The 46th Annual CMA Awards took over Nashville last night, producing all the excitement one would expect from “Country Music’s Biggest Night.” Where to start… Stellar performances, great collaborations, surprise winners and country music superstars galore defined a night few are soon to forget.
Photo credit: Sara Kauss, ABC
Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood co-hosted the event for the fifth consecutive year. There’s no reason they shouldn’t do it forever; they truly are amazing at it. The opening monologue featured jokes about Taylor Swift’s dating life (always fair game and always topical), Randy Travis’ drunken antics, and a dance routine by both of them to the ever-popular “Ghangham Style.” Not gonna lie, Brad’s got moves.
It even got a little racy, delving into motorboating jokes, marijuana references and Carrie Underwood essentially saying “penis” on national TV. There was also more than one joke about Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles being nine months pregnant. Funniest part of the show by far: Little Jimmy Dickens appearing in scrubs surrounded by scantily clad nurses saying he wanted to induce Jennifer. I was rolling around laughing.
Over 20 performances dominated the night, starting with an intro by Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan and Eric Church singing “The Only Way I Know” a hard-hitting collaboration by the three of them, which appears on Aldean’s album.
The Band Perry debuted their new single “Better Dig Two,” a song that would be perfectly suited for the rock world. The performance even included laser lights shooting around the arena and Kimberly Perry donning a Steven Tyler-esque outfit. Maybe it’s because I haven’t found anything TBP can do wrong, but I thought it kicked ass.
Eric Church performed Springsteen, mashing it up by sneaking “Born To Run” into the middle of the song. Great tribute to The Boss, and a great crowd pleaser.
Kelly Clarkson and Vince Gill debuted their duet, “Don’t Rush.” I don’t know if Kelly Clarkson has started to age backwards or she just loaded on the cosmetics, but she looked fantastic. The song acts as a great “transition” into country music, although Clarkson was already up for Female Vocalist of the year… somehow.
Little Big Town had the most remarkable staging of all time. Each performer was in a separate box, and after all four entered in silhouette, the staging around the boxes lit up to reveal the group was encaged in video screens. Very cool, yes, but the cherry on top was when the screens changed to project a pontoon boat that made it look like the foursome was on it. I’m sure it looked great live, but it was definitely great live.
Carrie Underwood literally blew us all away (yes, incredibly over-used play on words, sorry). She had a tornado come out of the stage, wind, smoke, confetti… all wrapped up in the most powerful vocal of the night. Maybe I’m so enthusiastic about it because I was standing directly beneath her (be jealous, it’s ok).
Musical event of the evening (probably the year) though, had to be the tribute to Willie Nelson. Lady Antebellum began the star-studded performance with “You Were Always on My Mind” and “Crazy” before Blake Shelton and Keith Urban took over with “Whiskey River.” After that, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw appeared for a rare live duet singing “Good-Hearted Woman” right before the man himself took the stage to sing the iconic “On The Road Again.” The performance culminated in Brad Paisley presenting Willie with the brand new Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award… that must be fun to be presented with an award named for you.
Speaking of awards, we cannot forget amongst all the wonderful performances that it is an awards show. Nine were telecast, with many surprises and a couple sincerely emotional moments.
“Over You” won Song of the Year, which goes to the songwriter. This song just happened to be written by Miranda Lambert and hubby Blake Shelton. Invoking the most emotion of the evening, Blake explained how the song was written about his brother who died in a car accident when Blake was just 14. Although Miranda performed the song, she said almost nothing in the acceptance speech, simply standing there with tears streaming down her face.
Blake and Miranda each got to accept again as they repeated as Male and Female Vocalists of the Year respectively. Blake was shocked (and admittedly a little drunk) as he normally is when accepting any award. Miranda went down the list of female nominees praising each individually for how amazing she is. She also gave a shout out to the current and aspiring female singers in the world, pointing out that the genre simply needs more great female singers.
A well-deserved surprise – but surprise nonetheless – was Eric Church winning Album of the Year for “Chief.” The country music veteran has historically struggled with gaining acceptance in the contemporary country world, and relished the moment, even standing silently at first as the crowed admiringly and enthusiastically applauded.
Although it was by no means a sure thing, it was no surprise that “Pontoon” by Little Big Town won Single of the Year (Single is given to the artist, Song to the writer). The much bigger surprise was when the foursome won Vocal Group of the Year. As with Church, LBT has been at it a long time, never having won an award for Group of the Year. They thanked everyone under the sun (and even not under the sun, as they humorously thanked Jesus over and over). The producers actually cut to Paisley to continue the show as LBT was still talking.
Another well-deserved surprise was Thompson Square wining Vocal Duo of the Year. The husband and wife duo made special note of the fact that they worked tirelessly to get where they are, having worked as bartenders on lower Broadway for years before making it.
The couple was also up for New Artist of the Year; however, that distinction went to the prodigy that is Hunter Hays. At only 21, Hunter has exploded on the scene, and qualifies as one of the most musically gifted artists to emerge in… ever.
The biggest win of the night though came with the biggest award. The nominees for Entertainer of the Year were Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton and the reining two-time winner Taylor Swift. Jason has had a killer year with numerous number one hits and an enormous tour; Chesney was certainly in the running due to his epic “Brothers of the Sun” stadium tour with Tim McGraw; and let’s face it: T-Swizzle seems untouchable in this category, especially with the roll she’s been on. (Come to think about it, when isn’t she on a roll?)
And Entertainer of the Year goes to… Blake Shelton.
Although the place erupted with applause, everyone was shocked, most of all Blake. As he accepted, he was obviously honored albeit very taken aback (and probably more drunk).
I’ll give it to him. As Miranda Lambert put it in a Rolling Stone interview after the show: “It not only meant touring numbers or ticket sales or how much production you had, but the way that you represented country music within the year, the media you do, the work that you do and the TV shows you’re on and how much you speak out about country music. When you think of it that way, Blake Shelton deserved to win that trophy tonight.”
Congrats to all the winners!
Also, a special shout out to everyone behind the scenes. When you have the opportunity to attend an awards show, you get to see how much hard work by so many people goes into an event like this. As always, they never cease to amaze me.
46th Annual CMA Awards Winners
Entertainer of the Year – Blake Shelton
Female Vocalist of the Year – Miranda Lambert
Male Vocalist of the Year – Blake Shelton
New Artist of the Year – Hunter Hays
Vocal Group of the Year – Little Big Town
Vocal Duo of the Year – Thompson Square
Single of the Year – “Pontoon” by Little Big Town
Album of the Year – “Chief” by Eric Church
Song of the Year – “Over You” written by Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton
Musical Event of the Year – “Feel Like A Rock Star” by Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw
Music Video of the Year – “Red Solo Cup” by Toby Keith, directed by Michael Salomon
Musician of the Year – Mac McAnally (guitar)
Click here to see the full list of nominees!
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