Some of the more intriguing names nominated for this year’s Country Music Association awards aren’t exactly household ones.
Oh sure, George Strait, Garth Brooks and Vince Gill are still around, but also elbowing their way into Nashville’s clubby elite are rising performers ranging from the Dixie Chicks to resurging longtime mid-level star Steve Wariner to Tim McGraw, one of country’s top tour draws.
All of these latecomers may not win, but they promise to add to the tension as well as some of the musical highlights of the annual awards presentations, which are scheduled Wednesday on CBS-TV from Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry House.
Categories, nominees and thoughts on whom the CMA’s 6,100 voters may anoint:
Musician: Drummer Eddie Bayers, steel guitarist Paul Franklin, guitarist Brent Mason, keyboardist Matt Rollings and guitarist Brent Rowan are all world-class studio players, but Mason, riding the release of a solo instrumental album, won last year and possibly established dominance. Suspicion: Mason.
Music video: Nominated are “A Broken Wing,” Martina McBride, directed by Deaton Flanigen; “Bye Bye,” Jo Dee Messina, Jon Small; “Carrying Your Love With Me,” George Strait, Christopher Cain; “Did I Shave My Legs For This?,” Deana Carter, Roger Pistole; and “This Kiss,” Faith Hill, Steven Goldmann. The most involved production is “Did I Shave My Legs,” in which both Carter and her background are hugely comical. The most affecting song is “A Broken Wing,” while the hottest performer (aside from the perennially hot Strait) is possibly Hill, whose video is fantasy, whereas McBride’s is reality and Carter’s is surreal. Suspicion: Carter, barely, over McBride if video quality outweighs popularity.
Vocal event: Nominees are Anita Cochran with Wariner, “What If I Said”; Reba McEntire and Brooks & Dunn, “If You See Him/If You See Her”; Faith Hill with McGraw, “Just To Hear You Say You Love Me”; Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, “In Another’s Eyes”; and Patty Loveless with George Jones for “You Don’t Seem To Miss Me.” McEntire and Brooks & Dunn unite two of Music Row’s strongest careers with two of its strongest record companies. Hill and McGraw are beginning to challenge McEntire and Brooks & Dunn in star power and have the advantage of being still on the rise. Wariner is beloved but presently under contract to Capitol Records, whose boss, Pat Quigley, has become country music’s most controversial executive because of iconoclastic radio marketing philosophies. 1997 Entertainer of the Year Garth Brooks, paired with ’97 Female Vocalist Trisha Yearwood, has more fans than anybody, but in the industry he is widely credited with putting Quigley in the Capitol position. Loveless is well-liked on the Row, but her pairing with Jones, who gets little radio play anymore, may not bode well. Suspicion: McEntire and Brooks & Dunn.
Horizon (for dramatic career development): Trace Adkins is the biggest long-term success. The Dixie Chicks are currently the hottest but also the shortest-term occupants of the scene. Jo Dee Messina has rebounded after initial success and then a lull. Michael Peterson has turned heads with both his singing and his songwriting. Lee Ann Womack has strongly endeared herself with a traditional direction wedded to a contemporary aura. Suspicion: Womack.
Vocal duo: Brooks & Dunn tower over the Bellamy Brothers, The Kinleys, The Lynns and Thrasher Shiver. Certainty: Brooks & Dunn.
Vocal group: Alabama is seen as too big and too historic to need another award, Diamond Rio is the present titleholder, the Dixie Chicks are brand-new and red-hot, The Mavericks are having radio trouble, and Sawyer Brown is a perennial also-ran. Suspicion: The Chicks.
Single: Martina McBride’s movingly feminine “A Broken Wing” is more subtle but still remindful of her winning “Independence Day” of a few years ago. Wariner’s emotional “Holes in the Floor of Heaven” capitalized on his resurging public momentum. “I Just Want To Dance With You” is one of five nominations copped by current country’s traditional godfather, Strait. Faith Hill’s “This Kiss” has been on the hit charts for half a year. Patty Loveless’ “You Don’t Seem To Miss Me” with George Jones will be another favorite of traditional fans. Suspicion: “A Broken Wing,” although Hill and Wariner both look strong.
Song: This award to songwriters pits “A Broken Wing” by James House, Sam Hogin and Phil Barnhardt; “Holes in the Floor of Heaven” by Billy Kirsch and Wariner; “How Do I Live” by Dianne Warren; “I Just Want To Dance With You” by Roger Cook and legendary folk singer-songwriter John Prine; and “It’s Your Love” by Stephony Smith. Likely frontrunners seem to be “Wing” “Holes” and “Dance” since they also are nominated in the previous category, with the first two seeming most potent because of their similar emotional punch. Suspicion: “Holes” in a close one.
Album: Here a couple of commercial CDs by envied artists — “Come On Over” by Shania Twain and “Sevens” by Garth Brooks — at least get the recognition of nomination, although peer jealousy may keep either from winning. Also in the category are Tim McGraw’s meaty and very popular “Everywhere,” Patty Loveless’s critically acclaimed and deeply serious “Long Stretch Of Lonesome,” and Strait’s top-of-the-line “One Step At A Time.” Suspicion: “Everywhere.”
Male vocalist: Nominated are Garth Brooks, Vince Gill, McGraw, Collin Raye and Strait. With Raye sporting this lone nomination, he looks like a long shot. Gill used to own this category, but lost it last year to a rebounding Strait. Between Strait and McGraw, Strait possibly is seen as a more adept vocalist than McGraw. Strait also has the classic nostalgia thing going. Suspicion: Strait.
Female vocalist: Among Faith Hill, Patty Loveless, Martina McBride, Lee Ann Womack and Trisha Yearwood, Loveless has won before, Yearwood won in ’97, and Hill, McBride and Womack are strong contenders. Womack, as a comparative newcomer, may not have the depth of support that Yearwood, Hill and McBride do, and of those three, if the extraordinarily virtuosic Yearwood doesn’t claim the crown for another year, Hill and McBride both look strong. Suspicion: Hill.
Entertainer: Among Brooks & Dunn, ’97 winner Garth Brooks, Vince Gill, McGraw and Strait, the battle may be between the latter two. ’96 winner Brooks & Dunn was supplanted last year by Brooks on the strength of his New York Central Park show. Brooks and Strait have had the year’s biggest touring shows, and McGraw has been almost a co-headliner on Strait’s. Suspicion: Strait.
