Were you keeping score? Our count: Taylor Swift 0 for 5. Lady Antebellum 3 for 7. Sound Man 18 for 22. It’s too bad that on-stage sound problems affected several key performances. Unfortunately, the night’s bad karma began right at the start when low mics prevented hearing a lot of Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert performing “Travelin’ Band” with special guests Brad Paisley, John Fogerty, and Charlie Daniels. Luckily, sound improved for the next big chunk of the show, with the exception of Kenny Chesney. While his performance of “Ain’t Back Yet” was audible, it appeared as though he was over singing, or straining to maintain the song to perhaps compensate for any audio difficulties he may have been having. The sound wasn’t noticeably off again until Rascal Flatts sang “Unstoppable.” As professionals, the show must go on. But it’s too bad when they obviously cannot hear themselves or the music. The same goes for Brooks & Dunn. After the whole night was spent hyping the audience to vote for the final, historic performance, “My Maria” was a mess with sound problems. Not the swan song performance that they had hoped for, no doubt. But still, it was an historic ACM Award show on many levels.Production numbers were some of the most creative seen on recent award shows. Since singing in a wall of water had already been done (Taylor Swift), Brad Paisley falling in a pool under the small, audience stage at the end of “Water” wasn’t particularly earth-shattering, but the after effects were classic! Brad will make ACM History as the first person to walk on stage soaking wet to accept Top Male Vocalist. The towel he held did nothing for the soggy jeans dripping glistening puddles on to the stage. And you know his boots had to have been sloshing. Only the live audience would have gotten the bonus show of the man with a mop during commercial break! As for Taylor Swift, it must have been one of her many dreams to be a fly like a princess on a throne across the arena. What started as a simple, acoustic number, got showier with each added gimmick: the flying platform, the ripped off costume change, the strut to the stage, the reveal of the choral group, and finally the backwards fall off the stage. For such a theatrical entertainer, it may be telling that for the first time in recent award show history, Taylor was bested in all of the categories she was nominated in. Speaking of theatrics, this was perhaps the first country award show to feature musical theatre. Laura Bell Bundy looked fresh from Broadway as she sang and danced through “Giddy On Up.” Granted, she was quite winded at the end of the routine, but it was an ambitious effort to bring the dance number from a (multi-take) video shoot to live TV. One request, though. Can Laura’s cowboy dancers be shared with Dancing With The Stars? And how about Keith Urban’s unique cam effects on his segment? Very different for live TV. Yet for those who did use the traditional video-screen set, it was cute to see three frames of childhood video footage behind Lady Antebellum’s “American Honey,” as well as photos of famous country couples popping up behind Reba McEntire’s “I Keep On Loving You.”
Other ACM performances included Blake Shelton and Trace Adkins “Hillbilly Bone,” Billy Currington “That’s How Country Boys Roll,” Toby Keith “Cryin’ For Me,” Zac Brown Band footage from their current USO Tour, Jason Aldean “Crazy Town,” Miranda Lambert “The House That Built Me,” Jack Ingram and Dierks Bentley “Barbie Doll,” Carrie Underwood “Temporary Home,” Tim McGraw “Still,” Darius Rucker “Forever Road,” and snippets from Gloriana, Luke Bryan, and Joey & Rory.
So who won the awards?
Song of the Year: Need You Now
Single of the Year: Need You Now by Lady Antebellum
Top New Artist: Luke Bryan
Album of the Year: Revolution by Miranda Lambert
Humanitarian Award: Montgomery Gentry
Triple Crown: Carrie Underwood
Top Vocal Group: Lady Antebellum
Top Male Vocalist: Brad Paisley
Top Duo: Brooks & Dunn
Top Female Vocalist: Miranda Lambert
Entertainer of the Year: Carrie Underwood
Lady Antebellum was believably humble as the surprise big winners of the night, but perhaps the most memorable award will be Miranda Lambert besting top-selling Carrie and Taylor for Top Female Vocalist. She was truly shocked that they called her name and were playing her song. So much so that she ran right past Blake to hug Carrie! Well, at least Blake got the hug and kiss for Album of the Year, which has always been Miranda’s most coveted award because it represents her body of work. Carrie Underwood’s special recognition as a Triple Crown winner was due to her winning the three steps of awards for which she’s eligible: New Artist, followed by Top Female Vocalist, followed by Entertainer of the Year. And who didn’t see it coming that after letting Sugarland borrow it last year, Brooks & Dunn would take back the Brooks & Dunn award on their last year out? As for next year, the awards that represent what goes on this year, don’t be surprised if Kix and Ronnie take the Top Vocal Duo award one more time to reward all their tireless work on The Last Rodeo Tour. (May 23rd at the Pan Am Center)Overall, the ACM Awards were entertaining and as well produced as you can expect for live TV. The pace was right, and to make sure that you didn’t realize that you were sitting through a three-hour show, it was unique to see the show broken up into bite size pieces by a timer at the commercial breaks announcing the length of time until the next event. Out are the days of teasing the viewer that your favorite performer is “coming up,” only to have them be the last performer of the night. In are the interactive TV apps for the attention-span challenged. Leastwise it made for easier execution of bathroom and snack breaks. One final word of advice though, if you’re an award show producer and you’re going to have Cher on to regale her country cred, make sure she knows that she’s attending the A-C-M Awards and not the C-M-A Awards.
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