Tyler, Brian...Meet Chris
We are smack dab in the middle of tradition season. I happen to have a little personal tradition of my own that ties into our Share Your Buzz theme. You see, fall and winter beers are my favorite. When it starts to cool off and the season goes from autumn to full fledged winter I have a transition ceremony. I drink my last fall lager, out of a specially designated glass-of course, then I pour the first winter lager of the year. It’s a veritable “changing of the guard”.
If I may be so bold to beg your indulgence. I believe that’s what we witnessed at the 2015 CMA Awards when Chris Stapleton irrevocably demanded the stage alongside the most soulful white dude there is, Justin Timberlake. I make use of the beer analogy because following Chris and Justin we saw Florida Georgia Line.
Despite the fact that their new single, “Confession”, is relatively pretty good, attempting to elicit emotion after the deluge of talent put forth by Chris was the the definition of exercise in futility. Are we seeing the guard being changed to a more traditional country style?
One thing Share Your Buzz will never do is put down someone else’s art. Furthermore, I will always give F/G Line the credit they deserve for what they have accomplished in country music. Face it, they did change country radio. Notwithstanding, the amount of recognition afforded to more traditional acts likes Chris Stapleton, Miranda Lambert, and Eric Church as of late breathes new hope in what’s left of a scant country music.
Mr. Stapleton walked away with New Artist Of The Year, Male Vocalist Of The Year, and Album Of The Year. Respectively, F/G Line did take home Vocal Duo Of The Year. Which is nothing to be scoffed at in its own right.
The RollingStone article that provoked this thought took to mention the vocal duo’s outfits. I’ll leave that alone. Let’s face it, Chris’ attire wasn’t exactly puttin’ on the ritz either.
All in all, it was a damn fine CMA Awards 2015. A lot of great new artists received recognition and we saw that some of the older acts we love are still out there making music. It was kind of like seeing three generations in one show. That’s one hell of a family tradition.