My Thoughts on the ACM Awards

One of country music's biggest nights was held last night - the Academy of Country Music Awards.

Here are some of my thoughts on the broadcast.

Blake Shelton still looks a little uncomfortable hosting an awards show, but nowhere near as uncomfortable as Luke Bryan looked. The forced attempts at humor seemed very forced, and not natural at all.

They really have to fix the sound on some of the performances. Some of it was way off - most notably the performances from the Orleans Arena. Brad Paisley's microphone seemed to not be loud enough. The producers really need to make sure the sound is best for the millions watching at home, and not the 8,000 in the arena.

Tell me again why John Mayer was on stage with Brad Paisley? He sang a grand total of two lines.... and kinda looked like he was trying to keep up with Paisley's guitar playing, but didn't offer much else. I'm always surprised by the non-country acts that are included in the performances - like Mayer and Stevie Wonder . What exactly is the point of them being on a country awards show?

Sheryl Crow, apparently, has officially decided to be a country artist. I guess that's why she seemed to pop up everywhere during the show.

I'm guessing a few of the performances were lip-synched. I could be wrong, but some seemed a little too perfect, sound-wise, especially when compared to some of the other performances.

I was tickled to see Miranda win several awards. I spent some time with her when she was at Boardwalk Hall early this year. She is really a "normal" easy going girl. It's great to see someone like that win.

While I wasn't a fan of Luke Bryan's hosting, I'm happy that he won the Entertainer of the Year Award. I remember several years back when Luke came over to the Longhorn Steakhouse in Atlantic City, and played for about 30 Cat Country listeners. From that to Entertainer of the Year is quite a leap!

Always good to see Little Big Town on the big stage - and winning awards. We had them at one of our Cat Country Backyard BBQs some ten or twelve years ago. Shortly there after, their career almost died. It's wonderful to see them doing so well.

Good to see Garth Brooks perform and to see Shania Twain as a presenter. It seems like just yesterday that they were big winners. Hopefully, we'll be treated with some new music from each of them in the near future.