Hot Music Beat

Here is the FULL list of 2009 CMA Winners.

ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR
Kenny Chesney
Brad Paisley
George Strait
Taylor Swift
Keith Urban

FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
Miranda Lambert
Martina McBride
Reba McEntire
Taylor Swift
Carrie Underwood

MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
Kenny Chesney
Brad Paisley
Darius Rucker
George Strait
Keith Urban

NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Randy Houser
Jamey Johnson
Jake Owen
Darius Rucker
Zac Brown Band

VOCAL GROUP OF THE YEAR
Eagles
Lady Antebellum
Little Big Town
Rascal Flatts
Zac Brown Band

VOCAL DUO OF THE YEAR
Big & Rich
Brooks & Dunn
Joey + Rory
Montgomery Gentry
Sugarland

SINGLE OF THE YEAR
(Award goes to Artist and Producer)
“Chicken Fried”
Zac Brown Band
Produced by Keith Stegall
Atlantic Records

“I Run To You”
Lady Antebellum
Produced by Victoria Shaw and Paul Worley
Capitol Records Nashville

“In Color”
Jamey Johnson
Produced by The Kent Hardly Playboys
Mercury Nashville

“People Are Crazy”
Billy Currington
Produced by Carson Chamberlain and Billy Currington
Mercury Nashville

“Then”
Brad Paisley
Produced by Frank Rogers and Chris DuBois
Arista Nashville

ALBUM OF THE YEAR
(Award goes to Artist and Producer)
American Saturday Night
Brad Paisley
Produced by Frank Rogers and Chris DuBois
Arista Nashville

Defying Gravity
Keith Urban
Produced by Dann Huff and Keith Urban
Capitol Records Nashville

Fearless
Taylor Swift
Produced by Nathan Chapman and Taylor Swift
Big Machine Records

Love On The Inside
Sugarland
Produced by Byron Gallimore, Kristian Bush, and Jennifer Nettles
Mercury Nashville

That Lonesome Song
Jamey Johnson
Produced by The Kent Hardly Playboys
Mercury Records

SONG OF THE YEAR
(Award goes to Songwriter(s))
“Chicken Fried”
Zac Brown/Wyatt Durrette

“I Told You So”
Randy Travis

“In Color”
Jamey Johnson/Lee Thomas Miller/James Otto

“People Are Crazy”
Bobby Braddock/Troy Jones

“Then”
Brad Paisley/Chris DuBois/Ashley Gorley

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

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

MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR
Eddie Bayers– Drums
Paul Franklin – Steel Guitar
Dann Huff – Guitar
Brent Mason – Guitar
Mac McAnally – Guitar

Garth Brooks has been retired from the music scene since 2000 but the country singer has recently signed on with the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas to perform at the Danny Gans Theater beginning next year. The country star is expected to perform for 16 weeks shortly after New Year’s. Garth also recently had press conferences in both Nashville and Vegas to announce further details. If for some reason you don’t know who this guy is, Garth has sold over 220 million albums worldwide since his first album back in 1989 and currently lives in Oklahoma with his fellow country singer wife Trisha Yearwood.

Taylor Swift recently debuted a brand new music video for her song ‘Fifteen’. The song is the fourth single from her 2008 album ‘Fearless’. The video features her real life best friend Abigail Anderson. The cutie pie country singer talked about the song and the video saying “‘Fifteen’ talks about how my best friend, Abigail, got her heart broken when we were in ninth grade and singing about that absolutely gets me every time.” It’s a great song and a cute video. I can’t expect anything less from Taylor. She’s just great. I honestly can’t find something that I don’t like about her.

If there was ever and award for nicest celebrity ever, Taylor Swift would easily take the top honors after the stunt she pulled outside her London hotel last Friday night. The 19-year old country singer treated all of her waiting fans to dinner by buying ten Domino’s pizza pies, several boxes of cookies and cartons of milk. Everything was delivered but the blonde cutie still took the time to hand some food out to all her waiting fans. I don’t think there’s any other star like Taylor who would do that. She’s epic I tell you. She just keeps giving you reasons to fall in love with her.

Carrie Underwood met and performed for the soldiers at the ‘Salute to the Troops’ concert at the Division Parade Field taking place in Fort Campbell, Kentucky last week. As part of the 2009 Week of the Eagles, the 26-year old American Idol alum was joined by fellow country singer Hank Williams Jr. The event-filled biannual celebration pays tribute to the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division who will soon be returning from their service in the Middle East. Welcome home guys! And thanks for protecting the country and the rest of the world from terror. You’ve made a lot of people proud.

Legendary country music duo Brooks & Dunn are said to be over and done. Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn have recently announced that it’s the time for them to leave the country music scene and that they will be calling it quits after a 2010 farewell tour. The duo said in a statement “After 20 years of making music and riding this trail together, we have agreed as a duo that it’s time to call it a day. This ride has been everything and more than we could ever have dreamed…. We owe it all to you, the fans. If you hear rumors, don’t believe them, it’s just time.” Brooks & Dunn are now preparing for their final tour, The Last Rodeo Tour, and the release of their greatest hits collection ‘#1… and Then Some’.

Tim McGraw kicked a fan out of his concert last week and he has finally come out to explain exactly what went down that made the country singer snap. Apparently, the concertgoer was being abusive towards the woman he was with. During Tim’s show in Paso Robles, California, the singer stopped his performance and absolutely refused to continue until the guy was removed from the premises, telling the crowd “You don’t treat a woman like that.” No one knew what the guy did at that time. They just knew that they wanted Tim to keep singing. This isn’t the first time that Tim laid down the law. A similar incident happened last year in Washington.

It is now official that Jessica Simpson will return to the world of reality TV. The failed country singer and actress will host the documentary series ‘The Price of Beauty’ which will follow the singer as she treks around the world in search of what people find beautiful and why. In a statement, Jessica said “I have always believed that beauty comes from within and confidence will always make a woman beautiful, but I know how much pressure some women put on themselves to look perfect. I am really looking forward to discovering how beauty is perceived in different cultures and participating in some of the crazy things people do to feel beautiful. I know we will all learn a lot on this journey and I am so excited that VH1 is coming along on what I’m sure will be a wild ride.” Will you watch her desperate attempt at a career?

It seems only yesterday that the world didn’t even know who Taylor Swift is but it’s obvious now that the country singing sweetheart has made it big and is doing so quickly. The blonde beauty is projected to move huge number for her new CD which came out last week. Numbers from her first day sales have the singer on track to sell about 600,000 copies of her new album. She may also be on track to beat the sales of her ex Joe Jonas and the other two Jonas Brothers’ most recent album ‘A Little Bit Longer’ which debuted to 525,402 copies sold in its first week.

Nobody or nothing can hold country superstar Kenny Chesney down – not even an injury. The singer received the go-ahead from his doctors on Monday to continue his ‘Poets & Pirates’ tour after injuring his foot during a concert in Columbia, South Carolina on Saturday night. I’m actually still in awe that he continued performing after suffering his injury at the beginning of that show. The docs say that Kenny could perform but that he needs to take it easy. Let’s hope that he cuts the whole lift out of his grand entrance. We can’t risk him injuring his other foot now, can we?

Tejano singer Emilio Navaira was critically injured after his band’s bus crashed in Houston, Texas. The Grammy award winning singer and his band Rio had performed at a Houston nightclub on Saturday night. Around 5 AM on Sunday, cops say that the band’s bus slammed into traffic barrels on Interstate 610 northbound in Bellaire, a ritzy area west of downtown Houston. Navaira is currently in critical condition at Memorial Hermann Hospital. His brother Raul, along with several other members of the band, were also injured in the wreck.

The 45-year old Navaira and his band Rio have released over a dozen albums with ‘Acuerdate’ winning the 2003 Grammy for best Tejano album.

Mindy McCready is going to start her new year on the right foot because she is a free woman. She definitely has a lot to be grateful for after the beleaguered country singer was sentenced to a year in jail for violating her probation. She’s been arrested about as many times as Foxy Brown!

Upon her release, the singer said she was looking forward to going home to see her son. She also said something about getting back to making music. She should do a duet with Kellie Pickler. That would be something to write about.

Happy New Year Mindy. I hope you make some positive changes in you life.

Travis Tritt is having some trouble with his record label and its president. He just filed suit against them alleging that the label was started with money Ray Termini siphoned from the nursing home company he also ran. The country crooner filed the suit in US District Court in Nashville this week, claiming that his career has suffered “irreparable damage” because of Category 5 Records’ “false, unfair and deceptive acts”. Tritt is seeking at least $10 million in damages.

Termini is the CEO of the now bankrupt Haven Healthcare which is being investigated the by State of Connecticut. So I guess Tritt’s suit may have some merit.

Australian country music star Keith Urban is on the cover of the upcoming issue of People magazine. In the interview that accompanies the cover, Keith admits that he “wouldn’t be here without [wife Nicole Kidman]. He apparently credits his music and Nicole for getting him through the roughest year of his life.

Keith also just turned 40 this past Friday. Wife Nicole threw a party at their favorite Bondi restaurant, Icebergs. A guest list of 45 family and friends included the likes of Hugh Jackman and his wife and director Bas Luhrmann.

This past Sunday also saw Keith dedicate his ARIA award to Nicole during his acceptance speech.

As its title suggests, this balls-to-the-wall album finds Kid Rock latching onto the verities of sex, drugs and rock & roll as a path to redemption — both his and the country’s. He’d never admit it, but hurt over losing Pamela Anderson fuels his appetite for salvation. She’s the target of the hilarious country romp “Half Your Age,” which proclaims Rock’s new girlfriend to be “half your age and twice as hot.”

Rock shows his wistful side, too. “All Summer Long” takes its inspiration from “Night Moves,” by Bob Seger (Kid’s Michigan idol), mashing up the piano lick from “Werewolves of London” with bits of “Sweet Home Alabama” for a story of sexual awakening. It’s stirring stuff. And “Amen” imports a gospel choir to denounce religious hypocrisy, racism and pointless soldiers’ deaths in Iraq. There’s straight country, hard-edged rock, big soul balladry and rhymes declaimed over metal guitar. Throughout, Kid Rock extends the Seger-Mellencamp tradition of heartland rock — its swagger as well as its vulnerability — into a new era.

Kid Rock is the first to admit that he’s “no saint” — his immortal couplet (from “So Hott”), “I don’t want to be your friend/ I want to fuck you like I’m never gonna see you again,” amply makes that point. But his good-hearted faith in rock & roll delivers a powerful kick. As he well knows — and Rock N Roll Jesus proves — roaring guitars, truckloads of attitude and an unquenchable lust for life make up for a multitude of sins.

It should still be the honeymoon phase for most couples but then again, when you’re a celebrity, you can’t be considered in the ‘most’ category.

A month after he got married to longtime girlfriend Heather Singleton, country singer Joe Nichols got checked into rehab. Nichols, best known for his hit song ‘Another Side of You’, entered a program to deal with unspecified substance abuse problems.

Nichols’ management released a statement via his website saying “As Joe has alluded to in interviews over the past year, he has struggled with the issue of substance abuse. In order to be a healthier person and deal with longstanding issues, he has entered into a rehabilitation program for consultation and treatment.”

The country band Lonestar announced last week that they have a new lead singer and are working on churning out a new Christmas album. Said album will be exclusively available at Cracker Barrel locations throughout the country. The band may want to rethink that deal.

Cracker Barrel has had a sordid history of homophobic and racist behavior. In 1991, the company imposed a policy which required employees to display “normal heterosexual values which have been the foundation of families in our society.” Said policy was eventually nullified 11 years later!

More recently, Reverend Al Sharpton accused the company of racial discrimination after several African American’s, which included Chris Rock’s mother, said that they weren’t served in a timely manner.

Lonestar + Cracker Barrel = Bad Idea.

Whether she’s gone under a tone of airbrushing or not, country darling Faith Hill is still quite a beautiful lady. The blonde bombshell looked radiant and fresh faced in New York this past weekend when she and husband Tim McGraw were spotted leaving their midtown Manhattan hotel.

While Faith was looking all kinds of radiant, Tim appeared to be red-faced, puffy, tired and overall just looking beastly. It’s a classic case of beauty and the beast.

Maybe Tim needs a few more hours of sleep. And he is most definitely the one in need of Photoshop not his lovely wife. Where are those airbrushes when you need them?

George Strait, who had his 55th No. 1 single this year and was recently inducted to the Country Music Hall of Fame, returned Thursday to the Country Music Association Awards with top nominations including entertainer and male vocalist of the year.

Strait and Brad Paisley led with five nominations each. Strait was also nominated for musical event of the year, for a performance with Jimmy Buffett and Alan Jackson; album of the year for “It Just Comes Natural”; and single of the year for “Wrapped,” his 55th career No. 1 single.

Paisley is nominated for entertainer, male vocalist, his album, “Fifth Gear,” best single for “Ticks,” and best music video with “Online.”

Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts and Keith Urban rounded out the entertainer of the year category.

Josh Turner joined Chesney, Paisley, Strait and Urban with nominations for male vocalist of the year.

Bluegrass star Alison Krauss was nominated for female vocalist of the year, along with Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride, Reba McEntire and “American Idol” winner Carrie Underwood.

The top nominations were announced on ABC’s “Good Morning America” by Sara Evans and Kristian Bush and Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland. The rest were announced in Nashville by duo Montgomery Gentry and 17-year-old Taylor Swift, who was nominated for the Horizon Award for new artists.

“They kind of tortured me a little bit at the end by not saying my name right away,” she said of Montgomery Gentry”s nail-biting introduction. “I kind of freaked out. I was excited. I started shaking.”

The CMA Awards are scheduled for Nov. 7 in Nashville.

If this is what comes from resting up, Amy Winehouse may have been better off remaining on the road. Just three days after calling off her U.S. tour and vowing to return to a countryside “retreat” to deal with her ongoing “health issues,” the “Rehab” chanteuse was photographed in London Thursday with bloody scrapes and cut marks all over her face and body. Holy cr**. This is weird and sick. Very very sick! Cutting is a sign of a horrific mental illness than goes far beyond substance abuse. Although someone who has a mental illness unrelated to substance abuse may attempt to use drugs and alcohol to mask it. See Britney Spears. She needs to be checked for manic depression, bipolar disorder, or some other chemical imbalance of the brain. This what too much of success does to people, it’s like a horrific virus once it hits you, you are finished and slowly all of these maniacs get lost in world that’s eating them up on their own will. Until yes you fight back that eject that virus out and that’s exactly what Amy should be aiming to do.