Okay, here we have "The 56th Annual CMA Awards" or the long name would be "The 56th Annual Country Music Association Awards" and I must admit it is always a bit confusing because there are also "The Academy of Country Music Awards" and they are almost at the exact same edition count now in 2022, but yeah the abbreviation helps perhaps, so these are the CMA Awards and the number before that as well as the information that they are annual lets us know that these have taken place for over half a century already. Now that is quite something. By the way, it also confuses me of course because at these country awards show, you will not always find the exact same artists performing and being honored, but there is definitely no fluctuation on a level like with other music awards ceremonies. Actually, thinking of it, it is pretty good for country musicians that they can be successful until deep into their 50s or 60s or even longer and that is something that with other music genres really only the very top of the bunch manage and nobody else. Also that they are still featured during shows like this. Anyway, this event here ran for almost two hours and ten minutes and that makes it not a super long awards show, but still an above-average long one you could say. Of course, you also have to add commercials, so the original broadcast was maybe at least 2.5 hours long, maybe rather 2 hours and 45 minutes. If you look at the names who made, in the sense of wrote and directed, this, then you will find Carter, Flanigan and Macks and they have worked on previous CMA Awards editions too and also many, many other awards shows over the years. Definitely no rookies on board. For Bennett Webber this show here was maybe still something slightly new, but then again I see he also worked on a lot in many years before this one here, so also not new at all by general standards. One of these events would be the red carpet coverage at the Oscars. So from this perspective you can even put him above the rest or maybe not. Depends on how much of prestige you consider red-carpet content before the probably biggest awards show on the planet.

But now and today we wanna talk about this country industry event we have here: As I stated earlier, you will find so many familiar faces here that are part of this ceremony every single year. You can check out the list for yourself, but Lady A(ntebellum),Ballerini, Lambert and Stapleton come to mind. Luke Combs you can probably also include in this group now with how much he won this year. Still, here and there there are also new faces. Morgan Wallen would be one on the men's side or Lainey Wilson would be one on the woman's side and she really won big that very recent night in early November. We will see for how long she can be part of the industry. If she is there to stay or will disappear as quickly as she rose to fame. Admittedly, even if she won a newcomer trophy among other awards, it can be added that she has been making music for quite some time now and long before this event and 2022. Her duet with HARDY (not Tom) was also one of the best moments of the show for me, even if his murderous gesture at the end of the song was a bit too much. But at least it was the only song where I was really curious about hearing it again at some point in the future I would say. So I downloaded it. This means unfortunately also the other way around that in terms of the music played here, this was not the greatest CMA Awards show in existence. Not even close. I think previous ones offered more there. And I am not just talking about those that featured Taylor Swift many years ago before she went on to making pointless and highly forgettable pop music. I am talking about other editions from recent years. There is also the general problem with this show again that it is in theory an awards show, but there was simply too much music here and the awards element got kinda forgotten at times. With this I am also referring more to the first half of the show rather than the second half/hour where it was especially bad. I think they gave out one award in the first 30 minutes. Self-explanatory. I understand that Loretta Lynn deserves a tribute, but the way she got it at the very beginning of the show felt rushed and more on the unworthy side sadly. Nonetheless, the way the country industry honors its lost is still superior compared to how it is done at many other awards shows. May she rest in peace.

Speaking of Lynn, I found it nice to see that Rex Linn was also part of this show and he gave out an award with his significant other Reba McEntire, who is of course a real icon from the industry and I saw she is younger than I personally thought, probably because of how long she has been around already. Speaking of country music icons, Dolly Parton for once was not a mentionable inclusion from this show, but she has her own thing going on now anyway with how she promotes her new record with the help of subway tickets from what I read. That is another story and we go back to this event now. The host was Luke Bryan, another Luke, but not Combs and they also made a joke about this name similarity. Well, they also joked about how unpredictable he could be, but let me say it was all fairly harmless and he is not Ricky Gervais level. Sadly. Not the first time he hosted. The co-host was American Football icon Peyton Manning and I still wonder why. I mean he was not bad or so, but fairly forgettable nonetheless. One interesting moment was surely when somebody on stage made a very pro-America comment and of course if there is patriotism found at any awards show, then it is at a country awards show, but you could still feel in the crowd that many were applauding, but some were also reacting in a slightly awkward fashion. Is it okay to say you are proud to be American? Why not? Time to stop the shaming and guilt trips induced on Americans by the mainstream media. High time. And same is true for every other country by the way. Be proud of who you are and the good things your ancestors came up with! Early on, I talked about older musicians being part of this show and it is surely a factor with 50+, but still not too much with others that are much older. Willie Nelson is always nice to get mentioned and from my personal liking I would also love to see and hear more about Johnny Cash. But yeah the tributes were okay. This also included Naomi Judd, who died not too long ago and her daughter Wynonna was there and she was born when her mother was still really young, so sometimes people might have mistaken them for sisters. Jerry Lee Lewis died as well not too long ago and was featured as part of the show. Others that died just days before the show were at least mentioned by name.

Completely away from that, there was a moment when I wondered if I had really just seen most recent Best Actress Oscar winner Jessica Chastain in the crowd and turned out my eyes did not deceive me as she and Michael Shannon presented the biggest award of the night. I mean I really like Shannon and I am also okay with Chastain, but I still had no clue why they would pick these two. Perhaps there is a smaller connection to the country music industry they have, but the truth is that the two are Hollywood actors most of all and they were picked because people that are maybe not too close to the country industry will recognize them and maybe be attracted to the show through them when they hear they will be presenting an award and keep watching. I still think it is an extremely poor decision. I mean Chastain at least mentioned Lynn here, but if they really wanted an actress, then why not do all you can to get Sissy Spacek who won the Oscar for portraying Lynn or otherwise stay with some of the most successful country music artists of all time to hand out the biggest award of the night: Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton you name it. Maybe also pick a younger fella like Combs why not after his success that night. There are so many and better options than Chastain and Shannon. How about Jeff Bridges? Besides, speaking of him, I would also love to see people like Ryan Bingham or Sturgill Simpson as part of this show, so I think there are more names and options to include than the ones who are always there each year. I am not saying at all they are poor or so and they deserve their fame for the most part most of them I assume, but a little bit more variation also would not hurt, so it was also nice to see Lainey Wilson triumph. I mentioned her earlier as well.

This is pretty much it then. Oh yeah, with the fact that there was too much music here and not enough awards action or that the show should have been kept at 1.5 hours maybe with 30 minutes less music I was fairly close at times to decide this deserves the lowest rating of one star out of five, but in the end I decided to get a little more generous and double the amount. But this is already an amount where I am not sure if it is justified. One inclusion that made it easier for me to take this route was the lifetime achievement award (rightfully named after Willie Nelson) being handed to Alan Jackson and also that he received a tribute. But his acceptance speech seemed really heartfelt and humble to me and I am glad he got it. It seemed to have meant a lot to him, so I applaud this decision and also he seemed like a nice bloke to hang out with. Who cares that he is much older than I am!? Now that is all then. As a whole, I give this show a thumbs-down and I think it was not good enough for a positive recommendation. Maybe listen to some top-notch (also older) country music instead of watching this one here. I feel like it will be forgotten fast. Watch and listen to something else instead.