Well. We've arrived at the last category in this series. If you recall from my introductory post, I decided against making a pick for Musician of the Year. Mainly because I'm not familiar enough with a couple of the musicians nominated and knew I wouldn't be able to come up with much to say about them. And that didn't seem fair. It's easier to write about artists you don't know too well than it is to write about musicians. Why that is, I'm not sure. Most people seem to be calling this for Mac McAnally (guitarist) and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that he's won it for the past four years. Not a bad track record, I'd say! My love of the steel guitar makes me hope that Paul Franklin might take this one. But honestly, all five of the men nominated would deserve it. I don't have to know all of their playing well to know that they all deserve it because I know how strong the talent pool is in Nashville. These five gentlemen being chosen out of all of the fantastic musicians eligible means something.
Now, time to focus on Music Video. Starting off with the list of nominees:
"Come Over" by Kenny Chesney, directed by Shaun Silva
"Over You" by Miranda Lambert, directed by Trey Fanjoy
"Pontoon by Little Big Town, directed by Declan Whitebloom
"Red Solo Cup" by Toby Keith, Michael Salomon
"Springsteen" by Eric Church, directed by Peter Zavadil
My pick for Music Video of the Year? "Springsteen" by Eric Church, directed by Peter Zavadil.
I'm going to come right out and say it: I didn't care for "Come Over". The song itself does absolutely nothing for me and the repetition of the phrase "come over" is too much. That's a lyrical pet peeve of mine and it's becoming a thing it seems. Yeah, I'm not a fan of the song. The video fits, but I just can't bring myself to care about it. I like Shaun Silva, but I think he's done far better. But it does work with the song.
From "Come Over" to "Over You", the latter of which is one of the big contenders in this category. I knew this was going to be a good video the moment I found out that Trey Fanjoy directed it. She's one of the best, especially when it comes to videos like this. Emotional videos are pretty much her specialty. The treatment was not what I expected and I love that about it. Visually, it's just beautiful.
"Pontoon" - fun video for a fun song and another strong contender. I have a couple of gripes with it though, starting off with the shoes worn by Karen and Kimberly. I realize that women all over were freaking out over the shoes, but every time I watch it just seems silly to me. But then, I'm just not that into shoes. The other and bigger gripe I have with this is the way they kept showing shots of three Little Big Town members and most of the time the person missing is Phillip. What gives, guys? I really feel like they should stick to shots of the group as a whole, single shots and duos. No trio shots of a foursome, please. But as "Pontoon" was the song of the summer, one could argue that "Pontoon" was the video of the summer as well.
"Red Solo Cup". Okay, time to be harsh - or harsh for me. This is a stupid video for a stupid song. I realize that said stupidity is part of its so-called "charm", but it just doesn't work for me. At all. I can't make it through this video without an eye roll or two. But it was a breakout hit for reasons I will never understand and this happens to be the only award that Toby Keith is nominated for. It wouldn't surprise me at all if it won.
I decided to go with "Springsteen" for three main reasons. First, anytime you put Eric Church and director Peter Zavadil together the result is guaranteed to be great. Peter Zavadil does a lot of Eric's videos, including "Homeboy" and "Creepin'". He always comes up with really cool and unique treatments which is why he's one of my favorite music video directors. In this case, they could have just done another music video and that would've been fine. But they didn't do that. Which brings me to my second reason for picking it: they made a short film and then pulled scenes from that and put them in the video.
Yes, that's right. They made a mini movie which can be found on here. Or you can watch below, assuming that the video works. If it doesn't, please let me know. It's about half an hour and finishes with the music video.
That's some dedication right there. Now, the music video is good whether you've seen the film or not, but watching the film gave me a greater appreciation. And that brings me to my third reason for picking it: it's my favorite of the bunch. I really like the overall look and feel and think it was extremely well done.
So there we go! The last of my CMA Picks. It is after midnight here on the East Coast which means that the CMA Awards are today. At 8:00 Eastern/7:00 Central on ABC. Nothing like barely making a deadline, huh? I'll more than likely be live tweeting during the show @countrymusicatk, giving my reactions as they happen. Along with a ton of other country fans. Twitter is a pretty interesting place to be during an awards show, lemme tell you. Worth checking out if you never have. Though in saying so I want to remind everyone that while the CMAs are a pretty big deal, it's not the end of the world if your favorite artist(s) doesn't win. Disappointing, yes, but not the end of the world. Really. I promise. Just something to keep in mind.
Meanwhile, the reason I brought up twitter in the first place is to announce a giveaway of sorts. I'm still thinking about how exactly to go about doing it, but basically, I'll be giving away some albums if any of my picks actually win. It'd be the winners newest album and I'd more than likely gift it to the winner(s) via iTunes as that seems to be the easiest way to do it. As I said, I'm still working out the details. It'd probably be easiest to do it sometime after the awards finish and we know who all the winners are. I'll figure it out; in the meantime, if you're interested, be sure to follow me on twitter and I'll post details as I think of them. And I'm open to suggestions as well!
In any event, thanks so much for reading!
Now, time to focus on Music Video. Starting off with the list of nominees:
"Come Over" by Kenny Chesney, directed by Shaun Silva
"Over You" by Miranda Lambert, directed by Trey Fanjoy
"Pontoon by Little Big Town, directed by Declan Whitebloom
"Red Solo Cup" by Toby Keith, Michael Salomon
"Springsteen" by Eric Church, directed by Peter Zavadil
My pick for Music Video of the Year? "Springsteen" by Eric Church, directed by Peter Zavadil.
I'm going to come right out and say it: I didn't care for "Come Over". The song itself does absolutely nothing for me and the repetition of the phrase "come over" is too much. That's a lyrical pet peeve of mine and it's becoming a thing it seems. Yeah, I'm not a fan of the song. The video fits, but I just can't bring myself to care about it. I like Shaun Silva, but I think he's done far better. But it does work with the song.
From "Come Over" to "Over You", the latter of which is one of the big contenders in this category. I knew this was going to be a good video the moment I found out that Trey Fanjoy directed it. She's one of the best, especially when it comes to videos like this. Emotional videos are pretty much her specialty. The treatment was not what I expected and I love that about it. Visually, it's just beautiful.
"Pontoon" - fun video for a fun song and another strong contender. I have a couple of gripes with it though, starting off with the shoes worn by Karen and Kimberly. I realize that women all over were freaking out over the shoes, but every time I watch it just seems silly to me. But then, I'm just not that into shoes. The other and bigger gripe I have with this is the way they kept showing shots of three Little Big Town members and most of the time the person missing is Phillip. What gives, guys? I really feel like they should stick to shots of the group as a whole, single shots and duos. No trio shots of a foursome, please. But as "Pontoon" was the song of the summer, one could argue that "Pontoon" was the video of the summer as well.
"Red Solo Cup". Okay, time to be harsh - or harsh for me. This is a stupid video for a stupid song. I realize that said stupidity is part of its so-called "charm", but it just doesn't work for me. At all. I can't make it through this video without an eye roll or two. But it was a breakout hit for reasons I will never understand and this happens to be the only award that Toby Keith is nominated for. It wouldn't surprise me at all if it won.
I decided to go with "Springsteen" for three main reasons. First, anytime you put Eric Church and director Peter Zavadil together the result is guaranteed to be great. Peter Zavadil does a lot of Eric's videos, including "Homeboy" and "Creepin'". He always comes up with really cool and unique treatments which is why he's one of my favorite music video directors. In this case, they could have just done another music video and that would've been fine. But they didn't do that. Which brings me to my second reason for picking it: they made a short film and then pulled scenes from that and put them in the video.
Yes, that's right. They made a mini movie which can be found on here. Or you can watch below, assuming that the video works. If it doesn't, please let me know. It's about half an hour and finishes with the music video.
That's some dedication right there. Now, the music video is good whether you've seen the film or not, but watching the film gave me a greater appreciation. And that brings me to my third reason for picking it: it's my favorite of the bunch. I really like the overall look and feel and think it was extremely well done.
So there we go! The last of my CMA Picks. It is after midnight here on the East Coast which means that the CMA Awards are today. At 8:00 Eastern/7:00 Central on ABC. Nothing like barely making a deadline, huh? I'll more than likely be live tweeting during the show @countrymusicatk, giving my reactions as they happen. Along with a ton of other country fans. Twitter is a pretty interesting place to be during an awards show, lemme tell you. Worth checking out if you never have. Though in saying so I want to remind everyone that while the CMAs are a pretty big deal, it's not the end of the world if your favorite artist(s) doesn't win. Disappointing, yes, but not the end of the world. Really. I promise. Just something to keep in mind.
Meanwhile, the reason I brought up twitter in the first place is to announce a giveaway of sorts. I'm still thinking about how exactly to go about doing it, but basically, I'll be giving away some albums if any of my picks actually win. It'd be the winners newest album and I'd more than likely gift it to the winner(s) via iTunes as that seems to be the easiest way to do it. As I said, I'm still working out the details. It'd probably be easiest to do it sometime after the awards finish and we know who all the winners are. I'll figure it out; in the meantime, if you're interested, be sure to follow me on twitter and I'll post details as I think of them. And I'm open to suggestions as well!
In any event, thanks so much for reading!
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