Picking One Child Over Another

It’s always a huge problem, but a great problem to have: multiple label signees nominated for the same trophy. The Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards nominations are out, and Luke Bryan is against Eric Church and Carrie Underwood in the Entertainer of the Year category. All are with Universal.

You have to pick, and divide up your label voting block. It’s hard.

In the Album of the Year category it’s Sony’s Luke Combs against label-mates Maren Morris and Miranda Lambert. Hard to focus with three worthy candidates. Ditto in the male artist category with Universal’s Dierks Bentley, Chris Stapleton and Keith Urban. It’s an issue that is one of the hardest to deal with all year -- several of your children going for the same part in the school play.

Winning is great, but getting nominated is great too. That gets you in the conversation. Jon Pardi up for Album of the Year is huge for him. The Highwomen getting a group nomination is a big deal too. The nominations mean for all baby acts a windfall of publicity and recognition. A flurry of press releases are in production as I write this.

Not sure if Urban would have been great 10 years ago as host, but for 2020? He is ready. Still kind of shy, but confident now to do anything on stage. In fact, he’s done everything on stage! Excellent choice. Good for the female viewer demo too.

The ACMs have a lot of categories of awards, including audio engineer and outdoor venue. They’re so big they have to have two award shows, the main one in Vegas and the other -- ACM Honors -- in Nashville later in the year.

It is quite obvious that the new guard is in full award show control now. Only Blake Shelton, Urban, Brooks & Dunn, and Billy Ray Cyrus are holdovers among this year’s nominees. Past winners like Reba McEntire, George Strait, Alan Jackson, Vince Gill, Brad Paisley, Toby Keith, Barbara Mandrell, Taylor Swift, Garth Brooks, Tim McGraw, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and on and on are unlisted among the current nominations. That’s the way of the 2020 Country world

The two-ton gorilla in the room casting a huge shadow over everything is the Coronavirus. The flu is one thing, but this new bug is another. Did you see where the Prime Minister of Japan will close all schools in that country for the month of March to help control the virus’ spread?

The stock market has been sick all week with many Music City stocks down 5% or more. Hotels, resorts, ticket sellers, and concerts all have potential for closure if the worst case happens. Much is still not known, and politics in an election year are mixed into everything.

The only place to get straight talk is CDC.gov. Wash your hands! Have a plan B.