It’s been another great year in country music…and as we get ready for 2009, we’re looking back at some of the highlights of 2008.
IN MAY…
• Carrie Underwood joined a list of elite artists when she officially became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Sara Evans appeared on the CMT show, Crossroads, with the band, Maroon 5. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Brooks & Dunn kicked off their Cowboy Town tour.
• Brad Paisley hit number-one with “I’m Still a Guy,” from his 5th Gear CD. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Gretchen Wilson fulfilled a promise she made to herself and earned her G-E-D. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Country music legend Eddy Arnold passed away at the age of 89 (one week shy of his 90th birthday). (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• At the ACM Awards in Las Vegas, Kenny Chesney wins his fourth Entertainer of the Year award.
• At the ACM Awards in Las Vegas, Brad Paisley wins Top Male Vocalist.
• At the ACM Awards in Las Vegas, Carrie Underwood wins Top Female Vocalist.
• At the ACM Awards in Las Vegas, Brooks & Dunn win Top Vocal Duo.
• At the ACM Awards in Las Vegas, Miranda Lambert wins Album of the Year for her sophomore effort, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• At the ACM Awards in Las Vegas, Brad Paisley wins Video of the Year for “Online.”
008 HIGHLIGHTS: May" width="16" height="14" /> Carrie Underwood remembers her first awareness of the Grand Ole Opry -– as a youngster at her grandparents’ home. (:23)
“I think even before I knew what it was, I liked it…you know? It was one of those things -– I’d go to their house, and I was probably too young for it to register what was going on on the Grand Ole Opry, but I knew I liked it. So, as I got older, just realizing how important it was to country music and the amount of respect that everybody has for it -– it was like, ‘This must be something very special.’”
008 HIGHLIGHTS: May" width="16" height="14" /> Sara Evans talks about her Crossroads experience with Maroon 5. (:30)
“I’ve been so excited to do Crossroads ever since CMT started the show. And I’ve sort of been holding out for somebody that I really thought would be a great match and somebody I was really a fan of. So they called them, and asked them, and they said, ‘Yes,’ and we finally got it all worked out to where we were all free for two days at the same time. It was an absolutely amazing experience. I think the show is just going to be phenomenal. You know, Adam Levine, who is the lead singer, he and I had great chemistry together, and it was so much fun for me.”
008 HIGHLIGHTS: May" width="16" height="14" /> Brad Paisley talks about his number-one hit, “I’m Still a Guy.” (:28)
“It’s the anti-girlyman song, really. It’s making a statement a little bit about, sometimes our society goes a little far in trying to make men sensitive and feminine, and I just don’t necessarily want to change all that much. I mean it’s okay, but I don’t want to wear the silk shirts. I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to get the hair highlights. You know, it’s about having fun with that topic, which is also very prevalent in our society, you know, the guys that are goin’ a little far.”
008 HIGHLIGHTS: May" width="16" height="14" /> Gretchen Wilson talks about her determination to get her G-E-D. (:46)
“You know, I made a decision, a conscious decision, to leave home when I was young and to quit school and to get out there and start my own thing. But there’s always been that little thing in the back of my head, you know if, if, I had normal parents, if I’d had a little money, or lived in a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house in a nice neighborhood and I’d have stayed in school, I would have, I would have…you know, there was just always that little ‘I gotta go back and do this because I’m not gonna let life cheat me out of it,’ you know? It’s kind of like that’s what I felt like. I felt like I made the choice, but at the same time, life pushed me into that choice, and I didn’t want life to cheat me out of it. So I just went back and said, ‘Uh-uh, I’ll be taking that.’ It took me a while, but I got it.”
008 HIGHLIGHTS: May" width="16" height="14" /> In 2005, as he prepared for the release of his 100th album (the RCA Nashville release, After All These Years), Eddy Arnold reflected on his music…his life…and his legacy. (:33)
“I want the people that hear my voice to know that I’d be thrilled if they picked up my records and played them this late in my life. I’ve had a good life. The public’s been good to me. I have no gripes. None. I just want to sing a good song, and I want somebody to enjoy it.”
008 HIGHLIGHTS: May" width="16" height="14" /> Miranda Lambert says it means a lot to her that her second album was honored as the ACM Album of the Year. (:18)
“I’ve really been fortunate with Crazy Ex because it is such a crazy, quote unquote, road with this album. You know, this album is really special to me. It’s my second one. It really is exactly who I am right now in my life, every song on there. And I just…the fact that the industry notices that -– it just means so much.”