CMA Awards

All in all, not a bad show. The show was heavy on concert performances, which was good. But all the acceptance speeches were annoying in that the network started playing "Hurry-up music" after they had been talking for maybe a minute. I guess they wanted to make sure everyone had ample time to speak. But what really pissed me off was when Alabama was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Jeff Cook talked for a minute then let Mark Herndon speak. He rambles a little bit, probably because he was caught up in the moment. He's talking for a minute and they start playing the music. Mark stopped talking for 5 seconds and they cut to a commercial before Randy Owen or Teddy Gentry had a chance to speak. It ranks right up there to when CBS cut away from a Frank Sinatra acceptance speech at the Grammy's about 11 or 12 years ago.It was one of the most classless disrespectful things I had ever seen.

And Bon Jovi was performing. I know the show was in Madison Square Garden and Bon Jovi is from New Jersey. I have nothing against the band at all. But what are they doing performing on a country music show? They should have used that time to allow for some more speaking from the winners.

But there were some good performances. Gretchen Wilson, Alan Jackson (interesting song choice with Wonderful Tonight) and Garth Brooks from Times Square were real standouts. I would give the top marks to Brooks and Dunn with "Believe."

Good to see Keith Urban win Entertainer of the Year and Male Vocalist. I felt he had a good chance for both, and he deserves it. It'll be interesting to see in 10 years what kind of leegacy he leaves. Will he just have a nice string of commercial success or will he get bigger than country music, or will he fade away? With his ability, I think he will be around a while longer. Lee Ann Womack winning 4 awards really surprised me. "I May Hate Myself in the Morning" was a very good song, but it didn't hit the Top 5 and it won "Single of the Year." That's about all that really surprised me about the award winners. I expected Sara Evans to win Female Vocalist, as did most people, but Gretchen Wilson deserves it too.

Not too many memorable moments that people will remember for years to come, shall we say. Maybe Garth Brooks, but that's about it. What worries me most is Vince Gill actually has a decent New York accent...