Well folks, here you have it. The final two categories to predict before tonight’s CMA Awards telecast (ABC TV 8pm E/W). We’ve saved what are usually the two most ‘important’ categories, Album of the Year and Entertainer of the Year, for last. We’ll start our prediction today with Album of the Year.
The Album Of The Year award is one of the crown jewels of the CMA Awards and for good reason. It typically rewards the best albums throughout the years and some of the albums to recently win the award include Time Well Wasted from Brad Paisley, two albums from George Strait and traditional country leaning albums like Cash’s American IV: The Man Comes Around and O Brother, Where Art Thou?. What this says to me is that Brad Paisley’s American Saturday Night, Jamey Johnson’s That Lonesome Song and Taylor Swift’s Fearless are the main contenders for the award. I just don’t see how Sugarland or Keith Urban’s albums stand a chance against those three albums.
The reason for including the very non-traditional Fearless album is that it has sold over four million copies and it’s a spot where Swift could take home an award as acknowledgement for all she’s done for country music the last few years. That being said, I think this really is a two horse race between CMA favorite Paisley and newcomer Jamey Johnson. Johnson’s album was incredibly cohesive and it rivals some classic albums like Red Headed Stranger or the O Brother soundtrack. So, in the end, I think the CMA voters will give Jamey Johnson his first Album of the Year trophy.
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
(Award goes to Artist and Producer)
American Saturday Night
Brad Paisley
Produced by Frank Rogers and Chris DuBois
Arista Nashville
Defying Gravity
Keith Urban
Produced by Dann Huff and Keith Urban
Capitol Records Nashville
Fearless
Taylor Swift
Produced by Nathan Chapman and Taylor Swift
Big Machine Records
Love On The Inside
Sugarland
Produced by Byron Gallimore, Kristian Bush, and Jennifer Nettles
Mercury Nashville
That Lonesome Song
Jamey Johnson
Produced by The Kent Hardly Playboys
Mercury Nashville
Four out of the last five years have seen Kenny Chesney walk home with the Entertainer of the Year award from the Country Music Association with Keith Urban taking the award in 2005. The newcomer to this category this year is Taylor Swift (replacing Sugarland from last year). The other two candidates this year, George Strait and Brad Paisley are both previous nominees with Strait having won the award twice in the early 1990s.
This category would be hard to pick for some but with Chesney announcing the shutting-down of his hugely successful summer tours for 2010 and the constant sell-out status of Swift’s tour stops, along with all she’s done to promote country music (a component for vote consideration), I don’t see how Urban, Paisley or Strait have much of a chance to win this category. In fact, I think Paisley’s year to finally take home the award will be 2010, when Chesney is likely to not appear on the list (replaced by Brooks & Dunn or Reba or Sugarland). Garth Brooks, who like Chesney has never won a vocalist of the year award, has won this award four times to tie Kenny as the all-time leader in the category. Chesney is a great headliner and has been the best-selling concert draw in the USA for 9 straight years, a feat the CMA must take into account to weigh against Swift’s remarkable sales numbers, her ability to bring more fans to country music and her highly entertaining concerts.
In the end, this is likely a 50-50 thing but I think the CMA Will crown Taylor Swift their Entertainer of the Year and make her only the sixth female artist (or act) to take home the award. Like both Chesney and Brooks, it’s the place where the singer/songwriter excels the most so it makes the most sense to award her for a job well done here.
ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR
Kenny Chesney
Brad Paisley
George Strait
Taylor Swift
Keith Urban
What do you think? How do you think the CMA Will vote these two awards?
Check out part one of the series by clicking here.
Check out part two of the series by clicking here.
Check out part three of the series by clicking here.
Check out part four of the series by clicking here.
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