The ASCAP Country Music Awards show Monday night (Nov. 6) ran much too long, but it yielded some fascinating stories and vivid, emotion-drenched performances.
Held at Nashville’s Ryman auditorium, the event started at 5 p.m. with a cocktail party but dragged on past 9 o’clock, by which time the Ryman’s balcony was virtually empty, and the main floor was a patchwork of long-deserted seats.
The villains of the piece were rambling acceptance speeches, the intrusion of non-musical material and the mechanics of bringing to the stage for each winning song a swarm of songwriters and publishers who then had to pose for a group picture before returning to their seats.
None of these slowdowns was dramatically damaging in itself, but taken together they imparted a limping, unpredictable rhythm to the show.
The big winners of the evening were Ashley Gorley, who won his fifth songwriter of the year trophy; Old Dominion’s Matthew Ramsey, top artist-songwriter; “Somewhere on a Beach,” song of the year; and Warner Chappell, publisher of the year.
Ashley Gorley
Rick Diamond/Getty ImagesMatthew Ramsey
Rick Diamond/Getty ImagesWoven throughout the show were performances by the ASCAP-affiliated writers of the year’s top five songs. These included “May We All” (performed by Jamie Moore); “Wanna Be That Song” (Scooter Carusoe); “Lights Come On’ (Jimmy Robbins, Jordan Schmidt); “Snapback” (Brad Tursi, Matthew Ramsey, Trevor Rosen); and “Somewhere on a Beach” (Dave Kuncio, Josh Mirenda, with Dierks Bentley).
Jamie Moore
Rick Diamond/Getty ImagesDierks Bentley
Rick Diamond/Getty ImagesMatthew Ramsey and Brad Tursi
Rick Diamond/Getty ImagesThe most riveting parts of the evening were the tributes to Rodney Crowell, who was presented ASCAP’s Founders Award for his “pioneering contributions to music.” Among Crowell’s catalog of classic compositions are “Til I Gain Control Again,” “Shame On The Moon,” “Song For The Life,” “Voila, An American Dream,” “Ashes By Now,” “I Couldn’t Leave You If I Tried,” “I Ain’t Living Long Like This” and the Grammy-winning “After All This Time.” He has also distinguished himself as a record producer.
ASCAP’s president and board chairman, Paul Williams, himself an Oscar and Grammy winner, introduced the tribute segment by praising Crowell’s “profound insight into the human experience.”
Keith Urban spoke of his early awe of Crowell and of co-writing with him the song “You Won,” which appeared on Urban’s 2002 album, Golden Road.
Backed by his band, Urban turned “You Won” from a simple song of gratitude into an instrumental tour de force that had the audience rocking.
Vince Gill likened Crowell to a beloved older brother. He told of the fun they’d had together creating the video for their 2004 novelty co-write, “It’s Hard to Kiss the Lips at Night That Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long.”
Agreeing that they were both “sensitive guys” who couldn’t very well use real women to portray the repellent wives they sang about, they agreed to “dress up in drag and be each other’s bitches” for the video. “He looked like Betty Davis on crack cocaine,” Gill said, “and I looked like my granny.”
“We thought [the song] would make us bigger than Elvis,” Gill mused.
On a more serious note, Gill recalled meeting Crowell for the first time 41 years ago at the Troubadour club in West Hollywood when Gill opened a show for Guy Clark. Not knowing that Crowell was in the audience, Gill sang “Til I Gain Control Again.”
“Rodney came back to my dressing room,” Gill said, “and asked, ‘Who are you?’ I said, ‘I’m Vince,’ and he said, ‘We’re gonna be friends for life.’”
And so they have been.
Gill sang “Oklahoma Borderline,” his 1985 Top 10 hit that he co-wrote with Clark and Crowell, and then closed with an achingly forlorn rendering of “‘Til I Gain Control Again.” It won him a standing ovation.
Paul Williams, Vince Gill, Rodney Crowell, and Keith Urban
Rick Diamond/Getty ImagesSteuart Smith, who’s worked with Crowell as a guitarist and arranger since 1986, praised him for following his own artistic instincts instead of being led by the charts after his 1988 album, Diamonds & Dirt, produced five No. 1 singles. “He’s been an artist on fire [since then],” Smith said.
In accepting his award, Crowell recalled moving to Nashville in 1972 and supporting himself by playing happy hour at the Jolly Ox restaurant in Green Hills. He said his boss instructed him to sing only cover songs and warned that if he did any of his originals, he’d be fired.
Despite the warning, Crowell said, he sang his own “You Can’t Keep Me Here in Tennessee” when Jerry Reed’s manager, Harry Warner, was in the audience. True to his word, his boss fired him, but Reed not only signed him to his first publishing contract but also recorded the offending song.
Wrapping up his remarks, Crowell called the crowd’s attention to the suit he was wearing. “I’ve had this suit since 1982, and I’ve worn it three times,” he said. “Here’s the kicker: It’s the suit John Lennon was wearing in the opening scene of A Hard Day’s Night.” Crowell and his suit exited to great applause.
Rodney Crowell
Rick Diamond/Getty ImagesRising star Kelsea Ballerini was singled out for the Vanguard Award, a trophy conferred on ASCAP members whose musical impact “will help shape the future of American music.” After scoring three No. 1 singles from her first album, Ballerini has just released her second collection, titled Unapologetically.
Award-winning composer Hillary Lindsey introduced Ballerini. She said she is such a natural songwriter that she “can do it in her sleep without blinking.”
“Songwriting is the favorite part of what I do,” Ballerini said. Then, with Lindsey providing harmony, she sang “In Between,” the last song she wrote for the new album.
It sounded candidly autobiographical via such telling lyrics as, “I’m dumb enough to think I know it all/Smart enough to know I don’t/Young enough to think I’ll live forever/Old enough to know I won’t.”
Her performance netted a standing ovation.
Kelsea Ballerini
Rick Diamond/Getty ImagesThe other major institutional trophy — the Partners in Music Award — went to Varnell Enterprises, a concert promotion company that has worked with artists as diverse as Roy Acuff, Elvis Presley and Sonny & Cher — and which is currently promoting Garth Brooks’ world tour.
Super songwriter Jimmy Webb emerged near the end of the show to pay tribute to his late friend, Glen Campbell, by singing an extended and impassioned version of “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.”
Jimmy Webb
Rick Diamond/Getty Images
Edward Morris
This Article Was Originally Posted at www.CMT.com
