Move Over, Garth and Billy Ray--Here’s Brooks & Dunn : Country music: Pair were the big winners in awards telecast, although Garth was named top entertainer. Cyrus, however, was shut out.

Garth who? Billy Ray what?

Could it be that Brooks and Cyrus are already old hat?

It was Brooks & Dunn, who have achieved only a fraction of the mainstream pop recognition of their competitors, who came away the big winners during Tuesday’s Academy of Country Music Awards telecast. If the academy’s 4,000 voting members have their way, Kix and Ronnie--who scored trophies in three out of four nominated categories--may be the industry’s next household first names.

Backstage at the Universal Amphitheatre, Kix Brooks said the pair’s ACM citation last year as best new group was “really the springboard for our career,” but added that the rock-edged pair suffered the usual freshman trepidation at the time anyway.

“You always have to second-guess: Were we a fluke? Were we a one-time thing?”

Apparently not.

Whither the top sellers?

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Garth Brooks won in only one of his four nominated categories--albeit the top one, entertainer of the year. That the academy didn’t bother to reward him in any of the lesser, more specific categories may simply mean he’s graduated to the level of icon.

But that Billy Ray Cyrus was shut out in all four of his nominated categories--even the one in which he was a seeming shoo-in, new male vocalist--suggests that even within the country community he’s considered a novelty act.

Brooks didn’t begrudge crooner Vince Gill for besting him in the male vocalist category. “Vocalist--man, that’s Vince Gill all the way,” Brooks said backstage, acknowledging that the entertainer award he picked up for the third year in a row may better describe his all-around talent.

Critically hailed singer-songwriter Mary-Chapin Carpenter was clearly a surprise winner over Wynonna Judd in the female vocalist category, but the Brown University graduate resisted press attempts to characterize why her victory was unexpected.

Carpenter--not known for suffering fools gladly--had the most contentious presence in the press room, telling one trade reporter who asked how someone with an Ivy League background had made it in country music: “That’s a real surface question, with all due respect.” To another, she countered, “Once again, I feel where I went to college has nothing to do with this--do you?”

She did acknowledge, however, that her less-than-glitzy, literate, Everywoman appeal extends most people’s image of a country star. “There’s a stereotype that country music is glitter and big hair, or ‘My baby just left me and I drive a truck,’ ” Carpenter said, pointing out that “artists are writing about contemporary issues that affect people in Manhattan as well.”

Reporters also interrogated artists about the alleged Cyrus backlash. Most handled the questions with as much aplomb as Tracy Lawrence, who beat out Cyrus in the new male vocalist category: “I had a lot of pressure myself having a gold album last year, and I have to stick up for him and say if I had been through the pressure and abuse he’s been through from the press and still walk out here smiling. . . . He’s a fine person.”

The most controversial and emotional comments during the three-hour telecast came from the man generally considered the greatest living country singer, George Jones, who accepted the honorary Pioneer Award. He closed his acceptance speech by saying: “If I had one last wish, I would like to wish that radio, somewhere along the way, would pay a little bit more attention to us older artists. We’re not dead yet.”

Backstage he seemed a little sheepish, noting, “I didn’t mean to offend radio.” Then he elaborated: “I wish they would respect older artists a little more and give ‘em a chance to compete. There’s a bunch of ‘em today that can sing a pretty damn good song--still.”

Jones’ lament seemed timely in wake of a prominent story in this week’s Billboard magazine noting that the influx of hot new artists into country has, sadly, knocked virtually anything recorded before--or anyone established before--the 1980s off radio entirely.

Though appearing tearfully grateful, Jones said backstage that getting awards had been “more fun in younger years. . . . The Hall of Fame award, which I just got along with this one, makes you feel like they’re trying to put you out to pasture. But we’re gonna try to stay around and pick a while.”