Dierks Bentley, Hunter Hayes, Kellie Pickler, Clint Black Among Stars Performing At Monday's ACM Honors
Dierks Bentley has been tapped this year to host ACM Honors, the annual event that recognizes and celebrates the special honorees and off-camera category winners from the annual Academy of Country Music Awards, which took place this past April in Las Vegas.
Along with Dierks, performers at the event include Hunter Hayes, Luke Bryan, Clint Black, musician and super-producer T-Bone Burnett, Will Hoge, guitarist Buddy Miller, Rodney Crowell, Dailey & Vincent, Randy Houser, Ashley Monroe and Kellie Pickler.
The guests of honor, though, are an impressive lot themselves and include such country icons as Emmylou Harris, Kenny Chesney, Dwight Yoakam, Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, and even the late Roger Miller.
As Dierks Bentley says in an ACM Honors promo video, the event is "a little peek behind the scenes of the music industry."
The Special Awards recipients are:
· Bobby Braddock – Poet’s Award
· Kenny Chesney – Crystal Milestone Award
· Vince Gill – Career Achievement Award
· Emmylou Harris – Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award
· Gayle Holcomb – Mae Boren Axton Award
· Alan Jackson – Jim Reeves International Award
· Roger Miller (posthumously) – Poet’s Award
· Billy Sherrill – Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award
· Ricky Skaggs - Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award
· Dwight Yoakam - Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award
Additionally, some of those being honored are musicians who didn't get called out during the televised gala. The Musician/Bandleader/Instrumentalist (MBI) award winners include:
· Stuart Duncan - Fiddle Player of the Year
· Shannon Forrest - Percussionist/Drummer of the Year
· Paul Franklin - Steel Guitar Player of the Year
· Kenny Greenberg - Guitarist of the Year
· Aubrey Haynie - Specialty Instrument(s) Player of the Year
· John Hobbs - Piano/Keyboard Player of the Year
· Frank Liddell - Producer of the Year
· Justin Niebank - Audio Engineer of the Year
· Michael Rhodes - Bass Player of the Year
The ACM Honors event takes place this coming Monday, September 24, at 7pm CT at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, and you can still get tickets.
- Kurt Wolff, CBS Local
