Chris Stapleton and Patty Loveless highlight at fantastic night for traditional country at the CMA’s.

Every year I write a CMA Award show recap, and every year I am reminded that finding all of the performances from the event is next to impossible. I don’t understand it. Some videos of full performances are on their Youtube page, but not every performance. Bits of performances like the one I posted above are on Twitter, but not on Youtube, and not the full version. In the year of our Lord, 2022, I can’t fathom why this isn’t seamless at this point. The CMA is making MLB look forward thinking.

Anyway, that Chris Stapleton/Patty Loveless performance last night was maybe the performance of the night. And that’s saying something. Last night had a TON of great moments, and was probably the best CMA Award show I’ve watched in the last 10 years. Country music is getting back to it’s more traditional roots and further distancing itself form the bro-country/pop-country fever dream we’ve been in for the better part of a decade. But Patty Loveless clearly still has it, and Chris Stapleton played the perfect complimentary role. Also: Shoutout to any fans of the TV show, Justified*. That song is a thread through that entire series.

In addition to that performance, we saw a tribute to Loretta Lynn to open the show, plenty of fantastic performances from newer artists that have a more traditional feel (Lainey Wilson, Cody Johnson, Ashley McBryde, Brandy Clark), an appearance and performance from Jo Dee Messina, and an emotional Alan Jackson as he received the Willie Nelson Career Achievement Award:

Alan Jackson has had a complicated relationship with the CMA’s over the years. In 1999, when Alan’s friend and mentor, George Jones, refused to play a shortened version of his song “Choices,” Jackson cut his own performance short to play a George Jones song in protest:

Then in 2016, Alan walked out of the show when Beyonce was given the featured performance of the night. He didn’t light John Denver’s country music award on fire like Charlie Rich in 1975, but close enough.

Given all of that context, it was nice to see the two sides come together to honor one of the best country musicians of all time. Alan seemed genuinely touched and appreciative of the moment. And the viewers at home were treated to a nice tribute, and Alan himself performing and sounding studio-quality.

Anyway, it was an enjoyable night for country music fans that have been searching/waiting for the genre to get back a little bit closer to it’s roots. A website I check in on from time to time is savingcountrymusic.com. I stumbled upon it about 5-6 years ago. The guy who moderates the site goes by the handle ‘Trigger,’ and is the perfect combination of ‘old-man yells at cloud’ mixed with snark. He does live blogs for all of the award shows and they almost always have a line or two that makes me legitimately laugh out loud. Well even he had to concede that last night had more ‘great’ moments than moments for comedy. Luke Combs said it after he won his second Entertainer of the Year award at the end of the show, ‘country sounded a lot more country than it has in a long time tonight.’ Preach.

*That was the first show that my wife Lindsey and I watched during the pandemic. Raylan Givens! They’re rebooting it for another season and it’s filming now. Timothy Olyphant doesn’t get enough credit for being pure entertainment in everything he appears in.

PS: I acknowledge that this performance goes against everything I just wrote about, but if I’m honest, I kind of liked the Thomas Rhett/Katy Perry collaboration:

And by ‘kind of liked’ I mean ‘loved.’ Sue me.