THE 2012 CMT AWARDS: A LOOK BACK AND HOPEFULLY FORWARD

In a world full of awards shows for everything, tonight was a subtle reminder that the best awards shows keep it simple and to the point, keep it about the music and those who make it and the CMT Awards did just that. There was no crappy, cheesy, boring filler. There were no over the top theatrics, no pyrotechnics, no bad jokes, there was simply music and awards for those who bring the best to us every day. The one complaint I do have with the show itself (and several on Twitter seemed to have as well) is the fact that in such a huge industry and genre such as country music that most of the award presenters had nothing to do with music at all. Presenters included Denise Richards, best known for being Charlie Sheen's ex wife and for her lesbian scene with Neve Campbell in "Wild Things", Dario Franchetti who is an Indianapolis 500 driver, winner and husband of Ashley Judd, Dax Shepard (fiancee of awards host, Kristen Bell) and previous winner on American Idol, Jordin Sparks, who is a pop singer. Country is a large enough genre that there should have been plenty of artists to fill those roles which would have kept it a little more respectful in my opinion. An artist receiving recognition for their hard work in a particular genre of music shouldn't be awarded that "prize" by someone who knows really nothing about it. That's just my opinion and it might not agree with yours and that's ok. That being said, the show itself was fantastic other than that.

List of the 2012 CMT Award Winners

Video of the Year - Carrie Underwood, “Good Girl”

Male Video of the Year - Luke Bryan, “I Don’t Want This Night to End”

Female Video of the Year: Miranda Lambert, “Over You”

Duo Video of the Year: Thompson Square, “I Got You”

Group Video of the Year: Lady Antebellum, “We Owned the Night”

Breakthrough Video of the Year: Scotty McCreery, “The Trouble with Girls”

Collaborative Video of the Year: Brad Paisley with Carrie Underwood, “Remind Me.”

CMT Performance of the Year: Jason Aldean, “Tattoos on This Town”

Now, here are our picks for the highlights of the night:

Rascal Flatts and Journey: the best way to close an award show ever! Arnel Pineda is a dead ringer vocally for Steve Perry and his vocals blended very well with RF. Best part of the night for me, quiet, music and me.

Luke Bryan's performance of "Drunk on You": Very energetic, he owned his audience and made it a little more special for one admiring female by handing her his guitar. Good move, Luke!

Speaking of Luke Bryan, where did he get those camouflage drawers? Redneck's Secret? Now there's a store for ya! Can you imagine? Heck, if Luke gets his "delicates" there, I'm all for it!'

I wanna know how Kristen Bell wound up in my seat between Luke and Jake Owen? LOL!

Little Big Town performing their brand new summer hit, "Pontoon". This one is already out there on the radio, musically hosting pontoon parties everywhere. They also win for coolest props and set of the night.

Jason Aldean's jeans.... I vote them Entertainer of the Year! How did your "boys" breathe in those things?

Shauna from Thompson Square's "double sided duct tape" dress. Pretty but shapeless and the breasteses were held in place by obvious double stick tape.

Boo Hiss! - Montgomery Gentry lost Duo of the Year to Thompson Square. Yay for TS, but come on, it's Eddie and Troy for God's sake. 

Not ONE single Mermaid looking dress on the red carpet.

Toby Keith's performance of "Beers Ago": Loved it. Unlike the last awards show, Toby didn't appear to be drinking. Don't know if it's because he was hosting the show, but it made for a much better performance. The crowd loved it and so did we.

Eric Church's outdoor performance of "Drink in my Hand". Good God y'all, how is his guy so underrated? EXCELLENT SHOW!

Hank Jr and Brad Paisley: Performance at Bridgestone Arena Plaza. - Hell, it's Hank and Brad, I think that says all it needs to.

Zac Brown Band's premiere of their new single, "The Wind". Loved it. 

Willie Nelson, Toby Keith, Jamey Johnson, Darius Rucker and Zac Brown performance of "Roll Me Up". When CMT announced Willie would be lighting up the stage with stars, I bet more than one person said to themselves, "yeah, he's lighting it up alright". The show was great. How can you not beat an allstar ode to one of Willie's greatest and most commonly known past times, lighting up a fat one and smoking it on your bus until the Duplin County, NC sherriff shuts down your show ... uh, I mean a personal ode to "kicking country grass"? Performance well done!

Carrie Underwood's win for "Good Girl" as Video of the Year ... no, not the win itself, I don't think it should be up for "OF THE YEAR" when it was only released 3 months ago and there are 9 months left in the year, but that's beside the point. The highlight was when she handed her husband, big and burly hockey player, Mike Fisher, her girly sparkly purse to hold while she accepted her award. He had the "Oh great, really?" look on his face. Instead of giving her a good deep wet kiss like other award winning artist spouses do, he simply gave her the manly "shoulder to shoulder obligatory man bump" like a man gives his best friend when he scores with the girl next door. Nice one. LOL!

No Taylor Swift  appearance or wins ... not being mean spirited but it was nice to see other artists get their time in the spotlight instead of being overshadowed each time Taylor wins an award. Let someone else enjoy the sunshine.

Miranda Lambert's win for Female Video of the Year for "Over You". This video was based on song that came from personal experience, heartache and tragedy. This is the type of songs I like to see win.

Scotty McCreery's win for Breakthrough Video of the Year for "The Trouble with Girls": Being that I am from Garner, NC, which is where Scotty's originally from and his family still lives, I gotta just say thank you for showcasing the school we both called home for 10-12th grades, Garner High (Garner Senior High back in my day). It was kinda cool to see my old locker in the 100 hall as part of the background scenery. Man did that bring back some memories.

Pistol Annies - What can I say? It's the freakin' Pistol Annies, the sexiest, most bad ass women God ever put on this planet. Now THIS is country, y'all.

The Band Perry performing "Postcard from Paris" - Loved it, love Kimberly, She is the epitome of natural beauty, brains and brawn. The brothers Pilgrim need hair cuts though.