country legends Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks and streamed worldwide, the two-hour spectacle was held at the Ford Center, the 12,000-seat multipurpose indoor stadium at The Star, the Dallas Cowboys’ world headquarters.
Once, country acts made art in Austin and money in Nashville. Today each place is a lot like the other, which is why more Texas singers are heading east.