The ACM New Artist Show is always an event I make a point in attending each year that I've attended the awards. The show features performances by the nominated artists in the Top New Female, Top New Male, and Top New Duo/Group categories. This year, the performers included Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Julie Roberts, Billy Currington, Craig Morgan, Jason Aldean, and Little Big Town. For some reason, maybe scheduling problems, Sugarland and Big & Rich, while nominated in the Top New Duo/Group category, did not perform.
The concert took place on Monday, May 22nd at 6:30 pm in the MGM Grand Ballroom. Sue and I were credentialed for the show, and as such, we watched from the photo pit next to the page, snapping pics of all the performers, and staying out of the way of the roving video guy's dolly as he crossed back and forth to video the performances.
First performer of the night was Carrie Underwood. I was so excited to see her. I had seen her at the CMT Top 100 Duets taping the previous year at CMA Music Festival in Nashville, but had never seen her live, otherwise, and let me tell you, she is stunning in person, with a voice that is perfection. She sang "Before He Cheats," followed by "Jesus Take The Wheel." Wish she could have performed a third song, but with what I had believed to be nine artists performing in a three-hour time period, I understood that time was scarce for each performer.
Miranda Lambert kicked off her part of the show with "New Strings," followed by a cover of the Steve Earle song, "Hillbilly Highway," which I'd heard her perform while seeing her on the George Strait tour earlier this year. I had a meet and greet with her and asked about the song, and told her how much I enjoyed it, and she said it was being considered for her sophomore release. She followed that with "Kerosene," and I realized that maybe the artists had the option to do two or three songs, or maybe Carrie had another engagement and could only do two. Miranda rocked, as usual on "Kerosene," with her hot looking pink guitar.
In between the artists, comedian Dick Hardwick was the show's MC and he was really funny. Jason Aldean was the first male artist of the night, and he performed "Hicktown," his first No. 1 song, "Why," and a song he said will be his next single, "Amarillo Sky." Really enjoyed Jason. This was my first time seeing him.
In between some of the sets, they also auctioned off packages with the money going to the Music in Schools charity. During this break, they gave away a Caribbean Cruise with Keith Anderson, Jeff Bates, Memarie, Kevin Sharp and Chris Young. The package went for $7,000. They also mentioned later in the evening, they'd be auctioning off a chance to interview the country artists on TV with Storme Warren.
Our only group of the night, Little Big Town was next to perform. They were part of the Motorcycle Ride the previous day, and it was mentioned that there was 1100 bikes participating in the Ride. They started their set with "I'm Gone," then sang their current single, "Bring It On Home" and ended with the awesome "Boondocks." This was another first for me, as I'd always wanted to see them, but hadn't up until now. They are wonderful live. Also, their album, The Road To Here is outstanding. Go pick up a copy, if you haven't gotten it already.
Time for another auction, and this time it was for a Country in the Rockies package. This is where the stars go to Crested Butte, CO and ski, snowboard, and generally have a great time. It's an all-inclusive package, and the bidding was so fierce that they ended up giving two packages away, as two people bid $7,000 each.
Julie Roberts performed next. She had mentioned that she was a big Patsy Cline fan and she always wanted to do a song that sounded like something Patsy could have recorded. She wrote the song, "Smile," which will be on her upcoming album on June 27th, Men and Mascara, and she performed the song to open her part of the show. She followed that with the title track. This was the second year Julie had been nominated for Top New Female Vocalist. I saw her perform last year, and loved seeing her again.
Auction time again. This time they were auctioning off a package to any Kenny Chesney concert in the US, go back stage and get a Meet & Greet, plus 2 VIP ACM tickets for next year. Again, there was a bidding war, and I don't see that I wrote the total down, but I'm pretty sure it was something like $17,000 and there were TWO people willing to pay that, so they got two packages for this. Amazing!