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Nick Marino’s CMA blog
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some random thoughts, opinions and observations from my day in Nashville covering the CMAs…
If you ever need to change into a tuxedo in the bathroom of a barbecue restaurant, you could do worse than to stumble into Jack’s, a cue joint on Broadway in downtown Nashville. After eating two decent sandwiches, I took my duffel bag into the men’s room and emerged looking like James Bond.
Here’s how the red carpet works. The celebs make an entrance and people cheer. Then, if you’re a working journalist, you stand still and let the celebrities come to you. Or, more accurately, you let their publicists come to you — they present you with little information sheets to brief you on the lesser celebs just before they arrive. (You’re expected to know who the big stars are, and the big stars may very well blow you off.) Then the celebrities (in this case mostly country singers) come by and you notice how much makeup they’re wearing and you ask them a couple of questions and try to guess whether they’ve rehearsed the answer. If you want to throw them off, you can ask something like “What are you reading?” I asked two different people, Gretchen Wilson and Kris Kristofferson, this question on the red carpet and they both replied exactly the same way — “What am I READING?” Eventually, they each coughed up an answer. Curious? Keep your eye on our Sunday Arts & Books section.
Big Kenny of the duo Big & Rich wore a small “Save Darfur” pin on his blue velvet blazer.
Cowboy Troy’s belt buckle was roughly the size of a flat-screen television.
I thought I heard Ronnie Dunn’s voice quiver when he was reading Keith Urban’s acceptance letter. I found this honest moment quite moving.
Josh Turner gave my favorite performance of the night. The guy’s voice is unbelievable, an echo of Johnny Cash. And his performance was somehow both understated and magnetic.
Carrie Underwood’s acceptance speech for best female vocalist was the defining moment of these CMAs. I knew as soon as she gave it that it would be re-played over and over. Sure enough, as soon as I exited the building I heard it re-played outside as I was heading to my car.
Speaking of Underwood, her shining moment was a less than stellar one for another nominee, Faith Hill. If you were watching the show, you saw her reaction when Underwood was named best female vocalist (if you didn’t, you can catch it online at YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyZRiEJnIag). According to USA Today, a rep from Hill’s management said the singer was joking. What a convincing jokester! With that hateful expression and exquisite eye-roll, she could have fooled me.
What do you think?
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