55th Annual Country Music Awards

[Bill McCloskey]

Here's a question for those who hated the Country Music awards this year:

Who would you have liked to see win. What artist over the past year do you think was overlooked and who is doing "real country"?

Lets hear the nominations for best entertainer, best new artist, best record in the traditional country category for the year 2021?

[Brooks Montgomery]

I gotta think that Trey Hensley has a great life story (albeit still a young life story) for country fans--and he certainly has the talent. He's not doing all country, nor bluegrass all the time, but when he does country, it seems like real country music to me. Maybe he's been nominated and I don't know it, because I don't follow the awards.

Trey at age 11
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8TaWVb_T4A

and Trey more recently as a grown up young man
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB9D5S6WulM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk2Al6wCE1M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN7_XLuEmwQ

(and that Rob guy is not too shabby on that tipped over guitar)

[Bill Fisher]

Bill, I don't know any of the artists. I like Hillbilly music. They're all gone.

Bill

[Bill McCloskey]

I don’t know about that. A friend of mines son John Duncan is playing great fiddle in the Asheville, Nashville, and on tour in Austin at the moment. Lots of great artists just looking for more fans and larger audiences.

[Don R Brown]

I tell folks I like OPCM - Old People's Country Music. Last I knew, they don't have a category for that, nor an awards show either for that matter.

[Garry Vanderlinde]

What you guys are seeking is Oldies Country. They don’t honor Oldies on any music awards shows except for the obligatory lifetime achievement awards.

I thought this years winners were better than in years past.
Chris Stapleton; male vocalist
Luke Combs; entertainer of the year (beer never broke his heart).
I like the new black artist Jimmy Allen.

The CMA's could have been a lot worse.

[Craig Stock]

Check out the current top 25 list on Saving country music.com, may may like some of these artists and they're all current.
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/newe ... aylist-93/

[Dave Mudgett]

I didn't watch the show - I haven't ever paid too much attention to awards. But as Gary and Craig state, I see this year's winners as more in my wheelhouse than they have been in recent years:

Entertainer - Luke Combs
Male Vocalist - Chris Stapleton
Female Vocalist - Carly Pearce
New Artist - Jimmie Allen
Song - Mike Henderson and Chris Stapleton — "Starting Over"
Album - Mike Henderson and Chris Stapleton — "Starting Over"

For me, especially Mike Henderson and Chris Stapleton. If you don't know much about them, I think it would be useful to go back a bit and at least take a more serious look. Mike is a legitimate blues, bluegrass, country, and roots music songwriter, mandolin player, guitar player, slide guitar player, band leader, singer, you name it. He helped define the Americana movement in the 1990s with a set of really fine albums on the Dead Reckoning label that he helped found. 2000s, he and Stapleton had a bluegrass band called The Steel Drivers. He's written songs in a multitude of styles for a lot of people. He's toured with the likes of Mark Knopfler and others. Look at his wiki bio - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Henderson - his albums have been in regular rotation on my listening list for 25+ years. I'm probably one of the few guys who will also put a slide on my Danelectro baritone guitar, and I got that from him. I try to get down to the Bluebird Cafe when I'm in Nashville - his excellent band Mike Henderson and the Bluebloods has been holding forth Monday nights there for the last 30 years. Mike is as good as it gets, IMO. He really does it all.

Chris Stapleton has been in Nashville for 20 years. His influences are wide, including bluegrass, country, blues, and Americana. I think he's a fine ambassador for modern country music. He's also a great singer.

I guess if you hate blues, folk, rock and roll, and other styles filtering into country music, you won't dig this kind of stuff. But the mixing of styles is what has defined American music for its entire history. Not just country, but definitely also country. Anyway, that's where I come from, for sure. And I love the classic stuff as much as anybody.

Maybe it's time to put up your periscope and at least see what is going on. You might be surprised.

[Mike Neer]

To see Jimmy Allen tearfully describe how he spent his last money just to see Charley Pride get his lifetime achievement award, it doesn’t get any better than that. And I’ve never even heard of him. But his story and emotions are as country as it gets.

[Brooks Montgomery]

Dave, right you are. Those are good winners. I am guilty of prejudicial statements. I have to admit I didn't watch the CMA's: I would channel surf by them, and every time it seemed like the acts were either some kind of urban-cowboy-rap, or a weird Nashville river-dance sounding kind of ensemble. I'll try and muster up the courage to actually watch them next year. . . .

[Donny Hinson]

Forgive me folks, but I kinda think this song belongs in this thread...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az47UTR8ZeA

[Garry Vanderlinde]

Don't go, the past awaits-
you might need it some rainy day-
no need to remember when, cause everything old is new again...