The Best Awards Show You’ll Never See

Happily, Wednesday night’s (8/22) 2018 edition of “ACM Honors,” which celebrates Academy Of Country Music categories not recognized during the annual April awards extravaganza televised by CBS-TV, falls under the category of “you had to be there.”

Held at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium – its total capacity of 2,362 dwarfed by the home of April’s performance-centric ACM Awards at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena’s, with its cavernous 17,157 seating availability – the ACM Honors is a ceremony better served by an intimate, partisan crowd and the warm, cozy feels of the Ryman.

The Academy televised ACM Honors on CBS-TV last year, and in 2016, garnering respectable TV numbers. Last year’s Friday, September 15th telecast won the 9p hour, earning a 0.6 rating and 3.0 share among TV’s coveted 18-49 audience while drawing 4.66 million viewers; numbers were similar for 2016’s performance. I don’t know why CBS-TV and the ACM decided not to continue ACM Honors as a complimentary telecast to the April ACMs in Vegas, but I’m glad they did. As a TV special, Honors was a well-paced show, albeit a slower one, compared to the often frenzied, TV-moment-seeking, mother-of-all awards shows, the ACMs telecast.

By contrast, ACM Honors is a show best consumed slowly and appreciated along the way, with a pleasant aftertaste that occurs to you later. Put another way, the April ACMs in Vegas are a beer-chugging contest; ACM Honors is a wine-tasting experience – a quieter, more cerebral affair meant to be savored.

That’s not to say Wednesday night’s (8/22) ACM Honors was without some rough edges, but in the context of the evening, it all worked wonderfully. Co-host Jon Pardi had trouble with the teleprompter during presenter and artist intros, once turning “guitarist” into “Guitar-wrist,” which only served to endear him more to the audience. Impossible to dislike, Pardi was perfectly imperfect, often comically saved by a totally delightful Lauren Alaina as co-host, whose genuine, bubbly, unscripted reactions to Pardi’s stumbles made her the perfect straight-woman who effortlessly saved Pardi from himself all night.

You’d never see that kind of interplay on the ACM telecast, with its scripted lines, pre-fab jokes, and often-forced spontaneity. In fact, I think Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley got fired from ACM-hosting chores for that kind of thing.

You’d never see Brian O’Connell, of Live Nation – or, any concert promoter, for that matter – accepting an eighth consecutive Promoter Of The Year trophy on the televised ACMs. And, you’d for sure never hear him say, during a shout-out to everyone else (except the artist) involved in giant, live concert event, “This is for all the [crew] people who wake up on site at 8 in the morning with no place to take a shit!” O’Connell may or may not have unleashed an equally well-received F-bomb preceding that declaration.

You’d never see Joe Diffie, in a tribute to legendary songwriter and one of the evening’s Poets Award recipients, Norro Wilson, invited to perform “The Grand Tour,” written by Wilson and first made famous by George Jones in 1974. In fact, Diffie, Wilson, Jones and “The Grand Tour” would never be on the radar for the April ACMs – period.

You’d never see Cam absolutely slaying a cover of Buck Owens’ “Cryin’ Time Again” in tribute to Mae Boren Axton Service Award winners Eddie Miller and Mickey and Chris Christensen. Because, if it’s not a current, chart topping, or chart-climbing shiny object of a song, ain’t nobody watching TV got time for a true Country classic. Also, who had ever heard of Eddie, Mickey, and Chris before last night?

You’d never hear Songwriter Of The Year Rhett Akins share an amazing, full-circle story about the time he visited Nashville in 1991 and – “as a tourist,” he explained – took the Ryman tour, stood onstage in total awe, and had his picture taken behind the WSM microphone. “And, not on a cellphone camera,” added Akins. “It was a disposable Kodak camera, and it took three weeks before I saw the photo developed.”

Akins recalled walking out of the Ryman and across the street to a local honky tonk in the middle of the afternoon. Inside, he realized there were only two people present: the guy onstage playing guitar and singing, and Akins himself. This was before Rhett Akins was Rhett Akins, the songwriter; before, in fact, he was Rhett Akins the promising artist – which was before he was the Rhett Akins who has won 29 BMI Awards, was twice honored for BMI Song Of The Year and ASCAP Song Of The Year, has earned five Triple Play Awards, and penned close to 30 #1 singles. That day, he was simply Rhett Akins from Valdosta, GA.

Akins said he approached the singer, introduced himself, and remembered getting friendly encouragement in return. The singer gave him his name and phone number, offering help if Akins did move to Nashville to pursue a dream. “That guy’s name was Kenny Chesney,” Akins revealed, pointing out that Chesney will play a sold-out Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA this weekend. And, while not on the bill for this stadium show, Akins mentioned that for most of Chesney’s “Trip Around The Sun 2018 Tour,” Akins’ son – Thomas Rhett – has been playing with Chesney.

Nope. You’d never hear that story on the April ACMs, because Songwriter Of The Year winners and stories like that would eat into valuable performance time, and even if he shortened his version, he’d have been played out by canned music somewhere around the part about a Kodak camera.

On the televised ACMs, you wouldn’t hear Old Crow Medicine Show play their version of “Wagon Wheel” before Darius Rucker accepted the Gary Haber Lifting Lives Award, or an impassioned, personalized presentation by SiriusXM’s Storme Warren for the Jim Reeves International Award to the family of the late Rob Potts, who championed Country music in Australia – and Aussie artists Keith Urban and Morgan Evans to American audiences.

Last, but not least – well, actually, first AND last – you’d never see the career of Cliffie Stone Icon Award recipient Alan Jackson honored at the beginning AND conclusion of the televised ACMs. Pardi and Alaina began the evening by collaborating on a cover of “Chasin' That Neon Rainbow,” while Chris Stapleton closed out the ACM Honors with “Here In The Real World.” No way the ACMs would turn into a Jackson-centric show, as he’s no longer seen as one of the shiny objects our format has to offer. Instead, he’s become something better: a national treasure, whose body of work sounds better and becomes more appreciated as the years go by.

The only disappointment, as far as the Jackson presentation was concerned, is that Jackson was not on-hand to accept the Cliffie Stone Award. Jackson’s eldest daughter, Mattie, accepted on his behalf, mentioning that he’d been fighting an upper respiratory issue. But, Jackson is so humble and such a historically non-heat-seeking artist, you kind of imagined he was happier being sick than seeing himself put on a pedestal.

You wouldn’t see any of the above at the big Las Vegas ACM show. ACM Honors is an industry recognition ecosystem all its own. It is a better show as a non-televised event; the best awards show you’ll never see on TV – and shouldn’t. It’s almost too good for TV. Two-and-a-half hours of rich, unique, non-perfect, personal moments that should only be shared by 2,362 mostly industry peeps at the Ryman.

You may think I’ve thrown some jabs at the big-boy-pants ACM show. I don’t mean them in that way. As I wrote in April, the televised ACMs in Las Vegas celebrating Country music’s shiny objects is entertaining, fast-paced, fun, and shows off how badass, glitzy, and talented we are on a national stage. ACM Honors is everything happening beneath the waterline – usually unseen – that demonstrates the depth of our format, rightly honoring the greatest community of musicians, songwriters, and other sometimes-anonymous contributors who are equally passionate about this music and the biz, but who don’t seek or receive the bright spotlight that often.

The show is another side of the ACM’s personality; the more reserved, dare I say, erudite part that may take a little more patience and commitment to know, but once acquainted, you’ll treasure even more. That's why, I repeat: to fully understand and appreciate the 2018 ACM Honors, you had to be there. But, in 2019, you should really plan to be there.