Celebrating With Broken Hearts

It is CMA week a time for celebrating another year of great Music Row success. But as I write this, the heartbreak of another Country music mass shooting.

Flashbacks of Las Vegas has to go through all the Country music family who lived through that awful night and morning.

This time it was a Country music bar in Thousand Oaks, California. One hundred or so enjoying a "student night" themed party when smoke grenades tore through the dance floor and the sound of gunfire bounced off the walls. A dozen dead and others hurt. The gunman, a troubled veteran, dressed like the villain in a horror movie.

Only this horror was real.

You would think the CMA show will at some point remember the fallen from this tragedy. You run out of words at some point ... Such a helpless feeling to think about those innocents just out for a night of Country music-based fun. A nightmare!

Did you see where The L.A Times reported some of those at the bar were also at Route 91, surviving that disaster?

The Country music community will gather in the coming days for all the PRO parties and the CMA show. You know security is going to be high. Those still dealing with the Vegas aftermath surely must be troubled even more than we all are today.

SEASAC, ASCAP, BMI then the CMA show. Four nights out for some as the songwriters get their due. The artists get their new songs or albums out for display. The red carpets will be absent of the biggest stars who might give one quick peak for the national cameras but let the baby acts work the media.

It is Nashville's most glamorous night of the year. A cold snap (20s) will begin the week. Rain is not expected to mess up things for Wednesday show night, but you never know.

Will Chris Stapleton win the Album award two years in a row? Who gets the prize for Entertainer of the Year? Is it about box office results or critical love? Those questions and many more will all be answered Wednesday night, November 14th.

The baby acts will be out in force and there are many. Luke Combs and Jimmie Allen were rolling the four weeks leading into award show week. There has been a changing of the generational guard at the labels. How will TV reflect that change ... to be seen.

Congratulations to Vince Gill, John Prine, Dean Dillon, Tom T. Hall all getting National Songwriter Hall of Fame nominations. Big competition but all worthy of the honor.

Jamboree in the Hills is going on hiatus ... Live Nation owns the show and Country music legends in the hills of Ohio and West Virginia. The future is unknown. One of the first Country super-shows ... Many folks watching this closely.

The notification alarm keeps going off with more details on this Country nightclub shooting. Hard to even read the updates.