Entertainer of the Year

• Luke Bryan
• Eric Church
• Luke Combs
• Thomas Rhett
• Chris Stapleton

Female Artist of the Year

• Kelsea Ballerini
• Miranda Lambert
• Ashley McBryde
• Maren Morris
• Carly Pearce

Male Artist of the Year

• Dierks Bentley
• Luke Combs
• Eric Church
• Thomas Rhett
• Chris Stapleton

Duo of the Year

• Brooks & Dunn
• Brothers Osborne
• Dan + Shay
• Florida Georgia Line
• Maddie & Tae

Group of the Year

• Lady A
• Little Big Town
• Old Dominion
• The Cadillac Three
• The Highwomen

New Female Artist of the Year

• Ingrid Andress
• Tenille Arts
• Gabby Barrett
• Mickey Guyton
• Caylee Hammack

New Male Artist of the Year

• Jimmie Allen
• Travis Denning
• Hardy
• Cody Johnson
• Parker McCollum

Album of the Year

• Born Here Live Here Die Here – Luke Bryan
• Mixtape Vol. 1 – Kane Brown
• Never Will – Ashley McBryde
• Skeletons – Brothers Osborne
• Starting Over – Chris Stapleton

Single of the Year

• “Bluebird” by Miranda Lambert
• “I Hope” by Gabby Barrett
• “I Hope You’re Happy Now” by Carly Pearce and Lee Brice
• “More Hearts Than Mine” by Ingrid Andress
• “The Bones” by Maren Morris

Song of the Year

• “Bluebird” – Luke Dick, Miranda Lambert, Natalie Hemby
• “One Night Standards” – Ashley McBryde, Nicolette Hayford, Shane McAnally
• “Some People Do” – Jesse Frasure, Matt Ramsey, Thomas Rhett, Shane McAnally
• “Starting Over” – Chris Stapleton, Mike Henderson
• “The Bones” – Jimmy Robbins, Maren Morris, Laura Veltz

Video of the Year

• “Better Than We Found It” – Maren Morris
• “Bluebird” – Miranda Lambert
• “Gone” – Dierks Bentley
• “Hallelujah” – Carrie Underwood and John Legend
• “Worldwide Beautiful” – Kane Brown

Songwriter of the Year

• Ashley Gorley
• Michael Hardy
• Hillary Lindsey
• Shane McAnally
• Josh Osborne

Music Event of the Year

• “Be A Light” by Thomas Rhett f/Reba McEntire, Hillary Scott, Chris Tomlin, Keith Urban
• “Does To Me” by Luke Combs f/Eric Church
• “I Hope You’re Happy Now” by Carly Pearce and Lee Brice
• “Nobody But You” by Blake Shelton f/Gwen Stefani
• “One Beer” by Hardy f/Lauren Alaina and Devin Dawson
• “One Too Many” by Keith Urban f/P!nk

Bass Player of the Year

• Jarrod Travis Cure
• Mark Hill
• Tony Lucido
• Steve Mackey
• Glenn Worf

Drummer of the Year

• Fred Eltringham
• Evan Hutchings
• Derek Mixon
• Jerry Roe
• Aaron Sterling

Guitar Player of the Year

• J.T. Corenflos
• Kris Donegan
• Jedd Hughes
• Ilya Toshinskiy
• Derek Wells

Piano/Keys Player of the Year

• Dave Cohen
• David Dorn
• Charlie Judge
• Mike Rojas
• Benmont Tench

Specialty Instrument Player of the Year

• Alicia Enstrom
• Jim Hoke
• Danny Rader
• Mickey Raphael
• Ilya Toshinskiy
• Kristin Wilkinson

Steel Guitar Player of the Year

• Spencer Cullum
• Dan Dugmore
• Mike Johnson
• Russ Pahl
• Justin Schipper

Audio Engineer of the Year

• Jeff Balding
• Jason Hall
• Gena Johnson
• Vance Powell
• F. Reid Shippen

Producer of the Year

• Buddy Cannon
• Dave Cobb
• Dann Huff
• Jay Joyce
• Joey Moi

The 54th CMA Awards are set to take place at 8pm on November 11th, 2020, and this is where you can find a play-by-play of performances and award winners!  The show will be hosted by Reba McEntire and Darius Rucker and is airing on ABC.

Before the show, they had already announced a couple of awards:

Musical Event of the Year

• “10,000 Hours” by Dan + Shay w/ Justin Bieber
• “Be a Light” by Thomas Rhett featuring Reba McEntire, Hillary Scott, Chris Tomlin, Keith Urban
• “The Bones” by Maren Morris w/ Hozier
• “I Hope You’re Happy Now” by Carly Pearce & Lee Brice – WINNER
• “Fooled Around and Fell In Love” by Miranda Lambert featuring Maren Morris, Elle King, Ashley McBryde, Tenille Townes, & Caylee Hammack

Music Video of the Year

Miranda Lambert

• “10,000 Hours” by Dan + Shay w/ Justin Bieber
• “Bluebird” by Miranda Lambert – WINNER
• “Homemade” by Jake Owen
• “I Hope You’re Happy Now” by Carly Pearce & Lee Brice
• “Second One to Know” by Chris Stapleton

Musician of the Year

• Derek Wells – Guitar
• Ilya Toshinskiy – Guitar
• Jenee Fleenor – Fiddle – WINNER
• Paul Franklin – Steel Guitar
• Rob McNelley – Guitar

Charlie Daniels

The show kicked off with a tribute to the late, great Charlie Daniels.  Dierks Bentley started it off by performing the hit “Long Haired Country Boy.”  Brothers Osborne then joined Bentley on stage to perform “Trudy.”  Next up was Ashley McBryde, who sang lead vocals on “Texas.”  Jason Aldean joined in for the grand finale to sing “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

Reba McEntire and Darius Rucker came out to an “In-The-Round” stage set-up, surrounded by tables where the various artists were seated in a socially distanced manner, similar to the Golden Globes.  A few jokes were made, mainly around COVID-19, Reba’s new boyfriend, and Darius Rucker’s music.  A great joke was made at Morgan Wallen’s expense related to his recent removal from Saturday Night Live’s lineup.

Bobby Bones was introduced to announce the first award of the night, and made a joke about all the puns that the hosts threw around in their monologue.

Single of the Year

Maren Morris

• “10,000 Hours” by Dan + Shay with Justin Bieber
• “Beer Never Broke My Heart” by Luke Combs
• “Bluebird” by Miranda Lambert
• “The Bones” by Maren Morris – WINNER
• “I Hope” by Gabby Barrett

Reba and Darius introduced Morgan Wallen who came out to perform “More Than My Hometown”

Model Taylor Hill came out next to introduce the nominees for Song of the Year

Song of the Year

Maren Morris

• “Bluebird” by Miranda Lambert
• “The Bones” by Maren Morris – WINNER
• “Even Though I’m Leaving” by Luke Combs
• “I Hope You’re Happy Now” by Carly Pearce & Lee Brice
• “More Hearts Than Mine” by Ingrid Andress

Darius Rucker introduced Gabby Barrett and Charlie Puth who performed her smash hit “I Hope”

Reba introduced Eric Church who performed his new single “Hell of a View”

Reba introduced Darius Rucker who performed his new single “Beers and Sunshine”

A commercial aired announcing that the 2020 CMA Country Christmas TV special will air on November 30th, hosted by Thomas Rhett and his wife Lauren Akins.

Reba, looking very busty, introduced Ashley McBryde who performed her hit “One Night Standards”

Lauren Akins came out to announce the next award.

New Artist of the Year

• Jimmie Allen
• Ingrid Andress
• Gabby Barrett
• Carly Pearce
• Morgan Wallen – WINNER

Darius Rucker introduced Dan + Shay w/ Justin Bieber who performed “10,000 Hours” from an empty Hollywood Bowl

Reba and Darius Rucker introduced Luke Combs who performed a new song called “Cold as You”

Darius Rucker introduced a feature where Jon Pardi and Chevy surprised a fan with a brand new Chevy Pick Up truck in honor of his service.

Joe Diffie

Darius Rucker then introduced Jon Pardi on stage who performed “Pickup Man” in honor of the late Joe Diffie.

Reba introduced Carly Pearce and Charles Kelley of Lady A who performed “I Hope You’re Happy Now.”  Lee Brice had to back out after catching COVID-19.  This performance was pre-recorded, which is a good thing because today Lady A announced they were all quarantining now due to exposure to someone that has COVID-19.

Dierks Bentley came out to give away the next award.

Vocal Duo of the Year

Dan + Shay

• Brooks & Dunn
• Brothers Osborne
• Dan + Shay – WINNER
• Florida Georgia Line
• Maddie & Tae

CeCe Winans came out to introduce Reba McEntire and Darius Rucker, who performed “In The Ghetto” in honor of the late Mac Davis, who wrote the song that Elvis Presley made famous.

Miranda Lambert was introduced by an off-screen announcer and performed her new single “Settling Down”

Reba was back to introduce the next performance, and accidentally coughed, making for an awkward, but funny moment.  Jimmie Allen then took the stage in a tuxedo to perform his hit single “Best Shot.”  As his song faded out, he thanked country radio for making this a #1 song.  He then said he may not have even made it if it weren’t for Charley Pride.  Signed to RCA records in 1966 after a baseball career, Pride earned 36 #1 hits and is a member of the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Charley Pride then took the stage with Jimmie Allen to perform his signature hit “Kiss an Angel Good Morning.”

Jimmie Allen then presented Charley Pride with the Willie Nelson Lifetime Career Achievement Award.  He nervously gave an acceptance speech that ended with a thunderous applause.

Reba and Darius Rucker introduced Chris Stapleton and his wife Morgan who performed “Starting Over”

Lauren Alaina and Patrick Schwarzenegger were out next to introduce the next award.

Vocal Group of the Year

Old Dominion

• Lady A
• Little Big Town
• Midland
• Old Dominion – WINNER
• Rascal Flatts

Darius Rucker introduced Ingrid Andress who performed her Song of the Year nominee “More Hearts Than Mine.”  She finished the performance in tears.  Very touching moment.

Darius Rucker introduced Thomas Rhett, Chris Tomlin, and Reba McEntire to perform “Be a Light”

Jake Owen came out to present the next award

Album of the Year

Luke Combs

• Heartache Medication by Jon Pardi
• Never Will by Ashley McBryde
• Old Dominion by Old Dominion
• What You See Is What You Get by Luke Combs – WINNER
• Wildcard by Miranda Lambert

Kenny Rogers

Darius Rucker introduced Little Big Town who performed “Sweet Music Man” in honor of the late Kenny Rogers.  Great performance, but wish they had done more to honor Kenny Rogers than just one song.

Brothers Osborne was introduced by the off-screen announcer to perform “All Night”

Reba introduced Kane Brown who talked about the Crown Royal Purple Bag Project.  Reba then presented the 1 millionth bag to Kathleen Lewis, the founder of “Packages from Home.”  The bag was filled with Thank You notes for Lewis.

Darius Rucker introduced Mickey Gilley and Johnny Lee who were in the audience to be honored for their contributions to the Urban Cowboy movie.  Old Dominion was then introduced to perform “Lookin’ For Love”

Reba introduced Maren Morris who performed “The Bones”

Reba and Darius Rucker introduced Keith Urban who performed “God Whispered Your Name” from Australia

Charles Esten was out for the next presentation

Female Vocalist of the Year

Maren Morris

• Miranda Lambert
• Ashley McBryde
• Maren Morris – WINNER
• Kacey Musgraves
• Carrie Underwood

Sara Evans was out next to announce the next award

Male Vocalist of the Year

Luke Combs

• Eric Church
• Luke Combs – WINNER
• Thomas Rhett
• Chris Stapleton
• Keith Urban

Kelsea Ballerini performed her new single “Hole in the Bottle”

Reba and Darius Rucker announced the final award

Entertainer of the Year

Eric Church

• Eric Church – WINNER
• Luke Combs
• Miranda Lambert
• Carrie Underwood
• Keith Urban

Clint Black

Recent Country Music News Headlines

• Lynn Anderson Rose Bushes Available for Mothers Day Pre-Order

Recommended Viewing – Recent Country Music Videos

• Music Video:  “Buck Wild” by Ryan Langdon
• Cover Video:  “Come On Eileen” by Sara Evans w/ King Calaway and Lindsey Stirling
• Video:  Lonestar’s Band of Brothers Episode #5
• CMT Video:  Celebrating Clint Black’s Career
• Acoustic Couch Concert with Sam Riggs
• Hair Tutorial with Tenille Arts
• James Barker Band Live Stream – 4/23/20
• Thursday Night Sessions with Adam Hood
• Songs and Stories Live with Catherine Britt
• Audio:  “Sippin’ On The Simple Life” by Craig Morgan
• Audio:  “America (Still In Love With You) by Clint Black
• Acoustic at Home Video:  “I Love My Country” by Florida Georgia Line
• Audio:  “We Do” by Kenny Chesney
• Music Video:  “Polaroid” by Keith Urban
• Zac Brown Band’s Off the Record:  John Driskell Hopkins
• Bobby Bones Interviews Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum
• Pam Tillis Celebrates New Album Out Today
• Music Video:  “You Make It Hard” by Hot Country Knights w/ Terri Clark
• Video:  “Trash My Heart” by Walker Hayes
• Lyric Video:  “Easy Goin'” by Clay Walker

This Date in Country Music History

• 2015 – Michael Ray made his Grand Ole Opry debut
• 2015 – The George Jones Museum opened in Nashville, TN
• 2012 – Lee Brice released his album Hard 2 Love
• 2012 – Kip Moore released his album Up All Night
• 2001 – Tim McGraw released his album Set This Circus Down
• 1999 – Jessica Andrews made her Grand Ole Opry debut
• 1993 – Sammy Kershaw topped the charts with “She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful”
• 1991 – Garth Brooks took home 6 ACM Awards: Entertainer, Male Vocalist, Album, Song, Single, and Video

Today’s Birthdays (See All Country Artist Birthdays)

• Danny Gokey
• Kelly Clarkson
• Rebecca Lynn Howard
• Richard Sterban (Oak Ridge Boys)

Today’s New Albums (See All Album Release Dates)

• Ana Cristina Cash – Shine
• Pam Tillis – Looking For A Feeling
• Kyle LaLone – Somewhere in Between (EP)
• Kaylee Rutland – Every Minute Matters
• Drake White and The Big Fire – Stars
• Norma MacDonald – Old Future
• Izzy Miller – Life on the One and Three
• Lena Stone – Princess
• Delaney Grant – After the Fire
• Kyle LaLone – Somewhere In Between (EP)

Today’s New Singles (See All Single Release Dates)

• Mermaids and Pirates – Taylor Goyette
• Destination Hot Mess – Natalie Otto
• America (Still in Love With You) by Clint Black
• Easy Goin’ – Clay Walker
• Hesitate – Shae Dupuy
• Heavy – Roy3ls
• Radio – Willie LOck
• Trainwreck – Ashland Craft
• Hot Mess – Natalie Otto
• Don’t Let Another Day Go By – Southern Halo
• Run To – Jessica Lynn
• Polaroid – Keith Urban
• White Horse – Janelle Arthur
• Take The Highway – Blackberry Smoke
• Kiss Kiss -Madeline Merlo
• Something You Ain’t Ever Had – Waterloo Revival
• Your Heart or Mine – Jeremy Studdard
• Willie’s Birthday Song – Nathaniel Rateliff
• Gruene Eyes – G. Vann and the Preacher Seeds
• Rolling Stone – Lainey Wilson
• Young Love – Garrett Jacobs
• (Feelin’ Like A) 3-Legged Border Town Mexican Dog – Billy Joe Shaver & Danny Griego
• My Truck – Breland w/ Sam Hunt

Today’s Photo Flashback (See All Photos)

• Travis Tritt – 4/24/10 – Sunset Cove Amphitheater in Boca Raton

Contests

• Win 2 Tickets and Meet & Greet Passes for Little Big Town – ends 4/24/20
• Win an Autographed Luke Bryan Prize Pack – ends 4/24/20
• Win 2 Tickets and Meet & Greet Passes for LANco – ends 5/1/20

This Week’s Events (See All Upcoming Events)

If you missed the 2019 CMA Awards, here’s a play-by-play of performances and award winners we’ve pieced together based off our tweets throughout the show!

*Awards in bold

• Opening performance started with co-hosts Carrie Underwood, Reba McEntire, and Dolly Parton
• Loretta Lynn was in attendance and honored by a performance of “You’re Looking at Country” by Jennifer Nettles and and the ladies of Little Big Town
• The Highwomen, featuring Maren Morris, covered a snippet of Tammy Wynette’s “Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad”
• Tanya Tucker then joined them for a performance of “Delta Dawn”
• Gretchen Wilson then came out to perform a snippet of “Redneck Woman”
• Loretta’s sister, Crystal Gayle, then came out to perform part of her signature song “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue”
• Terri Clark then came on stage to perform a piece of her hit “I’ve Got Better Things To Do”
• Sara Evans then came on stage to sing part of her hit “Born to Fly”
• The big opening concluded with Martina McBride coming out to sing “Independence Day” before all of the preceding women joined her for the chorus to close the performance
• The opening monologue featured some good one liners and jokes by the 3 hosts.
  • What do you call 3 women hosting the CMA’s?  You’re lucky night! ~ Dolly Parton
  • Unsurprisingly, a joke was made about Dolly Parton having the biggest rack when Carrie was talking about the wardrobes in their shared dressing room
  • When talking about some of her younger counterparts, Dolly quipped that “they’re on social media, I’m on social security!”
  • Then Carrie made a joke about some parts of Dolly being under 21 years old
  • They thanked Brad Paisley for stepping aside for Dolly and Reba.  Coincidentally, Brad will have a TV special coming out soon…likely his payment for stepping back!
• Deana Carter was out to present Single of the Year when they showed a clip of her jumping up and down on stage excitedly after winning the award for “Strawberry Wine”
• Single of the Year Award went to “God’s Country” by Blake Shelton
• Dan + Shay performed “Speechless”
• Song of the Year Award went to “Beautiful Crazy” by Luke Combs
• Miranda Lambert performed “It All Comes Out in the Wash”
• Reba removed 2 layers of clothing before finishing her performance of “Fancy” in a flashy red dress
• Chris Stapleton joined P!nk for a duet
• New Artist of the Year Award went to Ashley McBryde
• Old Dominion performed “One Man Band”
• Carrie Underwood performed “Drinking Alone”
• Luke Combs performed “Beer Never Broke My Heart”
• Kelsea Ballerini was stunning in her performance of “homecoming queen?”
• Lindsay Ell joined Kelsea for a cover of “Girl Crush”, then Runaway June and Maddie & Tae joined them.  Then, Ashley McBryde and Carly Pearce joined in on the performance before Little Big Town came out to finish it
• Duo of the Year Award went to Dan + Shay
• Lady Antebellum was joined by Helsby for a performance of “What If I Never Get Over You”
• Brooks & Dunn were joined by Brothers Osborne for a performance of “Hard Workin’ Man”
• Maren Morris performed “Girl”
• Vocal Group of the Year Award went to Old Dominion
• Craig Morgan introduced Blake Shelton by thanking him for bringing attention to his new single “The Father, My Son, and the Holy Ghost” before Blake performed his hit “God’s Country”
• Thomas Rhett performed “Remember You Young”
• Dolly Parton was joined by for KING AND COUNTRY and Zach Williams for a medley of Gospel tunes
• Keith Urban performed “We Were”
• Album of the Year Award went to Maren Morris for “Girl”
• Kris Kristofferson was honored with a cover of his hit “Me and Bobby McGee” by Dierks Bentley, Brothers Osborne, Sheryl Crow, Chris Janson, and Joe Walsh
• Eric Church performed “Some Of It”
• Male Vocalist of the Year went to Luke Combs
• Kacey Musgraves and Willie Nelson performed a duet.  Didn’t catch the name but it was about Rainbows (not the Kacey single)
• Garth Brooks and Blake Shelton performed “Dive Bar”
• Female Vocalist of the Year Award went to Kacey Musgraves – presented by Janie Fricke, Pam Tillis, Kathy Mattea, and Martina McBride
• Entertainer of the Year Award went to Garth Brooks

Hillary Scott

Happy Birthday to today’s country music birthdays!

• Hillary Scott (Lady A)
• Jennifer Wayne (Runaway June)
• Jim Ed Brown (d)
• Kip Moore