Ranking the 10 Best Moments of the 2016 CMAs
Taylor Swift made two appearances at the CMAs we might not have expected even a few days ago. One, of course, was to present the Entertainer of the Year award to Garth at evening’s end. The other, offstage, was the song she wrote that just got released as LBT’s new single, “Better Man.” The quartet were truly outstanding in their field as Karen Fairchild sang about an only half-worthy ex with phrasing that inevitably had you thinking about how Swift would’ve sung it herself… but, obviously, Fairchild is not going to suffer significantly in any such comparison. Here’s hoping that Swift has a whole closetful of leftover songs she could farm out to acts like LBT now, ruling the country chart again by proxy as a writer.
9. Eric Church helps make Rhiannon Giddens a country star, for one night
Who was that knockout in the red dress? Could it really have been Giddens, whom we’ve usually seen dressed down as a cred-carrying member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops? It’s not like we want her to give up her day job as one of the most versatile and accomplished roots musicians alive… but if she wanted to use her collaboration with Church as a real springboard to a side career as a mainstream rocker, we wouldn’t object.
8. Alan Jackson and George Strait: half a Mount Rushmore
Performing the dually wistful “Remember When” and “Troubadour,” these two titans of traditional country would have had us thinking “who’s gonna fill their shoes” all by themselves, even if there wasn’t a parade of bygone greats onscreen behind them to remind us of who and what we’ve lost.
7. Tim McGraw beatifically restores our faith in humanity for four minutes
Even though Brad and Carrie did plenty of joking about the election during their monologue, it was possible to forget all that ugliness ever happened or even was possible during the sheer goodness that is “Humble and Kind.” Accepting the award for Song of the Year, its writer, the great Lori McKenna, confirmed that it was written as a sort of prayer for kids, and McGraw’s performance of it might have briefly restored a childlike faith in our species… and certainly in country music as the genre most capable of conveying pure virtue, when done this artfully.
6. Maren Morris takes us to secular church
Country music is on a pretty decent newcomer streak, and in the tradition of such worthies as Stapleton and Kacey Musgraves, we now have Morris, the best possible winner of the New Artist of the Year trophy. A straight rendition of “My Church” might have sufficed, but the wisdom of throwing in the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the McCrary Sisters to make it a New Orleans gospel service made the award she sobbingly accepted soon after feel even more deserved.
5. Dolly-mania
Watching the penultimate tribute to Dolly Parton, it suddenly struck you: What, they don’t end every CMAs with a tribute to Dolly Parton? Why not? It was an excuse not just to revive some of the greatest songs ever written in the format but to bring out so many female greats that you could mistake it for a Year of the Country Woman salute. Martina McBride, Jennifer Nettles, Reba, and the others involved certainly had their moments, but surely no one could have minded if the show consisted solely of Kacey Musgraves singing Dolly songs for three hours, instead of the too-quick verse of “Here You Come Again” we got. After Parton said that “I had a big speech but they won’t let me give it” — the show being on the wrong side of the 11:00 hour at that point — Chris Stapleton chivalrously said that he wished he could give his acceptance speech time up to Dolly. Actually, since too much of the country was watching baseball anyway, let’s forget this telecast never happened, superior as it was, just as an excuse for a do-over that will devote half its length to a Parton mega-medley.
4. Dwight Yoakam and Chris Stapleton as Willie and Ray
Stapleton’s appearance with Justin Timberlake on last year’s telecast was one of the great CMA moments of all time. Nothing could have possibly beaten the star-is-born buzz of that collaboration. He didn’t try to top it, instead teaming with Yoakam to recreate the lower-key energy of the 1980s Willie Nelson/Ray Charles duet “Seven Spanish Angels,” probably the least remembered oldie to be revived Wednesday night. For a minute, you might have thought you were watching the cool kids’ show, the Americana Awards, instead of the CMAs. Mindful of that, probably, the CMA producers went right from this tasteful duet into a Luke Bryan number, to make sure country’s spring-break contingent didn’t tune out. But Dwight and Chris’s twang/R&B tradeoff was the number traditionalists would go to sleep and dream about.
3. Garth and Trisha as the ultimate toastmasters
It was as if “Mr. Trisha Yearwood” and his wife, Mrs. Brooks, looked at that opening all-star medley and thought, “We can top that, all by ourselves.” They nearly did, although they kept theirs to a mere seven songs, charging through familiar chestnuts like “Jackson” and “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” but also more obscure (at least to contemporary audiences) greats like Keith Whitley’s “Don’t Close Your Eyes” and George Jones and Tammy Wynette’s “Golden Ring.” (For this, maybe we owe it to him to buy that boxed set the Target commercials kept plugging all night, even if we’ve all bought most of the music inside it five times.)
2. Randy Travis gets the night’s first final word
The show opened with a dizzying medley of 12 classics: Reba getting fancy, Alan Jackson rocking “Don’t Rock the Jukebox,” Roy Clark saluting old partner Buck Owens with Brad Paisley’s help, and much more. But when it came time to wrap up the show opener with “Forever and Ever, Amen,” the line “Just listen to how this song ends” was self-consciously prophetic, as they brought a smiling Travis out just to “amen”… albeit with enough slightly nervous melisma that it seemed like more than just one word.
1. Beyoncé as the fourth Dixie Chick
The Chicks have been doing Lemonade’s “Daddy Lessons” every night on tour since the spring, so when Beyoncé was announced as a surprise guest earlier in the day, you had to wonder… could it be? But Natalie Maines has had such country music issues for the last 13 years, making no secret of her grudge with the genre, that it seemed impossible she’d ever take a country music establishment stage again. But, surprise! With the almost universally adored Beyoncé as a human shield for the Chicks’ re-entry, their collaboration on “Daddy” — with a snippet of “Long Time Gone”! — made Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena feel like almost as giddy a place as the blocks around Wrigley Field.
