So. I had this all written and scheduled to post and when it posted, the only thing that posted was the title. Everything else: gone. I started a second post and had to save it to come back later and when I came back, everything was gone. I have no idea what's going on with blogger lately. If you follow me via email you may have gotten an alert about a review for "There She Goes" by the Dirt Drifters that I did a month or more ago - I can't explain it. Hopefully things get back to normal around this. Now I'm doing this one again and hoping that the third time will be the charm.
Jumping in.
I'm going to be focusing on the three duets that took place during the show, along with the remaining group performances. Starting off with Lady Antebellum and their performance of "Dancing Away with My Heart". I liked the simplicity of it, along with the smoke they had billowing across the bottom of the stage. The dancing couples on the screens behind them were an interesting idea, but didn't come across too well in the execution. Something about that just didn't work for me. Musically and vocally, I thought that Lady Antebellum sounded very good. No rough spots that I could detect. The problem with this performance, for me, is that the song just doesn't do anything for me. I find it very uneventful and unexciting, it's like it's always trying to go somewhere and never does. But they performed it very well.
Next up: The Band Perry and their performance of "Postcard from Paris" which is one of my favorite songs on their CD and their new single. This is probably a stupid thing to nitpick, but the buzzing of the sign was irritating to me, especially when it bled into the start of the music. But whatever. I did like how it looked. Band sounded good to me, as did the mix. I thought that Neil and Reid sounded really good as well, especially whenever they were singing together. Kimberly sounded pretty good, but it seemed like all of the movements she was making were messing with her singing some. I don't know. I like them, like the song, but I feel like they have a tendency to go a little too gung-ho with things. Like the posing and bouncing around and all that - it's just too much for me. I'd love to see them get away from all of that. But all in all, a pretty solid performance.
Moving on to Rascal Flatts and Steve Martin for "Banjo". I'm a big fan of theirs and so maybe I'm biased some, but I believe Rascal Flatts are easily some of the most consistent performers on award shows. Gary's voice has a way of cutting through things and the harmonies are pretty much always spot on. Which was the case here. Gary had a tiny rough patch near the end, but recovered quickly. A very solid performance and I really liked how it looked. This featured some great playing by their banjo player, Travis Toy. He had some sweet licks in there. I think I mentioned this in my observations blog, but for all he did I don't understand why they bothered adding Steve Martin to it. This is not a reflection on him as a player - he's a very competent player and has the ability to do more than he did. But it just seemed like a waste and an excuse to throw another name up there. Still a great performance overall.
Now to finish up with the group performances with Little Big Town. I was so excited when it was announced that they were performing because it's been years since they last performed on an awards show if I'm not mistaken.They performed "Here's Hope" with snippets of "Imagine" at the beginning and the end. Now, I have a musical confession to make: I don't like "Imagine". It's never been a favorite of mine and by now I've heard so many versions of it, most of them bad, and think that it's way overdone. I'm very much overdone and while I haven't kept my love for Little Big Town a secret, even they weren't enough to make me like it. It could've been left out and it would've worked. But that probably has more to do with my feelings about the song; it sounded just fine. I really enjoyed the arrangement of this: those harmonies with just a guitar and a string quarter. And a choir of cute kids - a winning combination.
With Little Big Town, it's always interesting to see who they put on lead since they all take turns singing it. This time they went with Jimi and I think that was the perfect choice for this. Their harmonies are basically always perfect and the children's choir was precious. My complaint is an audio related one. The first line or so of "Here's Hope" wasn't clear because Jimi's microphone wasn't loud enough, but they did bump it up pretty quickly. Phillip's microphone needed to be louder as well - something that never happened. I've seen this happen to them before and it always seems to be Phillip. But a great performance and I love that they got a standing ovation for it.
Moving on to the first of the duets now, starting off with Martina McBride and Pat Monahan and "Marry Me" which of course happened during the wedding. I talked about the wedding in my observations blog, but to reiterate I wasn't a fan of that. Does that make me a bad person, blog readers? I just wasn't feeling it in the slightest. Yes, it was a beautiful love story and I'm happy for the couple, but the decision to have a wedding take place during an awards show - during an actual performance at that - was a really bad one. The flipping back and forth between the two made it impossible for me to get invested in either. I thought it was awkward and shouldn't have been included. I also think that Martina McBride should've worn a different color dress during this, but thought she sounded beautiful. Pat Monahan sounded pretty good, minus the higher parts which were pretty shaky. I do like how the two of them sound together quite a bit. The song itself isn't a favorite. It's another one that really doesn't do much for me personally, but still, a pretty nice performance all things considered.
Shifting gears to a performance by two of the biggest stars in country music, a couple of guys who have been friends for years and are hitting the road together this summer. I'm of course talking about Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw and their performance of Kenny's new single "Feel Like a Rock Star". Visually speaking, this was pretty classic Chesney to me. I kind of expect this sort of look for a performance of it. This was one of the most hyped up performances of the show. Did it live up to its hype you ask? Kind of. I don't know. I thought they both sounded pretty good; some not so great patches in there, but nothing horrible. The interaction between them seemed a little off to me somehow. Many times it felt more like they were performing for themselves and not so much together, if that makes any sense. I think my biggest problem was the song itself. I feel like Kenny Chesney has done this song already. Multiple times in fact. It's so much like other songs of his and by this point I'm over it. Anyone else with me on this?
Concluding this very long post with the final duet of the night, which was what closed the show. That would be "You Are" by Blake Shelton and Lionel Richie. The biggest fail of this performance was the fact that it gets cut off during the bridge. Ironically a line or two after you hear Blake say something like "I really like this part right here, watch this". Well, Blake, I would've loved to but it was apparently not to be. Timing. I hate when that happens. In this case it seems like the show went over and honestly, I feel like there's no excuse for that. If the credits must happen during the last song, they shouldn't start until maybe the second chorus - later than they started here.
Focusing on the performance itself, I thought it was so much fun to watch. This is one of the most talked about duets on Lionel's Tuskegee album and it's easy to see why - these two sound so good together. Lionel had some surprising rough spots, but overall the vocals were great. The band sounded great during this too. Lionel Richie is such a professional; he's one that all artists, particularly the up and coming ones, need to watch because there is much to be learned from him. Anyone who loves music needs to listen to some Lionel because his music is fantastic. That said, my favorite parts of this performance wasn't so much the actual performance itself but rather Lionel's reactions to Blake which were amusing and getting to see all the other country artists having so much fun watching. It's fun to see artists being fans - just about everyone they show is dancing and in most cases singing along. I think the best crowd reaction shots were Chris Young, Brad Paisley and Jason Aldean. Go on youtube and look this up and you'll see what I mean.
And that's it! I know this was a long one, so thank you for bearing with me if you made it this far! I'm trying to get as many performances in posts as possible. Hopefully it was interesting. Let me know what you thought! Of my thoughts or the performances themselves, whatever. Comments are always, always welcome. Thanks!
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