2009 CMA Awards Predictions

Depending on your point of view, the Country Music Association may be the organization responsible for broadening the reach of country music and its artists throughout the nation and around the world, the organization responsible for transforming the genre into a musically homogeneous mass-market commodity, or both. Either way, there’s no denying that both the industry and the fandom will have all eyes turned to Nashville’s Sommet Center tomorrow night as the association doles out the genre’s most significant, coveted and respected awards.

Sorry ACM and CMT–the CMA telecast is country music’s version of the Academy Awards, the one night when almost everyone who is anyone is in the building, all done up in the finest black-tie dress a country bumpkin can muster. Nominated and voted by industry peers, winning a CMA Award is one of the major defining moments in any artist’s career, the stuff that brings typically stage-honed superstars to genuine tears.

And for all it’s faults–lack of diversity and bloc voting among them–we’ll all watch the show and hope that the association will hand off this year’s batch of trophies to the right names (yes, sometimes the Association gets it right).

Of course, we’ll have to endure Dave Matthews and Kid Rock (and a whole lot of fluff and filler), but we’ll watch anyway, hoping for one of those magical musical moments, like when Alan Jackson stood up to the powers that be and honored George Jones, or when the publicly unheralded songwriter Matraca Berg brought the crowd to its feet with her stirring “Back When We Were Beautiful.”

The 9513’s 2009 CMA Awards Predictions

In 2008, The 9513 had five staffers weighing in with predictions. We’ve grown a bit since then–so much so, in fact, that we had trouble figuring out how to fit everyone’s picks onto the graphic below.

Here’s how we stacked up last year:

• Brody Vercher – 8
• Brady Vercher – 7
• Jim Malec – 6
• Kelly Dearmore – 5
• Ben Cisneros – 5

The entire staff whiffed at last year’s Entertainer of The Year, proving that it’s never a smart idea to vote against Kenny Chesney. The lesson may not have been well-learned; once again, not a singer staffer picked Kenny to win.

Elsewhere, only four staffers hopped off the Paisley bandwagon for Male Vocalist, with CM Wilcox picking Keith Urban, Karlie Justus going with King George and Juli Thanki and yours truly picking the new kid, Darius Rucker, for a dark horse win on the heels of his three #1s.

Carrie Underwood has equally dominating support in Female Vocalist, with only Blake Bold and Kelly Dearmore dissenting for Miranda Lambert, and Sam Gazdziak and Stephen Deusner going for Taylor Swift.

Here are The 9513’s 2009 overall favorites, based on a tally of votes cast:

• Entertainer Of The Year: Brad Paisley
• Male Vocalist of The Year: Brad Paisley
• Female Vocalist of The Year: Carrie Underwood
• Vocal Group of The Year: Zac Brown Band
• Vocal Duo of The Year: Sugarland
• New Artist of The Year: Jamey Johnson
• Musician of The Year: Mac Macanally and Paul Franklin (tie)
• Album of The Year: Jamey Johnson – That Lonesome Song
• Single of The Year: Jamey Johnson – “In Color”
• Song of The Year: Jamey Johnson – “In Color” and Billy Currington – “People Are Crazy” (tie)
• Musical Event of The Year: Randy Travis and Carrie Underwood – “I Told You So”
• Video of The Year: Taylor Swift – “Love Story”

CMA Links:
– Full List of 43rd CMA Nominees
– Miss Leslie’s Honky Tonk Happy Hour: Why I Won’t Be Watching The CMA Awards

Make sure you watch with us–The 9513 will be live blogging the show beginning at 7:30 pm, EST.



Jim Malec is Managing Editor of The 9513 and can be reached by email via jmalec[at]the9513.com