Beech Tree News Network

The official eight categories that made up the CMT Awards show would have to wait, as the show was opened by a pretty good skit spoofing the Boyonce/Solange/Jay-Z elevator situation.  The country version starred Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan and show host Kristen Bell.  The very first performance was a ZZ Top, Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan/Jason Derulo mash-up of “Legrange, “This is How We Roll” and Jason’s hit “Talk Dirty To Me”.
 The show, hosted by Kristen Bell, went out without a hitch or the usual awkward moment. There was a joke about Luke Bryan falling off stage recently at a recent concert.  The Band Perry won Group Video of the Year for “Done”.  I like this song and video so I was cool with it winning.  They deserved it.  Proving that winners of The Voice can be pretty formidable on the music scene, Cassadee Pope was very gracious in winning the Breakthrough category with “Wasting All These Tears”, saying “Thank you so much.  I knew my fans were awesome, but wow, I didn’t know you guys could do this for me.  Thank you.  And thanks to everybody that’s sitting over here.  You all inspire me to just do my best and get better every day.  You guys are all incredible.”
Carrie Underwood introduced the tribute to Alan Jackson. Lee Ann Womack and Kacey Musgraves sang “Livin’ On Love” before Carrie presented Alan with the first ever CMT Impact Award.  Alan was as gracious and soft spoken in his speech as we’ve become accustomed to since he debuted in 1989.
Jake Owen, trying his best to replicate Kenny Chesney’s beach vibe, performed his hit “Beachin’”.  Eric Church and actress/singer Lucy Hale performed some song.  Honestly I think that boy’s gone off the rails.  Lee Ann Rimes introduced an acoustic performance of John Legend’s song “All Of Me” by John, Jennifer Nettles and Hunter Hayes. 
“Stone Cold” Steve Austin, who has become, of all things, CMT’s go-to reality show host, introduced Brantley Gilbert’s performance of “Bottoms Up”.  I was not impressed.  Beth Behrs from Two Broke Girls introduced Lady A performing “Hey Bartender”. 
Little Big Town debuted their new song “Day Drinkin’”.  Good song and a very cool concept performance.  They had high school marching band drums , streamers, and were blasted with color post-song. 
Blake Shelton won Male Video of the Year for “Doin’ What She Likes”.  This video has the humor, direction and acting that makes up a top notch video.  Blake says “"First of all, I can't say this enough. Thank you to everybody who votes for this thing. I honestly am shocked to be here holding this. Y'all have made this already an unbelievable night for me. Thank you so much. I love country music. I love country music fans. Thank you."
CMT Performance of the Year went to Luke Bryan/Lionel Richie for “Oh No”/”All Night Long” at CMT’s 2013 Artist of the Year show.  "I'm speechless. I cannot believe I've had the opportunity to hang with this guy. And the fact that I have won an award with you is just amazing buddy." -- Luke Bryan." All I can say is if I'm having this much fun, let's do it again." -- Lionel Richie. Performances of the night spanned from Hunter Hayes to Keith Urban
Collaborative Video went to Luke Bryan/Florida Georgia Line for “This is How We Roll”.  " Wow. Wow. Wow. Thank you, fans. You guys are amazing." -- Brian Kelley of FGL

"I want to thank Luke Bryan for being a part of this amazing ride with us and letting us be a part of his ride." -- Tyler Hubbard of FGL." Thank you to the fans for just letting us have fun." -- Luke Bryan. 
Miranda Lambert won Female Video of the Year for “Automatic”.  "Hey y'all. Thank you so much to the fans. I love this song so much. It's close to my heart. ... Thank you to the fans for letting us do our job." -- Miranda Lambert. 
Duo video of the Year went to Florida Georgia Line for “Round Here”.  " We're back again. Thank you guys so very much. Thank you for making our wildest dreams come true." -- Tyler Hubbard

"Thank you, guys. Fans, you guys are amazing." -- Brian Kelley. The final performance of the night was Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood’s new duet, “Something Bad”.  The biggest award of the night, Video of the Year, went to Carrie Underwood for the touching “See You Again”.  "It's really hard to believe that I have been doing this for nine years, but every single second of those nine years you guys have been so amazing. God bless country music and its fans. You guys are so amazing to all of us." -- Carrie Underwood.  There was pretty good variety.  Was it all straight up country? No, but nothing is straight up anything these days, which is fine.

Hello.  My name is Andy Sullivan.  I received my bachelor’s degree in business from Mid-Continent University in June 2009.  I began writing for beechtree in July 2009.  I enjoy writing, photography, watching basketball and football, and playing guitar.  I also write a blog that encompasses sports and entertainment, called Sports and More, at http://andyuk79.tumblr.com If you have any comments, please leave them in the space below.  Thanks for reading!