Our annual nightmare is recurring.
My wife and I are sitting in the audience at Nashville`s Grand Ole Opry House Monday watching the nationally televised Country Music Association awards show (8 p.m. on CBS-Ch. 2), and none of the performers we`ve picked to win wins.
This year, the recurrences have been worse. Chet Atkins is gone from the Musician of the Year category, doubtless banned to remove the last lead-pipe cinch from the nominee list. Plus the `89 CMA competition is not only the stiffest in memory, it also has extraordinary peculiarities, making it distinctly possible to pick losers in all 12 categories.
Still, spouse and columnist-veterans of a decade of this awards-night tension-plunge on, putting our fairly respectable record (of a combined total of 70 or so percent picked correctly) on the line one more time.
Here are categories, nominees, and our hazardous guesses on the thinking of 7,000 or so disk jockeys and other crazed music-industry individuals who make up the CMA:
Music video of the year: Rodney Crowell`s ”After All This Time,” Lorrie Morgan`s ”Dear Me,” Dolly Parton`s ”Why`d You Come In Here Lookin` Like That” and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band`s ”Will the Circle Be Unbroken Vol. II” all seem out-gimmicked by Hank Williams Jr.`s improbable ”There`s A Tear In My Beer”-in which the 1987, 1988 and maybe 1989 Entertainer of the Year sings a duet with his long-dead, immortal father via old film footage skillfully altered. Spouse: ”Tear/Beer.” Columnist: Yep.
Musician: Once again, the CMA has nominated five fine ones-dobroist Jerry Douglas, keyboardist Paul Franklin, fiddler Johnny Gimble, jack of all strings Mark O`Connor and guitarist Don Potter-but once again it also has neglected to tell us why each of them were picked (as in, say, Don Potter for his work on records by The Judds). So we`re once again left with the popularity-style contest Chet Atkins has almost always won, except we no longer have Atkins. Spouse: Don Potter, ”because it`s about time he got nominated.” Columnist:
Johnny Gimble, because (having won three times before-in `75, `86 and `87) his name is best-known.
Vocal event: An all-star field includes Johnny Cash/Hank Williams Jr. for their duet on ”That Old Wheel,” Johnny Cash/Rosanne Cash/The Everly Brothers for their recording of ”Ballad of a Teenage Queen,” John Denver/Nitty Gritty Dirt Band for their recording of ”And So It Goes,” Buck Owens/Ringo Starr for their duet on ”Act Naturally” and Hank Williams Jr./Hank Williams Sr. for their duet on ”There`s A Tear In My Beer.” Spouse: Hank & Hank, because everybody else seems to think so. Columnist: Yo, because (the unimpressive lyric notwithstanding) how much closer to both the traditional and
contemporary bone of country music can you get than Hank & Hank?
Vocal duo: Baillie & The Boys, the Bellamy Brothers, Foster & Lloyd and Sweethearts of the Rodeo are all fine acts, but they seem dwarfed, at least in sales figures, by The Judds. Spouse: The Judds. Columnist: Ditto.
Vocal group: Here begin the hardest ones. Alabama rolls on with the only current gold album in the category, but among also-nominated Desert Rose Band, Highway 101, Restless Heart and Shenandoah, Highway 101 is the reigning 1988 winner and Shenandoah is the most recently hot. Spouse: Highway 101. Columnist: Shenandoah?
Horizon: From here on, the going gets even tougher. This award, designed to recognize the most career progress in one year (i.e., not necessarily, but usually, a new act) will go to one of five nominees: red-hot young Clint Black, the Desert Rose Band, steadily rising Patty Loveless, Shenandoah and the late Keith Whitley. At the time of his tragic death due to an alcohol overdose last May, Whitley had attained prominence but remained under-recognized as perhaps the finest of the neo-traditional vocalists; the question is, will voters be swayed emotionally by his death and give this one to him? Or will they regard the Horizon Award as beneath his superstar talent? Spouse: Whitley. Columnist: Black.
Female vocalist: Among perennial bridesmaid Rosanne Cash, newcomer Patty Loveless, more established Kathy Mattea, previous multi-winner Reba McEntire and rebounding Tanya Tucker, the time for the warm and engaging Mattea seems to have come-although any year Cash wins, she will deserve it. Spouse: Mattea. Columnist: Right.
Male vocalist: Rising (at last!) singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell, perennially hot George Strait and Randy Travis and the late Whitley may find the time has come for red-hot Ricky Van Shelton-although Whitley and Strait could both be strong darkhorses. Spouse: Shelton. Columnist: Uh huh.
Song: Mattea`s ”18 Wheels And A Dozen Roses” (written by Paul Nelson and Gene Nelson) won in 1988 and is nominated again, along with Clint Black`s ”A Better Man” (by Black and Hayden Nicholas), Crowell`s ”After All This Time” (by Crowell), traditionalist favorite Vern Gosdin`s ”Chiseled In Stone” (by Gosdin and Max D. Barnes) and Whitley`s ”Don`t Close Your Eyes” (by Bob McDill). ”18 Wheels” could be the winner, since renominated winners aren`t unheard of, but both the Whitley and Gosdin songs also seem to have sentimental strength. Spouse: ”Chiseled In Stone,” ”for the illogical reason that it really is the best of the 5.” Columnist: ”Don`t Close Your Eyes.”
Album: This one pits Strait`s ”Beyond The Blue Neon,” Shelton`s
”Loving Proof,” Travis` ”Old 8 X 10,” the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band`s
”Will The Circle Be Unbroken Vol. II” and Mattea`s ”Willow in the Wind.” The hottest items here, in terms of sales or artistic ambition, would seem to be ”Loving Proof” and ”Circle II.” Spouse: ”Loving Proof.”
Columnist: ”Circle II,” because the 25 or so guest artists on it theoretically should be able to gather lots of votes from across the industry. Single: Among Black`s ”A Better Man,” Crowell`s ”After All This Time,” Gosdin`s ”Chiseled In Stone,” Shelton`s ”I`ll Leave This World Loving You” and Whitley`s ”I`m No Stranger to the Rain,” it`s a crap shoot. Spouse: ”I`m No Stranger To The Rain.” Columnist: ”I`ll Leave This World Loving You.”
Entertainer: Here we go again. Perennially strong McEntire and Strait both command huge followings, Shelton is a red-hot newcomer to the category, and two-time winner Hank Williams Jr. is again being challenged by his principal opposition of the past two years, Randy Travis. Rules are made to be broken, but the usual rule in the CMA is that a newcomer to the category has to wait at least a year or two. If that`s the case in `89, the question seems to be whether Williams, one of the great entertainers of all time, can hang on one more year against Travis, a less-flamboyant performer but bigger record-seller who may well have been the field`s most influential performer of the mid and late `80s. Spouse: Travis. Columnist: Williams, because his likable manager (Merle Kilgore) is adept at using the clout his client/friend has been building up over two years as a surprisingly gracious winner.
There, scoffing detractors, are our bets, placed with fear, trembling and tears of deserved self-pity. Wake us when it`s over.
