Sweet 16th for ACMs and Reba McEntire
Country music legend will host the awards show for the 16th time Sunday
At last year’s Academy of Country Music Awards, host Reba McEntire stole the show when she re-wore her famous sheer red dress that had its own pop culture moment when she first debuted the form-fitting look in 1993. ❚ “The dress was stretchy, thank God,” quipped the 64year-old country singer. ❚ And like the red dress, McEntire remains the perfect fit for the ACMs. The entertainment icon, ever relevant, will serve as host for the 16th time when the 54th ACM Awards air live from MGM Grand’s Garden Arena at 7 p.m. Sunday on CBS.
Performers include McEntire, Brooks & Dunn, Brandi Carlile, Eric Church, Kelly Clarkson, Luke Combs, Dan + Shay, Florida Georgia Line, Ashley McBryde, Kane Brown, Miranda Lambert, Chris Stapleton, George Strait and ACM Dick Clark Artist of the Decade Award honoree Jason Aldean.
“Reba is the consummate host in that she understands what it takes to put a show together,” ACM Awards producer RAC Clark said. “Her sitcom experience, her Broadway experience, all of that comes into the fold when it comes to being a host. People love her. She’s one of the best in the business.”
McEntire, who herself has won 16 ACM trophies, said there was one thing that had no place on the show: politics.
“We’re not here to give them airtime,” she said. “This is country music.”
Dressed head to toe in black and perched on a chair in a dressing room at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, McEntire said the artists, managers, bands, wives and husbands in the show’s audience have dedicated years of hard work to country music and the stage needs to belong to them.
McEntire isn’t a writer for the show — that’s a job that belongs to her dear friend and “Reba” co-star Melissa Peterman and seasoned awards show veteran Barry Adelman. The singer considers herself an editor in the process, and in early March she said she was thrilled the writing process was already underway.
‘Stronger Than the Truth’
While she doesn’t consider herself a creator for the ACM Awards, McEntire is well versed in how to record an album. Her 29th studio project — “Stronger Than the Truth” — is a return to her dance-hall-meets-sad-song Oklahoma country roots and will be available Friday. McEntire co-produced the project with veteran country music producer Buddy Cannon. As she planned it, the 12-song collection is packed with swinging ditties you can dance to. But it also contains story songs and heartbreak, and love eventually wins.
“She loves good stone cold country music,” said Big Machine Records General Manager Jim Weatherson. “We let her take control, 100 percent creative freedom. When you get into the songs themselves, they define what stone cold country is. These are very real, relatable stories.”
McEntire’s process is deliberate. She starts each album the same way — with a prayer.
“Lord, if there’s somebody out there who needs to hear a song to heal their heart, please help me find it and be the one to sing it,” McEntire said.
If she speaks the prayer into the universe, she believes there’s a good chance divine intervention will take over.
“Whether it’s angels or the Holy Spirit, all they want to do is please you and help you and here they come to the rescue,” she explained. “It’s that positive thinking … it’s powerful, and it works.”
The new album is a personal project for the singer and is packed with songs that evoke treasured family memories.
During her early days as a singer, McEntire played dance halls and dances at rodeos with her sister Susie and her brother Pake McEntire. The sisters sang harmony, and when McEntire felt the urge, she’d tell Pake to sing something she could dance to.
“I’d hop right off the front of the bandstand and start dancing,” she said. And, not with any random cowboy. “It had to be a good looking one.”
She believes she recorded “two really good dance songs” for the album and said that when she played it for her mom and sisters the last time they were in Las Vegas, everyone “hopped up and started dancing right there in the hotel room.”
“I love to dance,” she said emphatically. “It makes you feel good.”
And she said her mama loved it. “It’s a new way of listening to music nowadays, but this type of song goes back to when my mama was a kid,” she explained. “The 4/4, two-stepping, going around the dance floor in an oval shape. Great memories for me, and now my kids and my grandkids will be able to hear it how I heard it when I was a kid.”
‘I hoard songs like most people hoard junk’
In addition to the dance songs, McEntire co-wrote two tracks on the album. She penned the swinging country tune “No U In Oklahoma” with her friends Ronnie Dunn and Donna McSpadden and was inspired by her sister’s engagement announcement to co-write “In His Mind” with Liz Hengber and Tommy Lee James.
“I thought about what her first husband would think about when he saw it, and I bet in his mind he thinks, ‘She’s going to come back to me,’ ” McEntire said. “That’s what the song is about. It’s a very sad song.”
McEntire included a stripped-down piano vocal performance on the album for her mother, 92-year-old Jacqueline McEntire. The singer found “You Never Gave Up On Me” a couple of years ago when she was compiling songs for her gospel album “Sing It Now: Songs of Faith & Hope.” She came across it again as she was scrolling through songs on her computer for “Stronger Than the Truth.”
“I hoard songs like most people hoard junk,” McEntire said.
Written by Billy Aerts and Burton Collins, “You Never Gave Up On Me” was intended to be about God, but when McEntire thought about her mother’s unwavering support, she knew it was for her. McEntire added the words “thank you, mama” to the end of the song. She was so emotional the first time she sang it, McEntire is unsure if she’ll ever sing it again.
Weatherson said that McEntire’s willingness to show her vulnerability is a key reason her career and her songs have endured the test of time.