Chris Stapleton, Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert win big at Country Music

Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani may have been the talk of the day during Wednesday night’s Country Music Association Awards in Nashville, but they didn’t carry the gauntlet all on their own.

He also took home three awards: Best New Artist, Album of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year. Here he was named male artist of the year and new artist of the year, and his “Traveller” won the prize for album of the year – a clear indication of the industry’s self-congratulating embrace. He wrote – and did backup vocals for – Adele’s “If It Hadn’t Been for Love”, Luke Bryan’s “Drink a Beer”, Kenny Chesney’s “Never Wanted Nothing More”, Blake Shelton’s “100 Miles”, and “Too Fast” for Jason Aldean.

Chris Stapleton – who, I’ll go ahead and mention, appeared right here in Enid on March 28 with Little Big Town – delivered an incredible, unforgettable performance with Justin Timberlake.

The group, which includes Kimberly Schlapman, Jimi Westbrook and Phillip Sweet, is also nominated for music video of the year for “Girl Crush”, musical event of the year for “Smokin’ and Drinkin'” with Miranda Lambert and vocal group of the year, which it has won for the last three years. The next year, she won the song of the year category for her track “Follow Your Arrow”.

That performance was one to remember, but it was just the beginning for Stapleton.

The audience laughed, as did Shelton.

Kacey Musgraves: The first country artist to ever perform at the Apollo brought all the unicorns, rainbows, and pink that My Little Pony and Lisa Frank could ever dream of to the CMAs stage.

“This is about being courageous and being bold”, Karen Fairchild said.

In March the jealousy ballad sparked controversy when radio stations refused to play it because listeners thought it had homosexual overtones. “Just tell me when to show up”.

“We all are out here, and anybody that’s in here tonight, making music and working to the degree that it takes to be in the room, deserves the respect, and I think that of everybody that is out playing music”.

The show opened with a “Star Wars” takeoff featuring Underwood as Princess Leia and Paisley as Han Solo. “I don’t like to put things in a box all the time”, he told RS of his music range. Thomas Rhett, whose “Die A Happy Man” is No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot country songs chart, performed with rockers Fall Out Boy. Last night, the best artists in country music gathered in Nashville to celebrate to 49th annual CMA’s.