Breathtaking. My breath is literally gone. Pound for pound one of the best covers of that Dolly classic and those fighting words because Whitney Houston released version so spectacular that 70% of the people on earth think that it’s her song. I remember listening to the Whitney version on the Top 9 at 9 on WIXX back in the day and waiting to hit ‘play+rec’ on my boombox because I couldn’t afford the $22.95 price tag on ‘The Bodyguard’ soundtrack at Sam Goody*. But if you take the nostalgia factor out of it and just measure the performances against each other, I’d say Clarkson’s version is on par.
Other tidbits from last night’s ACMs:
- It took me 5 (read: 15) minutes to figure out how to access the live stream on Amazon Prime (in addition to being a Prime member, I’m also a Platinum member at Costco nbd). Good practice for NFL games this fall. Overall though I thought the production on the stream was good. No buffering or cutting out on a live event. No commercials is always a plus.
- The show starting with an Eric Church medley didn’t hurt it’s likability. Would have preferred him to just do a full-on three hour show, but I understand that’s not for everyone.
- Stapleton’s, ‘Watch You Burn,’ with it’s references to the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Vegas in 2017 was as powerful as it gets:
- Admittedly, I first learned about Lainey Wilson because of this video:
- My Neanderthal brain after watching that video for the first time: ‘WHO DAT I LIKE DAT.’ Well that led me down a rabbit hole of Lainey Wilson content and I’ve loved her music ever since. If you’re just hearing about her in the past 6 months, do yourself a favor and listen to some of her older stuff, it’s fantastic. Collecting ‘Song of the Year’ and ‘New Female Artist of the Year’ is just the start for her.
- Live look at the blue checkmark brigade on Twitter when Morgan Wallen won the ACM for ‘Album of the Year’:
- He deserved that win. As with any award show you could probably make a case for any nominee in any category, but that ‘Dangerous: The Double Album’ has been on repeat on my playlist since the day it dropped. 30 bangers on that album.
- Chris Young finally getting some shine with the most nominations of the night (7) and winning exactly zero awards is a perfect Chris Young storyline.
- I’m a Church bootlicker so I will always be frustrated when he doesn’t win an award, especially Entertainer of the Year. The man puts on 3 hour solo shows at sold out arenas across the country. I’m not sure what the specific criteria is for ‘Entertainer of the Year,’ but I’d think what he does has to be on the short list. That said, Miranda has been up for that award a million times, and she also puts on a great live performance. More than deserving.
All in all it felt like pretty successful show despite the fact that it was earlier in the year than it normally is and shifted from a national TV broadcast on CBS to a paid streaming service.
*A lot going on in that sentence that people born after 1998 aren’t going to understand at all.
PS: Today will likely determine if the Kenny Chesney show at Am Fam Field is the first thing that actually happens at the park this season. Sadly my bet is it will be. And there’s a strong chance that Church’s show on Memorial Day weekend will be the second. FIGURE IT OUT MLB.
Double PS: Didn’t want to go caps lock there but I had no choice.
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