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My CMA Picks: Musical Event of the Year

Starting off with an FYI for those who may haven't heard: the winners of both this award and Music Video will be announced on Good Morning America tomorrow morning. I'm sure that they'll mention who won at some point during the CMA Awards, but I wanted to bring it up just in case anyone had any interest in seeing them announced live.

This is one of the first years where I've actually heard all of the songs nominated in this category. I listen to a ton of music and try to listen to as much new stuff as possible, but there's usually one or two songs nominated that I've never heard. This category is strange that way. Meanwhile, odds are that this will be one of the shortest posts I've done in this series because I just don't have a lot to say about any of these songs. 

The nominees:
"Dixie Highway", Alan Jackson featuring Zac Brown Band
"Feel Like a Rock Star", Kenny Chesney duet with Tim McGraw
"Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die", Willie Nelson with Snoop Dogg, Kris Kristofferson and Jamey Johnson
"Safe and Sound", Taylor Swift with The Civil Wars
"Stuck On You", Lionel Richie with Darius Rucker

My pick for CMA Musical Event of the Year? "Dixie Highway", Alan Jackson featuring Zac Brown Band

"Feel Like a Rock Star", probably the favorite for this award. I think this song has a huge chance of winning because of how big it was. It's Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw, two of the biggest names in country music. The song got a lot of radio play and I feel like I've seen the video about 200 times. I didn't really care for it. I thought it sounded too much like some of Kenny's other songs.

"Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die". I'm having such a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that Snoop Dogg is up for a CMA. I mean it's Snoop Dogg, for heaven's sake. That alone made me not want to pick it. That and the fact that I just don't like it. I have a lot of respect for Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson, two of the legends in country music. And I really like Jamey Johnson. But this song doesn't do anything for me. It probably has a chance since it's Willie Nelson and they are doing a tribute to him during the CMAs. Which would be a good time to have them announce that they won.

"Safe and Sound". Another strong contender. Written by Taylor, The Civil Wars and T-Bone Burnett for the Hunger Games soundtrack, this song was quite a departure for Taylor. It fit the feel of the movie very well and Taylor and The Civil Wars made for a very interesting trio. Perhaps the most unique song nominated.

"Stuck On You". Nice remake of a good song. I really like how well Lionel Richie and Darius Rucker's voices blend together on this. But I don't really think it's going to win based on the fact that I heard this one the least. I don't think it had anywhere near the impact of a couple of the other songs.

I pretty much picked "Dixie Highway" because I really like the playing found on it. That and I would love to see Alan Jackson win another CMA. It'd be a cool win for Zac Brown Band too, of course, but it's been so long since Alan won anything. This is kind of a hybrid of some other Alan Jackson songs, but it works. I think it's a fun track to listen to and easily my favorite song of the bunch. I'd like to see it win, though I'm not sure it can. I'd say that they have a better chance of winning than Lionel and Darius do. But still not as big of a chance as the other nominees have. 

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