It was that time of year again. The time when mainstream country fans get all excited to see their favorite stars on tv, and the time independent country fans make the gut wrenching decision on whether or not they want to watch and see just how far gone the music they love has gotten. This year, contrary to my expectation before the show, was actually not quite as bad as one might expect. It had its moments, but overall it seemed to be a step in the right direction. Let's do a run through shall we?The Bad:
The first song.
-The night kicked off with Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line singing a mash-up of "That's My Kinda Night" and "Cruise." Filled with plenty of trucks, hot girls, and rapping, both songs probably earned a spot in the 'top 5 worst country songs that ever existed' list, what a great way to start "Country Music's Biggest Night." The sound quality for the performance was awful, it was almost as bad as the amount of skinny jean wearers and pelvic thrusts that happened on that stage. Within two minutes of the show's beginning, the traditionalists watching would be screaming into a pillow waiting for it to end while jabbing forks into their eardrums and eyeball sockets. The good news is that was the worse part of the night.Bro-hug
-Hosts Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood's monologue was actually quite funny this year. They started with a song about all the recent feuds going on in country music. Of course they mentioned the recent fight between Zac Brown and Luke Bryan. Zac called Luke's new song "The worse song he ever heard" many people agreed with Zac and his opinions on the state of country music, but, both he and Luke bro-hugged it out to show they are still buds. Rays of sunshine darted through the dark storm clouds and the country music land remains feel good, happy and perfect.Florida Georgia Line win "Single Of The Year" and "Duo Of The Year"
- Fueled by frat boys and Walmart moonshine, it seems like these ultra douchenuggets can not be stopped. However, since "Cruise" is the "most successful country song ever," this was not a surprise.
Kacey Musgraves' "Follow Your Arrow" gets bleeped
-Luke Bryan can say he has "real good feel good stuff" in the back of his truck. Blake Shelton can say "Make-up sex" in "Mine Would Be You," but Kacey can't say "joint?" Puuuuhlease!
Eric Church sings his new song "The Outsiders"
-I don't care how "country" a song is as long as it's good. Rock and country are usually a great combination if it's done well. This song is just a mess. I usually like Eric, and I still do think he is one of the most unique, most promising males in mainstream country music, but this song just doesn't do it for me. It seems like he is trying way too hard to be be a rebel.
Taylor Swift wins Pinnacle Award
-This somewhat new award is given to a singer who has had more success than anyone else in country music and who is currently at the top of the mountain and can not get any more popular. The only other person who won this was Garth Brooks in 2005. Many will say that Garth is the reason country music turned into something other than the music. His stage antics and mainstream appeal led him to receive the amount of popularity he had. Unlike Taylor Swift, his music was still country for his time though. Taylor is a pop singer, no questions asked. Does she really deserve such a huge honor in country music? It's very unlikely any real deserving artist will ever win this award.P. Diddy was a presenter
-I don't know what was worse, him being there, or me not being slightly surprised.
Kelly Clarkson was nominated for "Best Female Vocalist"
- That just goes to show how few women there are in mainstream country. There are a lot of women out there that actually make country music that deserve it. Why couldn't that nomination have gone to someone like Ashley Monroe or Kellie Pickler?
Blake Shelton wins "Album Of The Year"
-Blake's "people" sent every radio station voter a vinyl copy of his latest album Based On A True Story. The record had a smartphone scan code so you can scan it and a virtual arm would pretend to play the record so you can listen to a vinyl record from your phone. They knew the voters would be intrigued by the new product so they would have to listen to the album. When it came voting time they would remember that Blake sent them a cool vinyl and vote for him. It's been done a lot before, but how sad is it that you need gimmicks to win an award. If you were looking at album substance, concept, originality, or just good music it would be near impossible to say Blake should have won. Based On A True Story definitely is not based on a true story. He didn't write any songs and almost every single song is super pop with cliche country buzzwords. It is his worst album in my opinion. Kacey Musgraves' Same Trailer Different Park should have brought this one home.Some singers got to sing multiple songs
-There definitely is not a shortage of good country music out there. Why did Carrie Underwood get to sing a long medley? Why did Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line each get to sing twice when Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Hank Jr. and Loretta Lynn are all here. Maybe next time bring one of them in to country up the place a little bit. Or you can use the opportunity to promote some good lesser known artists who are making good music. Really though.
The Good:
Kacey Musgraves- Just in general, other than the bleeping out, her performance of "Follow Your Arrow" was great, we need more songs like that. The big shocker was when she beat out Florida Georgia Line for "best new artist." It was great to see her nominated 6 times, that was as many times as Taylor Swift. Even though she got snubbed in the other categories it was great to see her win one, I'll keep singing her praises because she deserves it!
Chris Stapleton sings with Luke Bryan
"Drink A Beer" shows that Luke Bryan is in fact capable of making good music. The song was written by Chris Stapleton who was also there to play guitar and sing with him in his performance. Chris has been writing songs for a long time. He was in bluegrass band The SteelDrivers for a couple years but is now signed to a major record label and has a great first single "What Are You Listening To" that is being virtually ignored by mainstream radio. This was great exposure for him.
Vince Gill & Alison Krauss sing "Red" with Taylor Swift-I'm sure the motive behind this was to prove that Taylor still has some country credibility now that she went total pop. That fact and her horrible vocals aside, this performance was pretty cool. Vince and Alison got to sing a verse alongside mandolin god Sam Bush and other bluegrass players. If there was no Taylor this would've been even more great.
Dave Grohl and Zac Brown collaborate
-Drummer for Nirvana and the founder of The Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl proved my hatred for cross genre collaborations on the CMAs wrong. This wasn't a Ludacris and Jason Aldean type thing. Zac Brown Band debuted a new song while playing with the rock legend. Southern rock at its best.
Kenny Rogers gets the "Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award"
-Kenny Rogers sat on stage while others sang him his songs. Jennifer Nettles, Rascal Flatts, and Darius Rucker all sang his monumental hits until he joined in for "Islands In The Stream," as did the rest of the audience. The tribute really did a great job showing songs that were milestones in his life.
Country music hall of fame inductees get honored
-Kenny Rogers, Cowboy Jack Clement, and Bobby Bare all recently got inducted into the country music hall of fame. Bobby Bare made a surprising appearance at the CMA's. He probably regretted coming a few minutes in, but hey it was cool. He was a quieter, lesser known outlaw and he deserves to be in the hall of fame. Cowboy Jack Clement passed away in August but he still got recognition. It made me happy to see that.
George Strait wins "Entertainer Of The Year"-A 60 year old guy beating a bunch of the skinny jean boys was unlikely but George Strait took this one home. This was unquestionably the biggest shock of the night. George is about to start the next leg of his farewell tour. Since it's his last year to be nominated everyone must have agreed to send the country king off right by giving him one of country music's biggest honors. Seeing him up there was one of the greatest moments of the night.
George Strait & Alan Jackson perform a tribute to George Jones-The best moment of the whole show was during this moving tribute to pay respect to George Jones. I was expecting a medley but a solid cover of "He Stopped Loving Her Today" by the last two pioneers in mainstream country was good enough for me. George Jones was always outspoken about the state of country music up until the day he died. He always said how it lacks heart and it just isn't country music anymore. Seeing George and Alan singing the song that defined who he was with his wife standing in the audience and the crowd singing along, it just seemed right. I think somewhere there is hope. Seeing people react so greatly made me believe that. Just two guys up on stage singing a good country song, nothing fancy just guitars and soul. Why can't it just be like that. George would have wanted it that way. I think we owe it to him.
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