Garth Brooks is Top-Entertainer (USA Today)
Garth Brooks is top entertainer
NASHVILLE — Shania Twain packed the Grand Ole Opry House
aisles with 200 cheerleaders clapping out arena-rock rhythms, but
when it came time to hand out the honors during Wednesday night's
32nd annual Country Music Association Awards, the voters opted for
acts who hewed to traditional styles and themes. Garth Brooks won a
record-setting fourth entertainer of the year award, and several other
old favorites won as well.
Nashville newcomers the Dixie Chicks — who said they sat in the back
of the auditorium watching last year's awards — were the notable
exception to that rule, winning the new-artist Horizon Award and
triumphing over several established acts to take vocal group honors.
The CMA's all-time top nomination-getter, George Strait, won his third
consecutive award for male vocalist. He regained the title in 1996 after
a 10-year drought; his five total awards tie him with telecast host Vince
Gill for the most in the category. Veteran Steve Wariner capped a
career comeback by winning his first awards for his own work, taking
song and single awards for his sentimental Holes in the Floor of
Heaven.
Patty Loveless and George Jones won a surprise victory in the vocal
event category for You Don't Seem To Miss Me, beating out potent
pairings including Reba McEntire and Brooks & Dunn and Garth
Brooks with Trisha Yearwood.
Brooks & Dunn did continue a tradition of their own, however, winning
a seventh consecutive award in the vocal duo category. Yearwood
became the first woman since Mary Chapin Carpenter in 1992-93 to
repeat as female vocalist of the year.
Not all the winners were past favorites, though. Aside from the Chicks,
Tim McGraw won Album of the Year for Everywhere. His wife, Faith
Hill, took home a trophy for the video to her hit This Kiss.
After being on the road when he won last year's entertainer trophy,
Brooks had promised to attend this year's ceremony. Instead, he
wound up performing with Yearwood via satellite from Buffalo, after
ticket sales in the city exceeded his expectations.
"We had to do something crazy like sell 100,000 tickets in Buffalo to
miss the awards," Brooks said. "I've always been a product of the
people. If the people want to see us, this is where we're at." Of his
fourth entertainer nod, he said, "I'm proud that the CMAs would let me
in. It's a very exclusive club, and it's a club I've always wanted to be in.
It was a club I thought I was out of in the '90s. And they've been very
good to me this year and last year."
Tammy Wynette, who was nominated for the Country Music Hall of
Fame before her death in April, was inducted with a touching tribute
from Pam Tillis and Lorrie Morgan; Elvis Presley and Morgan's father,
George, also were inducted.
Also saluted were a number of notables who had died since last year's
ceremony, including Grandpa Jones, Eddie Rabbitt, John Denver, Roy
Rogers, Floyd Cramer, Carl Perkins and producer Owen Bradley.
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