Shania Twain, Dixie Chicks Win Awards

Shania Twain was named entertainer of the year and the Dixie Chicks won group and album prizes for “Fly” at the 35th annual Academy of Country Music Awards on Wednesday night.

Lonestar’s “Amazed” was picked as best song and single.

Twain did not attend the show.

It was a big night for country sweethearts, although leading nominees Tim McGraw and wife Faith Hill lost in the entertainer of the year category.

Each won their second consecutive vocalist of the year awards and Hill won top video prize for “Breathe.”

The 3,000-member academy also voted the duet “When I Said I Do” by Clint Black and actress-wife Lisa Hartman Black as the vocal event of the year. Black hadn’t won an Academy of Country Music trophy since 1990.

“I’ve been telling her for a month it’s not going to be us so don’t worry,” Black said, adding it “was a true awards show moment” for him to see his wife’s face when their name was called.

It was the second consecutive album award for the Dixie Chicks--Martie Seidel, Natalie Maines and Emily Robison. The trio’s “Wide Open Spaces” won last year.

“Fly” also won the country album Grammy earlier this year.

Dolly Parton, host of the three-hour CBS-TV show, arrived on stage at the Universal Amphitheatre with a hearty, “Howdy!” It was her first outing as show host--a role she filled with self-described “tacky” remarks.

“We’re both 35 years old. Well, parts of me are anyway,” said Parton, wearing a sequined gown. She later cracked that she would never “graduate from collagen.”

Taking a country music controversy head on, George Strait and Alan Jackson led off the night’s performances with “Murder on Music Row,” the “someone killed country music” ditty that asserts the traditional country sound has been drowned out by money-grubbing pop leanings.

The show’s performances had a traditionalist flair that included songs by George Jones, Asleep at the Wheel and a banjo-picking bluegrass tune by Parton.

The new male vocalist winner was Brad Paisley and top new female was Jessica Andrews. The new duo or group trophy went to Montgomery Gentry.

The fast-paced West Coast salute to Nashville is traditionally one of the entertainment industry’s most performance-filled awards shows. Producer Dick Clark rehearsed 30 acts for the broadcast.

For the first time in recent memory, the show was Garth-less. Garth Brooks, declared the country music artist of the decade last year, didn’t get any nominations this year and didn’t attend the show.

The show featured presentation of the Pioneer Award to Tammy Wynette, the first time the academy has given the award posthumously. Trisha Yearwood introduced the tribute to Wynette, who she called “the original country music diva.”

Parton, Patty Loveless, Martina McBride and Naomi Judd and daughter Wynonna sang Wynette’s signature song “Stand By Your Man.”

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On the Net: Academy of Country Music: https://www.acmcountry.com