Eric Church (Round Here Buzz) OC: …emotive qualities. :48
“‘Round Here Buzz,’ I mean, I’ve done a few of these songs in my career; this nostalgic kind of song about the guy that kind of wishes things were different than they are. I know a lot of people like that and like this from where I’m from. I’m from a small town, and I’ve just seen this. I think part of the reason, I feel like we’re pretty good at this kind of song, and I think part of it is because I’ve seen it, I’ve felt it. It’s a motive to me. So, I think with this song, there’s just something about it that’s always spoke to me. It was one I was a pretty big champion for on the album and one that I think will be a hit for us, and the right kind of hit, not just one that’s a hit. One that has emotive qualities.”

Deana Carter (Shave) 1 OC: …20 years ago. 1:38
“Hi I’m Deana Carter, and I am so excited to be celebrating 20 years of Did I Shave My Legs for This? on vinyl. Can you believe it? I sure can’t. There was a long journey to the release of Did I Shave My Legs for This? I had a development deal in my mid-20s. I was signed originally as an alternative artist on Patriot, which was a branch of Capitol Records. And we did a European version of the record which was totally different than the version that’s known in the U.S. I got to fly to Abby Road over in London, and we mastered that record at Abby Road, and I toured over there all over in Europe. It was so much fun. And then we did a rerecord for the U.S. release, new production and things. I did co-produce the record, which has a large, large component of why it sounds and the songs and the direction and all that stuff. I was very involved in every note of the album and also just, man, 20 years! Who would’ve thought that all of that blood and sweat from a whole ton of people, record label people — publishers, managers, PR people, video, photographers, touring, lawyers, accountants – it took a village for sure. So, I’m just very, very blessed to still be doing this and to have a re-release of what changed my life 20 years ago.”

Luke Bryan (taking boys fishing) OC: …neat experience. 1:08
“When I look back on my experiences as a kid with my dad, at the top of those lists are always moments that I spent in the outdoors with him. When you’re in a fishing boat with your child for four or five hours, you just can’t replicate that time in any other, I mean, it’s just perfectly well-spent time, in my opinion. You know, I worry do I sometimes take ‘em fishing too much and then they’re gonna burn out on fishing, but I fished every day and I hunted a lot, and that just gives you that type of spirit. It gives you an outdoor kind of spirit, and that will carry you through really the rest of your life, and that’s all I really want to do with them. When I’m an old man and they can look back and go, ‘Thank you, Dad, for putting this time in,’ and always wanting me to come along, and that’s kind of how my dad did it with me. You get to a point in your life where the gift of taking somebody fishing is a very, very neat experience.”

Keith Urban (ACM Entertainer of the Year) OC: …extraordinary. :20
“I’ve always loved putting on concerts and tours and shows and really trying to put on something that’s incredibly entertaining and engaging, so I probably obsess about that part of what I do equal to making records, for sure. So, to get that nomination, along with the Album at this point, is extraordinary.”

Keith Urban (what made Ripcord) OC: …made Ripcord. :17
“I love making music I love making records. I really do, and I’m curious and passionate and hungry about where my art can go. That’s really what drives me completely and it’s what made Ripcord.”

Keith Urban (1st time he heard Blue) OC: …in the studio. :31
“I just know when I heard ‘Blue Ain’t Your Color’ for the first time, it just struck me as one of those rare songs that encompass so many things in it. I couldn’t even label what it was, what style it was. It’s got a bit of soul, it’s got a bit of blues, it’s got a bit of country, it’s got just a big mix of all good things. Lyrically, it’s just an incredible song, incredible song. [It’s got] great melody, great lyric. I was so hopin’ I could do the song justice when we got in the studio.”

Luke Bryan (Entertainer wins) OC: …got it right. :49
“The title is what it is, you know? I mean, my focus in life when I’m on stage is entertaining these fans. If it’s my smile and my demeanor, if it’s my song that does it, if it’s me picking up a child out of the audience and letting them sing, it’s not being so premeditated that you can see it from a mile away. I mean, my main thing is be a fan up there that just gets to sing. That’s kind of how I’ve always approached it, and being called the Entertainer of the Year makes me want to do that to the best of my ability every night for the rest of my life as long as I’m on stage. I want people to leave my shows and go, ‘You know what? Whoever’s voting him Entertainer of the Year, they got it right.’”

Dierks Bentley (growth in album) OC: …understand it. :56
“The record when people listen to it, they’re gonna hear right away that it’s about relationships and hopefully, project their own history and storyline and relationships into this particular album. For me, it has a thread of this guy who starts off in this one place with the song ‘Black,’ kind of in the moment with this one girl and then the cracks and the fissures start to show themselves. The next song, ‘Pick Up,’ you have this desperation and then ‘I’ll Be the Moon,’ there’s some deception going on, and then it just kind of goes from there. It’s a real story about just the highs and lows and really the maturity that I guess I go through, this singer goes through, throughout the album. You know the same guy that’s singing ‘Somewhere on a Beach,’ by the end of the record is singing a song called ‘Different for Girls,’ where he’s obviously matured enough to see that there is a different way that girls and guys handle breakups sometimes and there’s also a stereotype that goes along with that unfortunately, as well, too. A lot of growth throughout the record, but it’s all about relationships and this one person’s journey through love and trying to understand it.”

Eric Church (Kill a Word) OC: …positive way. :34

“‘Kill a Word’ is as proud I’ve ever been as a songwriter, not only because of a turn of phrase and the way the lyrics are, but just the message. I think that the society that we live in today, if you don’t hear this song and look around and see how it relates to the world we live in, then I can’t help you, because it’s so true with everything that’s going on. It’s one of those songs that strikes a chord that I know in my career we’ve never struck, and I hope it strikes something for a lot of people in a positive way.”

Chris Stapleton (Tennessee Whiskey) OC: …version of it. :41
“‘Tennessee Whiskey’ is a song that I love, you know I love great country songs and songwriters, and this is certainly one that is a great country song written by great country songwriters and performed by a great country artists. Certainly, if you try to cover a George Jones or David Allan Coe, you can’t try to out-George Jones George Jones or anything like that. So, if you’re gonna cover something like that, you need to try to move away from that and hopefully make it your own. We kind of happened upon this way of playing this song and had fun with it live and felt like it was something to record that was a good tip of the hat to things we grew up on and loved. I think it’s a unique and interesting version of it.”

Chris Stapleton (Fire Away CMA video) OC: …the video. 1:03
“The label kept asking me if I was going to do a video for the record, and they kept asking what I wanted to do. We were in this meeting hall at the label, and I said, ‘Here’s what I want to do. Here’s the idea,’ and I got dead silence out of it, and they thought I was a crazy man for a minute. Then they went back and thought about it and everybody got on board with it and we found Tim who was a remarkable director to direct, and I had this crazy idea to get Ben Foster in the video and I didn’t know him at all [laughs] at the time, and he was kind enough to do it. He brought in the actual reason for doing it, which was to raise the awareness. I had the idea for a storyline, and then everything happened very organically with that video and he brought Margarita in to play the female role in that video. It became something hopefully that has value beyond just being a video for the sake of doing a video. That’s what I liked about the video.”

Lady Antebellum (Charles happy to be nominated) OC: …means a lot. :31

“Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean you can’t take that for granted. There’s always going to be a new crop of groups and musicians that … and there should be. That’s what the music business is about. That’s what fans want. I mean, I always want something new. I’m always craving it, and so hopefully all this stuff kind of as groups and as artists helps motivate you to be creative and come up with something unique and different. So we never take it for granted because there will be a time when we won’t be in those categories and you know, so, you’re still in the game; you’re still playing on a pretty high level and so that means a lot.”

Carrie Underwood (Forever Country song) OC: …without her. :35
“Well, I think the all three song choices were perfect. When I kind of first heard the idea of them mashing up ‘I Will Always Love You,’ ‘Take Me Home Country Roads’ and ‘On The Road Again’ I was like, ‘How’s that gonna work?,’ because they’re three very different songs by three very different artists. I’m honored to be a part of it and to be singing parts on ‘I Will Always Love You,’ which I actually do in my tour set. So, it’s perfect. And it’s perfect…it’s perfect that Dolly ends it too. It wouldn’t have been right for us to do it without her.”

Kacey Musgraves talks about being a part of “Forever Country.”

Kacey Musgraves (Forever Country song) OC: …pretty special. :30
“This project is crazy. I really respect the roots of the genre, the traditions of it. I just really love it.  So it’s been really fun for me to take that, which inspires me, and mix it with my own new ideas, and me as a 27-year-old girl in 2016 and make it my own thing. So, being a part of this song, a song with my peers but also with these amazing icons and legends is pretty special.”