2021 ACM Awards: 10 Best, Worst, and Most WTF Moments

Best: Dierks Bentley and the War and Treaty Thrill With Big Voices and Bluegrass

Dierks Bentley put together a stellar band to revisit his rootsy 2010 cover of U2’s “Pride (In the Name of Love”) at Nashville’s bluegrass epicenter the Station Inn. In doing so, he provided the ACMs with arguably its performance of the night, reconnecting country music with its string-instrument past. Sibling duo Larkin Poe played Dobro and mandolin, Punch Brother Paul Kowert bowed an upright bass, and Brittany Haas fiddled. But Bentley’s masterstroke was enlisting the War and Treaty to sing harmony. Michael Trotter and Tanya Blount Trotter weren’t background vocalists, however — they were front-and-center stars, infusing U2’s 1984 anthem with an urgency that even Bono couldn’t match. When Michael Trotter belted “They could not take your pride!” at song’s end, he all but leveled Station Inn’s cinderblock walls. Release this performance as a single now. — J.H.

Best: Miranda Lambert Is the ACM MVP

Though not a winner this year, Miranda Lambert was the night’s MVP. She joined Elle King in opening the show with their pop-country track “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home)” at the Opry House. It was a fine, raucous number, but Lambert had much more in store, appearing in two other ACM performances at two different venues. No big surprise here, but Lambert can belt on a wedding-crashing party track just as well as she can sing backup vocals on Chris Stapleton’s tender “Maggie’s Song” at the Bluebird Cafe. For good measure, Lambert also threw in a teaser for her upcoming album The Marfa Tapes with Jack Ingram and Jon Randall: The trio performed the simple-but-stunning “In His Arms” at the Ryman Auditorium, a refreshing palate cleanser among the ACM Awards’ wilder moments. — C.S.

Worst: The In Memoriam Afterthought

Kenny Chesney’s “Knowing You” is his best single in years, and his performance on the ACMs exuded both confidence and earned wisdom. It’s hard to think of another superstar-level artist who has so gracefully matured over the course of their career, especially when it comes to song choices. But while “Knowing You” is all about those we met, loved, and lost along the way, the ACM’s decision to turn Chesney’s performance into a perfunctory In Memoriam felt like an injustice to both the singer and those we said goodbye to this past year. Names like Mac Davis, Billy Joe Shaver, Tony Rice, and Charley Pride deserved more than a fleeting image over a musical outro. Sure, the lyrics lend themselves well to somber tributes — “I’d do it all over cause damn it was good knowing you” — but giving both Chensey and our departed legends their own proper spotlight would have been the way to go. — J.H.

Best: Carrie Underwood and CeCe Winans Testify at the Mother Church

Carrie Underwood took the Mother Church to church at the ACM Awards, blowing the roof off the Ryman Auditorium, a former place of worship, with a stunning medley of classic hymns from her new album My Savior. The singer opened under a spotlight with “Amazing Grace” before transitioning into “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” and “The Old Rugged Cross,” for which she was joined by legendary gospel artist CeCe Winans. To watch the two of them onstage was to witness master vocalists in total control of their craft. When Underwood wrapped up the medley with a majestic “How Great Thou Art” featuring the Belmont University Choir, it was enough to turn even the most cynical of us into a believer. — C.S.

WTF: Where in the World Is Luke Bryan?

When Luke Bryan appeared on Zoom to accept Entertainer of the Year, the country singer looked genuinely shocked. Color us the same, since we thought Bryan was off the grid with Covid-19. After the “Waves” singer announced last week that he had tested positive, he had to scrap pretaping his performance for the ACMs. He also had to bow out of American Idol‘s first live show (Paula Abdul replaced him at the judges table). On Sunday, however, Bryan posted a video saying he’d be back live on Idol that night. So where was he? Not even co-host Keith Urban seemed to know. “He can’t be here tonight. He is at home,” Urban said. But when Bryan’s face popped up, he explained he was in fact in L.A. Despite the head-spinning journey, we were glad to see Bryan looking hale and hearty — if a bit supersized compared to Urban and Mickey Guyton. — J.H.

Best: Brothers Osborne Kill With ‘Dead Man’s Curve’

The ACM Awards hit plenty of high notes from Dierks Bentley to Carrie Underwood, but they picked a killer show closer with the duo Brothers Osborne. Their “Dead Man’s Curve,” ostensibly an ode to TJ and John’s sister, was a kinetic mass of riffs and country-rock swagger that they delivered at breakneck speed with the cool confidence of seasoned bar-band pros. Between John’s liquid guitar licks and TJ’s deep vocals, it felt like a moment that pieced together the past and present of country music. Here were a couple of guys who know all their history and can play it backward and forward, getting to dismantle the place with their own unique expression of that history. We should let them do that any damn time they like. — J.F.

Best: Mickey Guyton Offers Resilience and Grace After a Tough Year

Mickey Guyton showed exceptional poise as a first-time co-host of the ACM Awards on Sunday night, bestowing the nickname “Keith-frickin-Urban” on her hosting partner and joking about how she’d been deprived of “adult interaction” while taking care of her newborn during the pandemic. On top of that, her performance — as with the one she gave for the 2020 ACMs — was something special. Originally conceived as a prayer and featured in the Christian drama Breakthrough, Guyton’s “Hold On” felt even more potent against the backdrop of the last year, with the invisible menace of Covid taking thousands of lives and the fight for civil liberties erupting into a literal battle at times.

Backed by a small string section and lit in beautiful blue, Guyton demonstrated her range as a vocalist, beginning quietly and patiently waiting to ramp up for a big, explosive finish with a backing choir spread through the seats. “I’ll be your hope, I’ll be your lifeline, I’ll never stop fighting,” she sang in the chorus. It can be about faith in higher power if you want it to, but it can also be an uplifting hymn about people caring for one another through impossibly tough times, just like this last year. — J.F.

WTF: Dan + Shay’s Vocals Are Out of Sync

Dan + Shay’s rendition of “Glad You Exist” at the Bluebird was one of the pre-taped performances of the night, and it would have been a sweet little acoustic number had it not aired out-of-sync with the audio. ACM Awards viewers on Twitter were quick to speculate that the duo were lip-syncing the song, but it was a post-production snafu during the broadcast that caused the issue. (The digital performance video, which the ACM posted on Twitter, did not have the sync problem.) All the same, it’s a bummer that two of Nashville’s most talented singers — who took home Duo of the Year on Sunday night, might we add — had a technical error cloud their moment. — C.S.

Best: Little Big Town Bring Broadway Moves to Lower Broadway

Phillip Sweet didn’t get to perform with his Little Big Town bandmates due to a positive Covid test, but he did them a solid with a nice introduction that doubled as PSA: “Wear your mask, get vaccinated, and let’s all get back to live music.” With that he ceded the spotlight to Jimi Westbrook, Kimberly Schlapman, and Karen Fairchild for “Wine, Beer, Whiskey,” which they staged as a choreographed Broadway-style performance number on, um, Lower Broadway. With neon-clad Westbrook standing in the center and trying out his best Timberlake moves, the trio strutted their way through downtown flanked by a marching band drumline and horns — a spirited ode to liquor right in the drunkest artery of Music City. But this delightfully strange and ambitious performance is a great example of what can be done when people aren’t worried about staging a live event in one big room. It made the ACMs all the more interesting for it. — J.F.

Best: Eric Church Goes on a Vocal Journey

The Chief has been having a blast playing with his voice on his new album Heart & Soul — in some songs, he sounds like an entirely different person. Church dove headlong into that shape-shifting for his performance of “Bunch of Nothing,” a brash boogie-woogie rocker delivered onstage at the Ryman by his masked band (Church has emerged as a vocal proponent of Covid vaccines and safety). Barroom piano and bluesy guitar propelled the performance, but it was Church’s vocal acrobatics (and his interplay with longtime foil Joanna Cotten) that kept things truly interesting. “I know how to tune a six-string Martin and kick Saturday in the ass,” he sang in the chorus, deepening his voice to an almost cartoon-villain growl. While most awards-show performances can be indistinguishable from the artist’s recorded version of their song, Church made it clear that he was both singing live and unafraid to mix things up. — J.H.