November 13, 2020 The MusicRow Weekly Friday, November 13, 2020 New Winners Abound At CMA Awards SIGN UP HERE (FREE!) THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES New Winners Abound At CMA Awards Morgan Wallen Announces Sophomore Double Album Project Kameron Marlowe Drops Self-Titled Debut EP “Gone Too Soon” Hitmaker Andrew Jannakos Inks Sony Label Deal Eric Church accepts award for Entertainer of the Year at The 54th Annual CMA Awards. Photo: Donn Jones/CMA Ashley Gorley, Warner Chappell, “One Man Band” New winners abounded at last night’s (Nov. 11) Country Music Association Awards. Lead ASCAP 2020 Country Most notably, Eric Church cinched his first CMA Entertainer of the Year honor after Awards three previous nominations. Ross Copperman, He humbly accepted the honor, reflecting on what 2020 has meant to to him. “Whiskey Glasses,” Warner “If there was ever a year not to win…” Church laughed as he took the stage. “This Chappell Lead BMI Country year, at least for me, has been about loss – loss of life, loss of playing shows, loss Awards Winners of freedom, loss of kids being in school… And you know what the win is? The win is we all were here tonight, together as country music – in person, live and I believe Matt McGinn, Wyatt this, I really believe this: It’s gonna be music that brings us out of this. That is the one thing that’s gonna save the world. Politicians are about division; music is about Durrette III, unity.” SMACKWORKS Lead SESAC Awards Maren Morris, a three-time winner this year, took home her first wins for Female Vocalist of the Year, as well as Single of the Year and Song of the Year for “The Russell Dickerson Bones.” Songwriter Laura Veltz, a first-time nominee this year, also earned her first Celebrates Fourth No. 1 win for Song of the Year as a co-writer on “The Bones”, and Jimmy Robbins won his first CMA Award with the song. DISClaimer Singles Reviews Morris’ Sony labelmate Luke Combs took home his first Album of the Year win (for What You See Is What You Get), along with his second Male Vocalist of the Year honor. And much more… Page 1 of 20 November 13, 2020 The MusicRow Weekly Morgan Wallen, Carly Pearce, and Lee Brice also picked up their very first CMA Awards honors, with Pearce and Brice earning Musical Event of the Year for “I Hope You’re Happy Now.” Wallen was awarded New Artist of the Year. Due to COVID-19 precautions, this year’s CMA Awards looked vastly different—no Bridgestone Arena filled with fans cheering, but rather the show harkened back to its more modest beginnings in 1967, a non- televised banquet and show. Held this year at Music City Center, nominees and performers were socially distanced at tables throughout the room, with two performance stages flanked either end of the room with a smaller center stage for awards acceptance speeches. The effect was intimate but energetic, a club lounge Maren Morris. Photo: Courtesy ABC vibe with an arena-sized passion coming from the performing artists, who were clearly happy to be back onstage in front of an audience. After her Female Vocalist of the Year win, Morris used her acceptance speech to honor Black female country artists and their musical Co-hosts Reba and Darius Rucker welcomed viewers contributions. and the limited in-house audience made of nominees and performers to the CMA Awards—“or as I like to call “There are some names in my mind that I want to give recognition to it, my favorite Wednesday of 2020,” Reba said. because I’m just a fan of their music and they are country as it gets. I just want them all to know how much we love them back and just check out “In 2020, it’s great to be anywhere,” she added. their music after this: Linda Martell, Yola, Mickey Guyton, Rissi “Tonight’s a wonderful time to be together, sing Palmer, Brittney Spencer, Rhiannon Giddens. together and be together.” “There are so many amazing Black women that pioneer and continue to Even with the CMA’s COVID-19 precautions, two more pioneer this genre and I know they are going to come after me, they’ve acts dropped out as the show got underway, making come before me, but you’ve made this genre so, so beautiful and I hope for some last-minute adjustments. The evening’s co- you know that we see you. Thank you for making me so inspired as a host Rucker performed his single “Beer & Sunshine” singer in this genre.” without Lady A, who performed on the recorded version of the track. The trio pulled out of the CMA In addition to Combs’ aforementioned wins, Sony labelmates Old telecast just before the start of the show due to a Dominion picked up a third consecutive win for Vocal Group of the Year. COVID-19 exposure. As the show got underway, Old Dominion also made tribute to the 40th anniversary of the film Urban Rascal Flatts announced they would not be taking Cowboy with Johnny Lee’s “Looking for Love.” Lee and Mickey Gilley part in the CMA Awards due to a positive COVID test were in attendance. within the band. Fiddle player Jenee Fleenor, who picked up her second Musician of the Year honor last The Vocal Duo of the Year category celebrates its 50th anniversary this night, also dropped out of the show due to COVID-19. year, with the first category honor being given to Porter Wagoner and Lee Brice and Florida Georgia Line’s Tyler Hubbard Dolly Parton in 1970. This year, Vocal Duo of the Year went to Dan + had dropped out of the awards show earlier in the Shay. Performing from the Hollywood Bowl and eerily highlighting the week. empty seats, Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber performed a stripped-down rendition of their smash hit “10,000 Hours.” Sony Music Nashville artists took home the lion’s share of honors in several categories. Maren Morris “I did not expect to get this,” Wallen said in accepting his New Artist of the launched the show with a pair of major wins, as “The Year honor. “I’d like to thank the Good Lord first of all. I’d like to thank my Bones” earned Single and Song of the Year. Mama for always being the one to push me to sing. My Dad for always making the sacrifices for me and my family so I could sing, and to my “This is very weird but I love this kind of setup because team and for Nashville for accepting me into your family. It’s been a great we can all hang out all night together and that’s a five years since I moved here,” said Wallen, who also performed “More first…It has kind of been a medicine for this year, this Than My Hometown” during the show, and immediately after, announced crazy year,” she said. a January release date for his upcoming album. Page 3 of 20 November 13, 2020 The MusicRow Weekly Many of the performances throughout the evening honored musical titans that died over the past year, including Kenny Rogers, Charlie Daniels, Mac Davis, and Joe Diffie. Dierks Bentley started the show standing alone onstage, with a lone spotlight, as he performed “Long Haired Country Boy” in tribute to Daniels on center stage. The show moved to a side stage as Brothers Osborne joined Bentley on “Trudy.” Then Ashley McBryde handled spitfire lyrics of “Texas” with ease, accompanied by John Osborne’s smoldering guitar licks. Jason Aldean followed with “Devil Went Down To Georgia.” Jon Pardi brought ‘90s country intensity with his tribute to the late Diffie Reba McEntire and Darius Rucker. Photo: John Russell/CMA with a performance of “Pickup Man,” earning an enthusiastic standing ovation from many in the crowd. Little Big Town honored Kenny Rogers with their heavenly harmonies on a rendition of “Sweet Music Man,” while McEntire and Rucker paid tribute to Davis with a rendition of the Davis- penned Elvis classic “In The Ghetto.” Curiously missing from the evening’s tributes was any homage to singer-songwriter John Prine, who died earlier this year from COVID-19 complications and penned songs including George Strait’s “I Just Wanna Dance With You” (which earned Prine a CMA nomination for Song of the Year in 1998), as well as his own sterling classics such as “Sam Stone” and “Hello In There.” Some performances, such as Brothers Osborne’s blues-rock soaked performance of “All Night,” and Kelsea Ballerini‘s semi-theatrical performance of “hole in the bottle,” brought up the energy, but it was the evening’s quieter moments that often had the most impact, such as Ingrid Andress’ stunningly vulnerable rendition of “More Hearts Than Mine” which ended with the singer in tears, Jimmie Allen’s soothing rendition of Luke Combs. Photo: Courtesy ABC his breakthrough radio hit “Best Shot,” Chris and Morgane Stapleton‘s musical gut-punch of a performance on “Starting Over,” or Miranda Lambert‘s stripped-down take on “Settling Down.” The evening’s highest tribute, the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award, was given to Charley Pride. Between his chart debut in 1966, and 1989, Pride had 29 No. 1 country hits and over 50 Top 10 songs. In 1971, he was named CMA Entertainer of the Year as well as Male Vocalist of the Year in both 1971 and 1972. Pride was also the first Black man to co-host the CMA Awards, taking the reins in 1975 alongside Glen Campbell.