Over the next few days, Roughstock will be previewing the CMA Awards telecast with some predictions for the major categories.  Today we look over the Music Video of the Year and Music Event of the Year Categories and offer our thoughts on how they stack up.

MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR

(Award goes to Artist and Director)

“Boots On”

Randy Houser

Directed by Eric Welch

“Love Story”

Taylor Swift

Directed by Trey Fanjoy

“People Are Crazy”

Billy Currington

Directed by The Brads

“Start A Band”

Brad Paisley (duet with Keith Urban)

Directed by Jim Shea

“Troubadour”

George Strait

Directed by Trey Fanjoy

This year’s Music Video of the Year category features some interesting videos with Taylor Swift’s Trey Fanjoy directed “Love Story” and Randy Houser’s “Boots On” video, which features a cute 4 year old lipsyncing and dancing to the song and was directed by Eric Welch,  feeling like the front runners.  While “Troubadour” is an interesting song (and the video was also directed by Trey Fanjoy), the same can be said for Billy Currington’s “People Are Crazy,” and “Start A Band,” Brad Paisley’s duet with Keith Urban.   

In the end, it’s hard to see where Randy Houser or Taylor Swift won’t walk home with this award, unless the CMA rewards Strait or Paisley because of their past history of success at the award showcase.  In reality, “Start A Band” is one of the least creative videos Paisley’s produced recently and “Troubadour” is really only nominated because it’s a rare video from George Strait.  I’m going to go with my gut here and call “Boots On” as the winner. 

MUSICAL EVENT OF THE YEAR

(Award goes to each Artist)

“Cowgirls Don’t Cry”

Brooks & Dunn featuring Reba McEntire

Arista Nashville

“Down The Road”

Kenny Chesney (with Mac McAnally)

Blue Chair Records, LLC & BNA Records

“Everything But Quits”

Lee Ann Womack (duet with George Strait)

MCA Nashville

“I Told You So”

Carrie Underwood featuring Randy Travis

19 Recordings/Arista Nashville

 “Old Enough”

The Raconteurs featuring Ricky Skaggs and Ashley Monroe

Third Man Records/Warner Bros. Records

“Start A Band”

Brad Paisley (duet with Keith Urban)

Arista Nashville

When the CMA Award nominations were announced, it seemed odd to many that one of the year’s most successful Musical Events wasn’t in the final nominee list.  The very next day the CMA announced that they’d errantly excluded Paisley and Urban’s “Start A Band” from the final list of nominees and rather than cut one of the other five nominees, they simply added the song from Paisley’s guitar album Play to the list.  The category actually is packed with stars this year in virtually every nominated song.  In fact, the only song that doesn’t really seem to fit this list is The Raconteur’s “Old Enough” with Ricky Skaggs and Ashley Monroe.  While released as a single, it didn’t score all that well with radio stations but it is still nice to see an ‘alt-country’ song find its way into this mainstream country music showcase. 

While a very good duet, I don’t see how “Everything But Quits,” an album track from Lee Ann Womack’s Call Me Crazy album will wind up winning this award.  I forsee this award going to Kenny Chesney and Mac McAnally for “Down The Road,” Underwood and Travis for “I Told You So” or Brooks & Dunn with Reba for “Cowgirls Don’t Cry.”  My reasoning for these choices is quite simple: Each duet was a successful hit song.  In the case of the Brooks & Dunn and Reba duet, I can see the CMA voters giving the award to B&D as they ‘retire’ in 2010 while also acknowledging Reba’s revival within the country music industry due to her successful new album.  The Underwood/Travis duet really could score with the CMA voters due to it already being an award-winning song when Travis recorded it over 20 years ago while “Down The Road” has a similar story of being recorded by the songwriter years before Chesney recruited Mac McAnally to deliver this simple and poetic single to the masses.  In the end I think the CMA voters will give the award to “Down The Road.” 

What are your thoughts about our predictions? Do you agree?  Feel free to leave your own predictions in our comment section below.

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Check out part three of the series by clicking here.

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Check out part five of the series by clicking here.