Can't Watch The ACM Awards? The LA Times Has You Covered

If you don't mind your minute by minute critique of the event more than a little bit snarky, check out Todd Martens' written play by play, Live at the Academy of Country Music Awards!

It's ACM #10 For Reba

Click for Craig Ferguson's show, to vote for the ACM Entertainer of the Year.

It's An ACM First: Fans Choose The Entertainer Of The Year

As they say: if you don't (click to) vote, don't complain!

How To Win A Crystal Award

Take a lesson from the great folks at WUBE and KUZZ. A&O is proud to be in the same industry with folks like THESE! Bonneville/Cincinnati's GM Jim Bryant and Owens/Bakersfield's GM Mel Owens have put together two amazing teams who know how it's done.

CONGRATS to both of them, making A&O and all country broadcasters proud.

Taylor Swift: Big CMT Video Awards Winner

My Space brought her to the attention of hundreds of thousands and then country radio. Kudos to CMT for a great show last night and for giving Taylor her due following impressive success in multiple media.

Hats off to Westwood One’s George Achaves, Lon Helton and Chuck Aly for being there with pens in hand (I loved their 'bizarre juxtapositions" line which could not have been more true), gettng the best quotes of the night out to radio:

• Snoop Dogg: “I love country music. I’m honored to be here. It’s underrated.”
• Joe Don Rooney: “I’m taking parenting tips from Gary [LeVox]. I’m preparing like any first time father -- sweating bullets, eating a lot. I’m eating for three now!”
• LeAnn Rimes: “Yeah, the prison outfit, thigh highs and garters. We’re kind of every man’s fantasy tonight.”
• Tom Arnold: “[Jewel’s boyfriend] Ty [Murray] shook my hand and I think he broke some bones.”
• Barack Obama: “Four words: Treasury Secretary Hannah Montana.”
• Taylor Swift: “I had these hot pink heels, but they hurt so bad. I walked past Faith and told her how my feet hurt, and she said ‘Take ‘em off.’ I actually accepted my award bare foot, and Faith Hill told me I could.”
• Gary LeVox: “The only reason we’re here tonight is because of the people in that crowd. It’s unfortunate that all award shows aren’t fan voted.”
• Trace Adkins: [Accepting Male Video] “I’d like to thank Country radio for giving me my first three-week No. 1. I’ve never had that before.”
• Donald Trump: [To Adkins] “Lose my number.”

Blake Shelton Campaigns For A CMT Video Award

Blake's video, "The More I Drink" is up for the Comedy Video of the Year award, and this You Tube video also shows his funny side (or is that his desperate side?)

The Grammys Are Still The Grammys When It Comes To Country

A&O buddy Los Angelino Neil Haislop was there all weekend, starting with Friday night's pre-party:

Friday night at Hollywood's Knitting Factory on Hollywood Boulevard, Dierks Bentley put on a pre-awards party that will likely rank high among the various pre-shows this weekend ahead of the milestone Sunday's 50th Annual Grammy Awards show. Bentley is up for 3 Grammys, Best Male Country Vocal Performance, Best Country Song for "Long Trip Alone," and, Best Country Album for Long Trip Alone.

Billed as Dierks Bentley and Friends the show lived up to its name, as Dierks was joined on stage by country and pop luminaries, including Miranda Lambert, Brad Paisley, and Dwight Yoakam, as well as Pearl Jam lead guitarist, Mike McCready and Haley Williams, lead singer for New Artist nominee Paramore.

After Dierks tore into his high-energy opening set, Miranda Lambert, Grammy nominated for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for "Famous in a Small Town," was first to join him on stage. The crowd welcomed Miranda like a big star and were jumping up and down through the high energy set between two artists that are friends and singing on the same musical page.

After Miranda departed, Dierks told the crowd that he wanted Brad Paisley to join him for the a few songs, "But he's too big a star now to do something like that." Of course, that was Brad's cue to jump on stage, strap on a guitar and fire up the crowd with his guitar licks, humor and vocals. Paisley is also Grammy-nominated 3 times for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals, along with Carrie Underwood, for "Oh, Love," Best Country Instrumental Performance for "Throttleneck" off of his Grammy-nominated album, 5th Gear.

The next surprise guest was Pearl Jam's lead guitarist, Mike McCready. Dierks pretty much laid back on his acoustic and let Mike do his thing. Would've been fun to have kept Paisley out there and let them engage in a friendly dual.

Also, guesting with Dierks was the Tennessee-bred, 18 year-old lead singer for Paramore, Haley Williams. Paramore is up for the overall New Artist Grammy.

Although Paramore ain't country, Haley proved that the country she grew with hadn't left her as she and Dierks traded vocals on some big country standards.

After Dierks finished the show the Hollywood crowd in the trendy club wanted an encore and got it plus the final guest star to help Dierks deliver it, Dwight Yoakam.
Dierks had a ball trading vocals on several cool versions Buck Owens songs. It was a fitting finale to a great show served up one of country's hottest young traditionalists and a few of his friends.

Can't say too much about Dierks' band, especially lead guitarist, Rod Janzen, who held his own with both Brad and Mike McCready Friday night.

cbs.com

The Grammys being the Grammys, nearly all of the Country awards were handed out in the pre-telecast awards presentations where Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley were on hand to accept their awards. Carrie picked up Best Female Country Vocal Performance for "Before He Cheats," which also earned Best Country Song honors.

"You couldn't keep me from actually getting this myself — it's not the same when someone else gets this on your behalf," said Underwood.

After an amazing duet of "Learnin' the Blues" between Alicia Keys and Frank Sinatra (appearing on an old film clip), CARRIE'S BIg performance was the second number of the night, where she delivered a revved up, huge production of "Before He Cheats."

cbs.com

BRAD PAISLEY ALSO PERFORMED...Brad Paisley, who won for Best Country Instrumental Performance on "Throttleneck," turned in a rousing performance of his quirky hit, "Ticks."

And, the Grammys being the Grammys, VINCE GILL won Country Album of the year for his brilliant, multiple disc, These Days, and was presented his Grammy by Beatle, Ringo Star.

THE "BIG" COUNTRY GRAMMY WINNERS..

Best Female Country Vocal Performance
(For a solo vocal performance. Singles or Tracks only.)
Before He Cheats
Carrie Underwood
Track from: Some Hearts
[19 Recordings/Arista Nashville]

Best Male Country Vocal Performance
Stupid Boy - Keith Urban
Track from: Love, Pain & The Whole Crazy Thing

Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals
How Long - Eagles

Best Country Collaboration With Vocals
Lost Highway Willie Nelson & Ray Price

Best Country Instrumental Performance
"Throttleneck Brad Paisley"
Track from: 5th Gear

Best Country Song "Before He Cheats"
Josh Kear & Chris Tompkins, songwriters (Carrie Underwood)

Best Country Album
These Days - Vince Gill

The Grammys being the Grammys, the list of "little" country winners is too long for this post.

Jennifer Nettles Does It Again With Another Awards Show Surprise

Sugarland blew me away on the CMA Awards and their latest coup was last night's Beyonce "duet" on ‘Irreplaceable’ at the 2007 American Music Awards (click at watch it, first in on stage performances from last summer and now on national TV)

"A good thing about a good song is it can be played in any genre. I'm up for anything. I love it." -- Jennifer Nettles

PS - I seldom engage in online disagreements with the folks who post comments on this blog, but I must respectfully at least partially disagree with "Anon" (below) who cast stones at these kind of award show duets with non-country artists.

Click here to listen to the entire 3:30 performance by Nettles and Knowles and see if you don't agree that they do what live music performance coaching expert Tom Jackson calls "Performance Plus."

Maybe I'm swayed a bit by the fact that Edison Research's Larry Rosin actually suggested that a country artist ought to do a duet with Beyonce in his CRS '07 research presentation as a way of bringing Hispanics to country music, but I'd say they propel the song to a new level and use all the possibilities a live performance offers to take a familiar song to new places to engage the audience in ways they've never heard or seen before. To me, that's what live performance should be about!

A special thank you to Jim Murphy (303-784-8757) for the great TV audio clip, who proves that one way you become the VP of Country Media at Jones Radio Networks in Denver is by being smart enough to always have the digital recorder going during every awards broadcast!

CMA Awards "Who Wore What" (Paper Cuts)

Leave it to the LA Times ("where did the sequins go?" to rate the outfits...

Carrie: style with substance, LeAnn Rimes' nude scenes, Michelle Branch "classy," Brad & Kimberly "country couple," Taylor Swift golden girl, Jewel "breast-dressed," Martina "dowdy" McBride, Sheryl "nun" Crow, Keith & ("pale") Nicole, Gretchen & Kid (pictured) "dressing down."

"I don't know about you, but I miss the sequins, the sparkles, the big hair and the overdone makeup. Mostly, I miss Dolly Parton." -- writer Elizabeth Snead

Tim & Faith, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts Songs Are The People's Choice

"Favorite Song" is country's lone rep among today's People's Choice nominees.

"I Need You" by Tim McGraw with Faith Hill, "Never Wanted Nothing More" by Kenny Chesney and "Stand" by Rascal Flatts are our nominees with winners to be named January 8 on CBS.

First To Complain, SO.. I Need To Be The First To Compliment Too..

I think this speaks for itself (see below)... ...and, thank YOU, Kenny! And, Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood, Sugarland and Taylor Swift, among others as well.

CMA Week Events

The 41st annual CMA awards show is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at Sommet Center and will be broadcast live on ABC.

"Good Morning America" is in Music City all week and this evening's (free) "Music on the Horizon" concert at City Hall with Jennifer Hanson, Lady Antebellum, Chuck Wicks and Crossin Dixon.

Tomorrow (Tuesday), there's another gratis event, Chevy's Music Tour with Phil Vassar and Emerson Drive.

The three days of country music events lead up to the awards, beginning with today's Music City Walk of Fame Induction at Hall of Fame Park celebrates the careers of Rodney Crowell, Bob DiPiero, Vince Gill, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Killen and Barbara Mandrell. (For information, contact Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau, 615-259-4730 and/or the Country Music Association at 615 244 2840.)

A Lesson From ABC-TV And CMA: Producing A Compelling Promo

Click to see the new CMA Awards promos

Which Is More Important: A Large TV Audience? Or, Recognizing Hall Of Famers?

The TV network folks make it clear every year as they pour over the Nielsen minute by minute audience flow during the awards broadcasts: the only thing that matters to them is the size of the audience and the entertainment value.

The venerable Hazel Smith has a different take on it.

"One of our biggest acts in country music is Rascal Flatts, and they've apparently gained the right to perform two songs on the CMA Awards. But is anybody else singing two songs? I don't think so. Rascal Flatts will perform one of those songs with Jamie Foxx, a talented actor, comedian and musician who won an Oscar for his marvelous portrayal of Ray Charles in the movie, Ray. We claim Ray Charles as one of our own. We also have a lot of respect for Jamie Foxx's talents, but does he have enough country music muscle to perform on the CMA Awards show when there's apparently not enough time to honor the Hall of Fame inductees? Not in my book."

Hear Some Amazing, Award-Winning Country Radio

If you've wondered what it takes to win a CMA Award, now you can find out .. and listen to how some of the format's top personalities and stations position themselves at their very best .. check out the very cool web site just posted by the CMA for the CMA Awards broadcast nominees.

About Those '07 CMA Award Nominations..

There have been lots of opinions expressed since the CMA nods came out, pro/con (see below for links to a few juicy ones), but the one I love most is Brad Paisley's to the BBC about sharing the honor of having the most nominations with His Highness Sir George.

"Had he not existed, I don't know who I would be. He's one of the reasons I wear a cowboy hat."

OPINION: " A Sunday Point Of View " - Has Music Row Lost It's CMA Voting Power...?

OPINION: There is more politics in the CMA balloting and voting then in Florida or Washington

"The 41st Annual CMA Awards" To Be Broadcast Live November 7 On The ABC Television Network

The Country Music Association and ABC Television Network have announced that “The 41st Annual CMA Awards” will air live Wednesday, Nov. 7 (8:00-11:00 PM/EST) on ABC from Nashville, Tenn.

“The CMA Awards is ‘Country Music’s Biggest Night’ and is one of the most highly anticipated events for our industry each year,” said CMA Chief Operating Officer Tammy Genovese. “It’s a night to applaud our best and brightest performers, songwriters, record producers and music video directors. And we are ready to make this the most outstanding Awards broadcast to date.”

The CMA Awards moved from September to November Sweeps in 2003 and the placement right before the important holiday retail sales season has been good for the Country Music industry. 2003 also marked the last time the Awards were held on Wednesday. In 2007, the CMA Awards moves back to Wednesday night.

“Some of our highest-rated programs have been on Wednesday and our partners at ABC support the move based on the strength of the CMA Awards and the configuration of the fall lineup,” Genovese said. “We all feel that the position at the start of Sweeps on a night that has been successful for us in the past is the right move for the Awards, the industry, and ABC.”

The 2006 CMA Awards, held in Nashville during November Sweeps (Nov. 6), ranked behind only the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes and GRAMMY Awards during the 2006-2007 season for awards shows among total viewers. With “The 40th Annual CMA Awards,” ABC won Monday evening in both total viewers (16.0 million) and adults 18-49 (5.4/13).

Post ACM Bits And Pieces

The official Press Release with all the winners and some great trivia info too.

AP's Tom Gardner's story has some fun insider quotes.

Tim McGraw's moving "Lay Me Down" vidio from CBS-TV is already on his website.

Faith Hill really did just complete the production of the song "Lost" just last week.

And, yes, you have heard the song Reba and Kelly Clarkson did as a duet, "Because Of You," before.

CMT not only has the winners, but also a quote from each one's acceptance speech.

42nd ACM Awards Gets Ready To Roll In Las Vegas

Country Music's best and brightest stars have gathered in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Hotel in preparations for tomorrow night's ceremony to crown this year's ACM winners.

Neil Haislop reports rehearsals are taking place in the Grand Garden arena for performing artists and celebrity presenters, while nominees are rehearsing in their minds what to say and who to thank if their name is called.

The celebration began over the weekend with the annual celebrity motorcycle ride, as well as label showcases in suites, Lee Brice, for instance performed in a Curb suite and GRETCHEN WILSON did a rockin' take over of Fremont Street last night.

Gretchen tore into set that included songs from her new One of the Boys CD (in stores TOMORROW), with the confidence and raw energy that's come to mark her performances. And she was rewarded by true Gretchen fans that filled the street and sang all of her signature songs back to her.

For a few minutes it was the "WILSON TRIO" as Heart joined Gretchen on stage.

Gretchen has always acknowledged Nancy and Ann's influence on her music, and you could see on Gretchen's face she was loving being on stage with the sisters, who were just as glad to be there with Gretchen.

BIG&RICH, the guys that discovered Gretchen, stopped by to cheer.

John grabbed a guitar and joined his Muzik Mafia associate to the delight of the crowd, many of whom remember John and Kenny's great show on Fremont last year where Gretchen stopped by to support them for a couple of songs and wow the Fremont Street Experience crowd, estimated to be more than 25,000.

MONTGOMERY GENTRY HAD PERFORMED EARLIER in the day following the Motor Cycle Ride...and before Gretchen's set, Phil Vassar had cranked the crowd to a high pitch as well.

The Academy of Country Music Awards, honoring country music's top talentand hottest new artists, will broadcast live from the MGM Grand in LasVegas on Tuesday, May 15, at 8 PM ET/PT on the CBS Television Network.