Anyone watch the show? It was good to see Greg Allman (not looking too bad). Does anyone know who votes for these awards ( my guess it must be disc jockys from around the country) but not sure. Because it seems the crowd is rarely in agreement or happy about who wins (as I usally am not either). I'd love to see Zac Brown win one, he's a bright spot and talent for sure.
Anybody else notice this: doesn't it seen Keith Urban and Brad Paisley have kind of a Tele playing rivalry going on?

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08 Fender Highway One Tele-Sunburst
09 Squier Custom Tele II-Blonde
04 Squier Standard Strat Antiqueburst
07 Washburn D10SCE natural with Rosewood backing
Fender Mustang II amp


Experience is the best teacher

the suites make the selections. much like the rock and roll hall of fame nominations.

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Great version of 'Georgia" by the band from Georgia, Zak Brown Band with Gregg Allman helping out on B3 and vocals!

About the CMAs :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_Mu ... ion_Awards

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

yep the Suits do the voting

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...and sometimes the suits do the performing :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0UhgYk7 ... r_embedded

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

I know I'm not the only one. The Glen Campbell Tribute brought tears to my eyes. There are two things that happen in our lives that we have no control over. Being born, and Dying. It's what we do in between, that can create a Star like Glen Campbell. He is truly a giant in his own time.
----Danny,

Winners are not selected by suits, but nominated by peer CMA members and ultimately selected by the full membership. The WIKI page is a tad less than fully informative and the way it is worded, depending on what you read into it, could erroneously lead the public to believe that suits make the picks. By "suits" I'm taking that you mean CMA staff. CMA paid staff has never gotten to vote, nor have any input whatsoever on selecting nominees or finalists. It is a multiphase peer selection nomination process, followed by a final vote by all members. For example musicians, not DJ members, have input on "Musician of the Year" nomination selection. However after the nomination process is completed by the musicians the DJ's do get to vote for one of the five finalists. Meanwhile DJ's and other broadcast related members, but not the musicians/artists/songwriters, get to participate in the nomination process related to the DJ and Radio Station categories upon which the full membership gets to vote.

There are over 6,000 voting members of the CMA. CMA membership is available to anyone working in the Country Music industry that applies for membership and pays the association's membership fee. Everyone in the industry from engineers and producers to managers to songwriters to sidemen to star vocalists to DJ's can join and be a voting member of the CMA. Qualify in a category based on current or previous activity in the industry, pay your membership fee and you get to participate in the nomination process involving peers in your membership category and then everyone gets to vote collectively in every category on the award ballot.

Nominations eligibility is solely based on recorded works released, live performances and events staged in the preceding fiscal year. For example, the awards show results tonight was strictly for recordings released and performances staged or aired from July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011.

Ballots are cast in three phases.

Phase 1: NOMINATION BY PEERS. The 6,000 plus CMA Members receive a ballot upon which they must nominate ONE and only ONE nominee in each category relevant to their membership category and mail the ballot to Deloitte & Touche Accounting. Each act, event/performance or song/album that gets ten or more peer nominations will be an official nominee in the next phase, so long as they are eligible for nomination that year. For example, if a song was released in June, 2010 it would not have been eligible as a nominee for tonight's awards since it was outside the eligibility window. An "Artist of the Year" nominee also has to hit that fiscal year eligibility window by releasing something, the "Entertainer of the Year" nominees had to tour in the period, etc.

Phase 2: FINALIST SELECTION BY PEERS. A second ballot is mailed out listing every act/event/song/album that got over 10 votes in the nomination process. There is no limit to the number of nominees in each category at this point. CMA members then must vote for FIVE nominees listed in each category relevant to their membership category and send the ballot back to Deloitte & Touche. These results are tabulated and the five nominees in each category receiving the most votes become the CMA FINALISTS FOR AWARD SELECTION balloting.

Phase 3: AWARD SELECTION voting by full membership. The entire CMA membership receive an identical final ballot listing every category and must vote for ONE of the five finalists in each category and then mail it back to Deloitte & Touche. This ballot will determine the winners and Deloitte & Touche prepares the envelopes with the winning names.

I was really excited about Mac McAnally's award! He's living proof that you don't have to have a pretty face or be 23 years old to BRING IT. He's ALWAYS been a great player and really he's not a bad singer either. He's been touring with Jimmy Buffett for a while and he's lucky to have Mr. McAnally in his band.

Like all such awards, the votes are made by the membership of the group handing out the awards... in this case, the Country Music Association, which is made up of people from all segments of the business: performers, writers, label execs, radio people, studio cats, promoters, agents, and so on. It's not just "the suits."

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Jim Bordner
Gravity Music - www.gravitymusic.com
Composer, producer, Egnater Artist

No CMA staffers get a vote, nor do they have any input on the nomination process. CMA paid staffers ("the Suits") do not get a vote at all. I hope that is perfectly clear. The People's Choice Awards are not selected by peers at all but by the public at large, so nobody takes them as seriously as a peer award.

Naw, but neither were playing Teles, that song. But it wasn't a Gibson bass. Its a strat. Heres the video. Actually he was singing Galveston
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tfix-zj8EA

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08 Fender Highway One Tele-Sunburst
09 Squier Custom Tele II-Blonde
04 Squier Standard Strat Antiqueburst
07 Washburn D10SCE natural with Rosewood backing
Fender Mustang II amp


Experience is the best teacher