My Take on the 49th Annual CMAs

CARRIE AND BRAD’S HOSTING: It felt like they needed more rehearsing. I thought they got off to a mildly (but not terribly) rocky start. I didn’t care for the whole ‘we’re canceling the Star Wars’ bit. I think it would have been funnier if they had just DONE the Star Wars bit instead of positioning it as if they were canceling. And I agree with the media that their jokes all night seemed to fall flat. Also, it looked like their was a glitch when Kasey Musgraves was getting ready to sing, and Carrie and Brad had to ad lib for a minute. No one would have known except that when they ran out of things to say, Carrie said, ‘Are they ready? Okay.’ She should have kept that to herself and no one would have been the wiser.

BIGGEST MOMENT FOR ME: When Luke Bryan won entertainer of the year. He totally deserved it. He’s had hit after hit this year; they just keep coming. And I love how he thanked his wife for letting him go on the road. That was so sweet and respectful.

BEST PERFORMANCE: Justin Timberlake with Chris Stapleton. They were so completely in sync, it was liked they practiced together for weeks. Also, it felt to me like they were really feeling each other. Their music blended completely naturally and rhythmically; it was THE event of the evening.

BEST WARDROBE: Kelsey Ballarini’s multicolored shorts set with the long back tail. The colors just really grabbed me. The outfit was very springy, and with winter approaching, those mixed floral colors were a welcome sight. And of course, she had the body for the outfit. It was perfectly tailored to her thin good looks.

BIGGEST FLUB: Jason Aldean’s microphone wasn’t turned up enough and he was being way overpowered by the instruments. It was really unfortunate, but once he started to sing, he couldn’t stop and say, ‘hey guys, could you higher my mike up a touch?’ He had to sing through it, and I felt like he was trying to shout as loud as he could. But he gave all in the performance so mega points given for effort.

MOST SURPRISING MOMENT: Brian Kelley of FGL looked like he had just gotten out of bed. I do like him in distressed jeans but I think that he and Tyler Hubbard should coordinate better. Tyler was always the one who looked casual and Brian always looked GQ, but last night it was the other way around. Tyler, who got married over the summer, looked like his wife is now dressing him; he had on the best outfit (navy blue leather shirt/jacket thingy and nice pants) I have EVER seen him in on stage. So I just thought they should have coordinated their look better. I didn’t personally care for Tyler’s man bun, but I will say that pulling his hair back away from his face really showed how beautiful his face was and these last couple of years I don’t think you could really see his handsomeness with his hair down, so that was a nice surprise. I would recommend sticking with a pony tail though rather than the man bun. I just didn’t think it was manly. But I like the shaved sides.

SECOND MOST SURPRISING MOMENT: Who in the heck is Chris Stapleton? One of the problems I have with radio today is that when a song comes on that I don’t know, they don’t tell me who the artist is so I don’t have the opportunity to internalize that information and recognize it the next time. Maybe Chris isn’t played on country radio. Maybe he’s played on blues stations. I don’t know. But while his music was very nice, I found myself saying, ‘who the heck is this guy?’ every time he won and ‘what rock have I been under all year?’

BEST SET DESIGN: Kacey Muscgraves’ was really imaginative. I think hers was the best. But Brad Paisley gave me a good laugh when the mascot of Brad Paisley came out. I thought he was really cute.

HANDSOMEST PERFORMER: Dierks Bentley is just full on good looking. He could probably roll out of bed and not shower for a few days and still look sexy. He GQ but also rugged.

BEST LEGS: Okay, this is not a real category, but you’ve got to give it to Reba. She just never gains an ounce and she has the best legs in the business. I would almost sell my soul to have her legs. Now Miranda on the other hand, you could tell she put on 5-10 pounds, but she didn’t look bad. In fact, if you hadn’t seen her at her absolute skinniest over the last couple of years, you wouldn’t even know she put a couple back on. And truly, she’s looked fantastic. I’m just saying.

WHO WAS MISSING: Kelly Clarkson and her husband, Hunter Hayes, Clint Black … and me. I would have liked to have been in the audience. Clint Black is working on a new CD so it would have been good exposure for him to be hobnobbing around the CMAs. And if the planners had planned it right, they should have had Clint Black as a presenter. People who are making a comeback, like Clint and Garth, should have been presenters.

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