As Willie Nelson once sang, there's no place but Texas — and some of the country music awards shows seem to agree. In the past two years, two big-budget ceremonies have taken place not in Nashville, but in the Lone Star State. On Sunday, the CMT Music Awards, which aired on CBS, returned to Austin for the second year in a row and leaned hard on all the trappings of Texas.
Native son Cody Johnson opened the show with a rendition of the song called “That's Texas.” Cowboy hats were everywhere, including host Kelsea Ballerini, who donned a pink Barbie western for a skit. Even Buc-ee's beaver, the mascot of Texas' beloved chain store, made an appearance, alongside Keith Urban during a silly segment about reading artists' minds.
Perhaps moving to Texas and celebrating all of its icons is a way of acknowledging the state's (and neighboring Oklahoma's) status as the current hotbed of country music. Few scenes in Nashville and beyond are as vibrant and exciting as the red-hot Red Dirt movement that's currently transforming local names like Parker McCollum, who performed at the CMT Awards, and Zach Bryan, who didn't, into mainstream stars.
But as it turns out, moving a long-running Nashville production to Texas can only do so much. Despite its second year at the Moody Center in Austin, the CMT Music Awards occasionally struggled to find its footing. On the one hand, there were moments that rivaled anything seen on a country awards stage in the last 10 years. Trisha Yearwood's live debut of her instant classic “Put It in a Song” was great. The tribute to Toby Keith by Brooks & Dunn, Lainey Wilson and, in particular, Sammy Hagar deftly straddled the needle between reverent and raucous. And Little Big Town and Sugarland's heavenly union on Phil Collins' “Take Me Home” reminded many of us how sweet it is to hear special singers do their thing. (We already can't wait for that tour this fall.)
McCollum's performance of the radio hit “Burn It Down,” credited as a collaboration with Brittney Spencer, was also a win, even if Spencer was relegated to a special guest role. And a cameo from Melissa Etheridge, who ran on stage to sing 'Come to My Window' with the dazzling Ballerina, was inspired, nostalgic fun.
But other sets left us scratching our heads, especially when the action moved across town to the University of Texas at Austin for performances by Jason Aldean, Bailey Zimmerman, Old Dominion and more.
Immediately after opening Johnson's live show, the music continued with a taped performance by Aldean of his song “Let Your Boys Be Country.” Immediately, the framing of the towering campus tower behind him, bathed in red and blue lights, brought to mind the Tennessee courthouse setting of Aldean's controversial video for “Try That in a Small Town” — a music video depicting protest scenes that CMT refused to play. Unlike that fear-inducing song, “Let Your Boys Be Country” is a good lesson in country ways and coming of age, but a similarity in the production was hard to miss.
Even more questionable, however, was the decision to film several shows in front of the University of Texas Tower, where in 1966 a gunman opened fire from its observation deck, killing 14 people. That was 58 years ago and, for many awards-watching fans, it's ancient history. But route 91 is not.
Considering that the largest mass shooting in modern American history happened at a country music festival in 2017 — while Jason Aldean was on stage — the Tower setting deserved a second thought.
But ultimately, the CMT Awards have always strived to promote unity and diversity in the spotlight, especially in recent years. On Sunday, they beat four black women who sang to Beyoncé Cowboy Carter album — Tanner Adell, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts and Spencer — to present an award. It was a nice moment of recognition, but it was also the night's only mention of country's biggest story, even as Beyoncé just became the first black woman to score a Number One country album.
It seemed like a missed opportunity to shed light on a landmark moment in the country's history. Even more — why not use this moment to give performance slots to some or all of Adell, Kennedy, Roberts and Spencer?
“It can be very difficult to stand up for what's right and what you believe in,” Trisha Yearwood said earlier in the evening while accepting the inaugural June Carter Cash Humanitarian Award. “Love one another…don't just say it, but let's really go out there and do it.”
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/2024-cmt-music-awards-review-1235000485/