The above video is hilarious all the way through, but the portion from :45-1:00 where he talks about ties perfectly encapsulates my feelings on last night’s ACM’s.
The biggest award of the night, Entertainer of the Year, ends in a tie?? Can’t have it. As soon as Keith Urban laughed and said, ‘we have a tie,’ I set down my second ice cream sundae of the night and audibly booed in my recliner. I didn’t even care if my boy, Eric Church, was going to be a part of the tie. You just can’t have that be the result of the most prestigious award of the night. If you’re in the ACM board room, and you do whatever it is you do for voting (dart board?), and you land on a tie for the biggest award of the night, you have to vote again. And again. And again. Until you have a winner. I don’t care if you have to sequester like a hung jury and stay at a Holiday Inn for a week, you don’t come out until there is one winner. Other random thoughts:
- I know some people on social media were bummed out about the opening medley being a bunch of older songs, but take it from someone who beats the hits to DEATH from 6am-10am, Mon-Fri, you play the hits to open a show. 100 times out of 100. I actually really liked Church’s stripped down, acoustic version of ‘Drink in My Hand.’
- The Google Earth transitions were cool, but gave me a touch of vertigo.
- After performing ‘One Margarita’ in his Tommy Bahama shirt, Lindsey looked up and asked, ‘so is Luke Bryan basically the Jimmy Buffet of country music at this point?’ I laughed, then thought, ‘she’s not wrong.’ Catchy lyrics you don’t have to think about that people like to sing and dance to? That’s Jimmy Buffet.
- Carrie Underwood probably had the moment of the night with her medley of classic female country songs. Absolutely killed it.
- ^Related: It doesn’t hurt having Carrie Underwood on TV for a 10 minute segment for my neanderthal brain.
- The new Taylor Swift song, her first song on the country chart in almost a decade, is a solid song. But it is LONG. Approaching ‘Free Bird’ status.
- I thought the crowd reaction to the new Dan+Shay song was appropriate. (kidding)(kind of).
- Seriously though, the no crowd did take some getting used to. Having ZERO reaction after a performance, or an acceptance speech, was a little unnerving. But, what can you do.
- Luke Combs continues to be a freight train. ‘Lovin’ On You’ went #1 two weeks ago, that means his first NINE singles have all gone #1. And the new single he performed last night, ‘Better Together,’ will be #10. Extraordinary what he’s doing to start a career.
- Trisha Yearwood can still sing with anyone in any room. Her In Memoriam performance was A+.
- Church incorporating Johnny Cash’s ‘Ragged Old Flag’ before his performance was *chef’s kiss*.
- Tyler Hubbard’s scooter/mic stand combo for the Florida Georgia Line performance was laugh out loud funny.
- I’ve thought this since she released, ‘Better Than You Left Me,’ about 7 years ago, Mickey Guyton should be a much, MUCH, bigger star.
- Again: You can’t have a tie for the biggest award of the night.
All in all it was fun just to have something like that on TV again. A small slice of normalcy in what has been a bizarre year.
PS: As many people know, I am a Church Fanboy. I actually wasn’t upset he didn’t win, or share a win, for Entertainer of the Year last night. I didn’t expect him to win at the ACM’s. I DID expect him to win that award at the CMA’s last year, however, and I think he’s in line for a make good at the CMA’s this year, on November 11th. If he gets snubbed this time around, I will be forced to write a sternly worded blog the next morning. You’ve been warned CMA’s. You have 24 hours.
