Country Music Awards Sing Garth Brooks’ Praises

Garth Brooks was voted entertainer of the year and Vince Gill won two honors Wednesday night at the 26th annual Country Music Assn. Awards Show.

Brooks’ 9-million selling “Ropin’ the Wind,” which has been No. 1 on both the pop and country charts, also won best album to give him two major awards during the nationally televised presentations at the Grand Ole Opry House.

“One thing I have learned from this past year is music and artists are going to come and go, but it’s family. That’s what it’s all about,” said Brooks, winning top entertainer for the second straight year. Brooks’ wife, Sandy, gave birth to their first child, a daughter, over the summer.

Gill, who decided to pursue a singing career instead of playing pro golf, was voted top male vocalist for the second straight year. He also won a songwriter’s award for co-writing his hit “Look at Us” with Max D. Barnes.

“Now I know how Michael Jordan feels to repeat,” Gill said in accepting the award as best male vocalist, referring to the Chicago Bulls’ basketball star who led his team to two straight NBA titles.

Mary-Chapin Carpenter won female vocalist of the year, her first CMA award, but said her voice has never impressed her.

“I’ve never been that fond of my singing. It’s the others that inspired me,” said Carpenter, who won a Grammy Award earlier this year.

Billy Ray Cyrus’ bouncy “Achy Breaky Heart,” which inspired a new dance and launched Cyrus from an unknown to star status, won single of the year.

“I believed in the song the first time I heard it,” Cyrus said backstage after receiving a bullet-shaped trophy. “It hit me like a hit record should.”

The new honky-tonk duet Brooks & Dunn were voted duo of the year, breaking a four-year hold on the award by the mother-daughter act the Judds, who are no longer performing together.

Fiddler Mark O’Connor won best musician and Diamond Rio was chosen best group.

Alan Jackson’s “Midnight in Montgomery” was chosen No. 1 music video over Cyrus’ “Achy Breaky Heart” and three others. Travis Tritt and Marty Stuart won vocal event of the year for their rollicking “No Hats” concert tour, and Suzy Bogguss was voted the Horizon Award for most promise.

George Jones capped off a 40-year career when he was chosen for the Country Music Hall of Fame.

“The only thing I can say is that country music has been awful good to me throughout a whole bunch of years,” he said after receiving a prolonged standing ovation.