ACM Honors Celebrates Glen Campbell, Miranda Lambert

Kim Campbell, daughter

Country music’s finest packed Ryman Auditorium on Tuesday night for the 10th ACM Honors — a night to celebrate country music's legends, current stars and those who work behind the scenes to make artists' careers sparkle, reports The Tennessean.

The star-studded event recognizes the special honorees and off-camera category winners from the 51st Academy of Country Music Awards, which were held in the spring. Before the show started, awards were handed out for musicians of the year, audio engineer of the year and producer of the year.

“ACM Honors are like the night for those making it happen, like the songwriters and people that don’t really get the TV time,” said Cam, who joined Alicia Keys for a duet on “Girl Crush” in honor of Little Big Town (ACM Crystal Milestone Award). “Something about the music feels a little more real on a night like tonight.”

In addition to Cam and Keys’ soaring collaboration, other show-stopping pairings included Chris Young and Dan + Shay’s harmony-rich version of “Flowers on the Wall” in tribute to The Statler Brothers (ACM Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award); Cole Swindell and Luke Bryan’s duet on Eddie Rabbitt’s (ACM Poet’s Award) “I Love a Rainy Night”; and Keith Urban, Blake Shelton, Dierks Bentley and Toby Keith, who performed a medley of Glen Campbell’s hits. Campbell was honored with the ACM Career Achievement Award.

“Glen has been a real influence for me,” Urban said. “His guitar playing, his singing. We always talk about pop country and what’s going on, but you look at someone like Glen Campbell and what he did with ‘The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour’ … blending and fusing and collaborating with a myriad of people. He really was light-years ahead of his time.”

Hosted by Lady Antebellum, the 10th annual ACM Honors' other memorable performances included The Band Perry’s inspired version of “MacArthur Park” in tribute to ACM Poet’s Award winner Jimmy Webb; Urban’s soulful “Blue Ain’t Your Color”; Kelsea Ballerini’s smooth take on “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” for Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award winner Crystal Gayle; and Miranda Lambert’s tribute to Merle Haggard, a stone cold country acoustic version of Haggard’s “Misery and Gin” that brought the audience to its feet.

Lambert, the most awarded female in the history of the Academy of Country Music, was given the first Merle Haggard Spirit Award by one of her heroes, Emmylou Harris.

The 10th annual ACM Honors will air at 8 p.m. Sept. 9 on CBS.