Beech Tree News Network

The 2013 CMT Awards started off with a surprise duet by Lenny Kravitz and Jason Aldean of Lenny’s smash hit “American Woman”.  That was followed by a hilarious shrink bit involving co-host Kristen Bell advising co-host Aldean about his first time hosting.  Kudos to CMT for including Kelsey Grammer, Reba, Blake Shelton and Carrie Underwood, Dr. Drew and Vince Vaughn in this skit.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Mavericks were the house band! This might be a pretty good show.
Last year’s winner of The Voice, Cassadee Pope performed her song “Wasting All These Tears”.  We’d have to wait until after break for the first award.  Granted, the hosts were pretty funny.  Miranda Lambert was the first performance, with a personal favorite, “Mama’s Broken Heart”.  The song is funny, but the video is hilarious!
Florida Georgia Line won Breakthrough Video of the Year for their hit “Cruise”.  Word has it they would perform the song with Nelly (odd combo) later in the evening.  CMT Performance of the Year went to Miranda Lambert for her touching hit “Over You”. 
Darius Rucker performed what has to be my favorite country song right now, a cover of Old Crow Medicine Show’s hit “Wagon Wheel”.  Lady A joined him and he let the crowd sing along with the last verse.  What a cool guy! American Idol’s Kree Harrison sang to break.  Justin Beiber, I mean Hunter Hayes performed “I Want Crazy” on a stage set up outside Bridgestone Arena.  That last comment was actually rude to Hunter Hayes, whom I can actually stand a little.
Luke Bryan performed in the Stage, just down the street from Bridgestone.  He played his hit “Crash My Party”.  I’d personally like to take this time to thank Luke for making all of us guys look bad.  Thanks a bunch, buddy.  He then introduced Taylor Swift (ugh).  Larry The Cable Guy presented Collaborative Video of the Year to Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan and Eric Church for “The Only Way I Know” from this year’s ACM Awards. 
Keith Urban performed his latest, “Little Bit Of Everything”.  Jason introduced a tribute, albeit a lame one, to the late George Jones.  The Mavericks, whom I like, sang “The Race Is On”.  So what was the problem? They were only allotted one line of the song! Come on, CMT-you’re better than that! Well, you used to be.
Jana Kramer and Nashville star Charles Estin presented Florida Georia Line with Duo of the  Year.  Are you kidding me? Lisa Marie Presley and Ed Sheeran (still think he looks like the Simply Red singer-or a kid who stuck his finger in an electrical socket) introduced a performance of “Goodbye Town” by Lady Antebellum.  Randy Houser sang one verse and the chorus of his hit “How Country Feels”.
Lenny Kravitz presented Miranda Lambert’s “Mama’s Broken Heart” with Female Video Of The Year.  Keith Urban introduced Little Big Town, who paid tribute to Fleetwood Mac with their performance of “The Chain”, with Keith Urban on guitar.  Dax Shepard (Kristen’s husband) and the Bacon Brothers presented Lady A with Group Video of the Year for “Downtown”, a favorite of mine.  Kristen introduced her co-host Jason Aldean. She didn’t say the name of the song.  I didn’t recognize it nor was I impressed.  Miranda Lambert presented Male Video of the Year to Blake Shelton “Sure Be Cool If You Did”.  Kenny Rogers and Sheryl Crowe presented Video of the Year to Carrie Underwood for “Blown Away”.  I voted for Miranda Lambert, but oh well.  All in all, it was a mediocre show at best.  Lame jokes from the hosts and a mediocre close by Florida Georgia Line and Nelly (a perplexing combo) singing “Cruise”.  I was happy to see the premiere of Redneck Island afterwards.