Last night, the 48th Annual CMA Awards took place and were full of great moments, great performances, and some great musicians. Country superstars Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley hosted the awards show for the seventh time and their monologues brought numerous laughs with discussions of Taylor Swift leaving country for pop, Ebola, leaked racy photographs, and also Carrie’s pregnancy. It was even announced, whether planned or not, that Carrie will be having a baby boy with Brad saying, “We could name him Garth.”
Luke Bryan won the big award of the night, Entertainer of the Year, which was presented by country music icon, Garth Brooks. There was much discussion after the award as many fans were rooting for George Strait to win the award for the second consecutive year and a farewell tour. Despite being a superstar, Luke Bryan has never won a CMA Award prior to last night in his ten previous nominations. Going into the night with three more nominations, it was expected that he would win at least one award after an extensive tour full of sold-out shows, including several NFL stadiums, on top of a number one album,
The only other person who may have had a bigger night was Miranda Lambert who won four CMA Awards, including Female Vocalist of the Year, which marked five consecutive CMA Awards for Female Vocalist of the Year for Lambert. The Texas native also won the awards for Album of the Year, Single of the Year, and Musical Event of the Year for her collaboration with Keith Urban on ‘We Were Us.’ Miranda was also part of two performances on the night. One with Massachusetts native, Meghan Trainor, when they performed Trainor’s ‘All About That Bass,’ before performing ‘Smokin’ and Drinkin” with Little Big Town later in the night.
Blake Shelton brought home a twin award (to his wife’s) as he took home the trophy for Male Vocalist of the Year. Also like Miranda, this was his fifth consecutive year winning the prestigious award.
Miranda Lambert wasn’t the only country entertainer who took part in a collaborative performance on Wednesday night. ACM Award winners for Vocal Group of the Year, Little Big Town, took the stage in lit up clothing and two rows of drumlines for a fun performance of their 2014 hit ‘Day Drinking,’ before pop superstar Ariana Grande joined the group on stage where they together performed Grande’s ‘Bang Bang.’ Grande definitely demonstrated her vocal talents but many were perplexed after the performance why she was brought into the performance as Little Big Town was doing great by themselves. Shortly after winning the ACM Award for Song of the Year for ‘Follow Your Arrow,’ Kacey Musgraves took the stage for a duet with the legendary Loretta Lynn. Also, Hunter Hayes, Jennifer Nettles, and Hillary Scott (of Lady Antebellum) assisted The Doobie Brothers in performing their hit ‘Listen To The Music.’ But one of the most talked about duets during the night was when Eric Church joined The King, George Strait, on stage for a performance of ‘Cowboys Like Us’ which Church had done before on Strait’s farewell tour.
On top of these great collaborations, there were many other performances that really had an impact on the night. Country megastars, Florida-Georgia Line, went against their norm and played a raw, stripped version of ‘Dirt,’ from their new album. No special effects. Just the duo sitting on stools with their guitars. It was a nice change of pace for FGL. One of our favorite performances was Keith Urban’s performance of ‘Somewhere In My Car’ which included an incredible guitar solo.
Photo courtesy of Larry Busacca, Getty Images.
One of the best moments of the night was a great tribute video to Vince Gill which showed him over the years including from his times when he used to host the CMA Awards as well as special messages from some great musicians like Merle Haggard and James Taylor among others. After the video montage, Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley presented Gill with the Irving Waugh Excellence Award which was definitely deserved after countless and unmeasureable contributions to not only country music but the music industry as a whole. In his acceptance speech, Gill not only talked about the man that the award was named after but also talked about the great relationship that is seen from some of today’s biggest stars like Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean. It was a great moment to see a legend tip his hat in respect to today’s biggest stars, which often get criticized and described as not being country or country enough.
After winning the CMA Award for Song of the Year, as a co-writer of the song, Brady Clark said “When I came off stage, Vince Gill grabbed me and said ‘you just won the biggest award you can ever win. I know, I’ve won them all and this one means the most to me.’ That about sums it up!” Clark was also nominated for New Artist of the Year, which was one of the closest races with fellow artists Brett Eldredge, Kip Moore, Thomas Rhett, and Cole Swindell being fellow nominees. Eldredge ended up taking home the trophy for the category. Although full of incredible groups, the CMA Award for Duo of the Year was probably the one category that was a runaway as Florida-Georgia Line took home the award after one of the biggest years of anyone in country music.
The one thing that we were disappointed in was that Dierks Bentley did not get the recognition that has deserved after a great year and an even better album. ‘Riser‘ is one of the best albums from top to bottom with heartfelt and emotional songs like ‘I Hold On’ (which was nominated for Song of the Year‘) to hilarious and fun songs like ‘Drunk On A Plane (which won the CMA Award for Music Video of the Year). We thought that Dierks had a chance to win both Album of the Year and Song of the Year on top of the win for Music Video of the Year.
So what can we expect for the CMA Awards in 2015? The race for Entertainer of the Year has already begun with Garth Brooks returning to touring after 13 years being away from the tour life and Kenny Chesney also returning to the road after a year away. Our prediction is that Garth will end up winning the award. But Kenny should receive nominations for other awards including Song of the Year and possibly Album of the Year. There are a bunch of up and coming artists who could be in contention for New Artist of the Year including Lucy Hale, Chase Rice, and Sam Hunt. Blake and Miranda will go for their sixth consecutive wins for Male Vocalist of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year. And who knows, Taylor Swift may return to country by then and perform at the 49th occurrence of the CMA Awards. Only time will tell but the 48th Annual CMA Awards were fantastic and rewarded the best in the industry with the respect and recognition they deserved.
List of Winners:
Entertainer of the Year: Luke Bryan
Female Vocalist of the Year: Miranda Lambert
Male Vocalist of the Year: Blake Shelton
Album of the Year: Miranda Lambert- ‘Platinum’
Vocal Group of the Year: Little Big Town
New Artist of the Year: Brett Eldredge
Vocal Duo of the Year: Florida Georgia Line
Single of the Year: Miranda Lambert (‘Automatic’)
Song of the Year: ‘Follow Your Arrow’, written by Kacey Musgraves, Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally
Musical Event of the Year: Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert (‘We Were Us’)
Music Video of the Year: Dierks Bentley (‘Drunk On A Plane’)
Musician of the Year: Mac McAnally