Taylor Swift: Young, fearless and in control
The country-pop star wins Entertainer of the Year and three other prizes in a night dominated by up-and-comers.
In 1958, Johnny Cash released the song "Ballad of a Teenage Queen," the story of
a pretty small-town girl who won Hollywood fame but gave it all up for the boy
next door. In 2009 -- on Wednesday night, actually, in Nashville, at the annual
Country Music Assn. Awards ceremony -- Taylor
Swift updated and obliterated that story line.
The 19-year-old
songwriter and universe-shifting star won in four categories, beating out
mainstays such as Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban to claim country music for
youth, femininity and pop. She also performed two numbers and was the subject of
much running humor throughout the program, which found its spark whenever one of
country's current batch of New Non-Traditionalists took the stage.
Swift
started things out with a version of "Forever and Always" that was glitzy and
high-concept -- and off-tune, a consistent characteristic of Swift's live
outings that gave the lie to her one undeserved triumph, for best female
vocalist. The prize should have gone to Carrie Underwood, country's most
powerful young singer and the evening's co-host with Brad
Paisley.
Struggling for her notes but not showing any concern about it,
Swift made a flurry of arena-rock moves, shaking her long, gold tresses as if
she were Robert Plant and sliding down a shiny pole in what seemed like a
defiant nod toward her friend Miley Cyrus, who took guff for similar gyrations
on this year's Teen Choice Awards. By the end of this production number, she
owned the night. And she kept on owning it, right down to her tearful acceptance
of the Entertainer of the Year prize, which she shared with her touring band and
her fans, "and the shirts you made yourselves."
In a flash, it seemed,
country had transformed from the mellow ol' boys club of Chesney and Urban to a
girls' army led by Swift and her sign-waving devotees, who sang along in a
(clearly staged, but still effective) campfire version of her coming-of-age
ballad, "Fifteen." But Swift isn't forging country's new future
alone.
Beyond Swift's presence and performances, which thoroughly
dominated the night, others found ways to throw off the spark of change. Darius
Rucker, who'd already broken down doors as a black soft-rock star with
Hootie & the Blowfish in the mid-1990s, took a supremely sloppy,
crowd-hugging run through his hit "Alright," then gave the most ecstatic speech
of the night as best new artist -- he's the first African American to win in
that category.
The impeccable Paisley played a sparkly blue guitar and
sang his ode to tech-inspired liberalism, "Welcome to the Future." Underwood
apparently borrowed a cut-away gown and some dance moves from Katy Perry for a
version of "Cowboy Casanova" that reminded us this quintessential country
bombshell is a genre-buster too. And both Reba McEntire and Jennifer Nettles of
Sugarland delivered gorgeous vocal performances that stood as a welcome and a
challenge to Swift: a welcome for her emotionality and feminine insight, and a
challenge for her to find a singing voice that can take her into
adulthood.
At the spectrum's other end, the rough-hewn neo-classicist
Jamey Johnson (who, unfortunately, was saddled with Kid Rock as a duet partner)
and the luminescent country rocker Miranda Lambert showed, with steady
performances of great songs, that traditions don't have to be smashed into new
shapes -- they can be tenderly modified as well.
Paisley exemplifies that
approach; Underwood, reading from the night's script, noted that her co-host
"honors our past and points the way to our future at the same time." The country
music establishment is clearly hoping that change will come on these careful
terms. Honoring an outsider like Song of the Year winner Johnson, who isn't
slick like Chesney and Urban but at least isn't a teenager or a former
alternative-rock star, was one way of lighting that more comfortable
path.
This is Nashville, though, where elders are honored and customs are
preserved. As always, George Strait performed and was cheered, the camera
dwelled on ladies swooning at Urban (including his wife Nicole Kidman, of
course), and Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, standing for married bliss, held hands
as they walked onstage to give Swift her final award.
The kid's big win
might be just one step in her important rise, but for her, it was also a seal of
parental approval. Beaming toward her dad, seated in the audience, Swift said
through tears, "I will never forget this moment, because in this moment,
everything I ever wanted has just happened to me."
The teenage queen had
arrived at her homecoming, and without even meaning to do it, started a whole
new game.
ann.powers@latimes.com
'I feel like I'm in a dream' -- Taylor Swift, CMA 2009 entertainer of the year Best and Worst: 43rd Annual Country Music Assn. Awards Taylor Swift is youngest to ever win CMA's top award CMA Awards 2009 Scorecard: Complete nominees and winners CMA Awards 2009: All the performances, as they happen Taylor Swift could wire her way to entertainer of the year The CMA Awards: They're important -- really Brad Paisley earns six Country Music Assn. nominations Album review: Carrie Underwood's 'Play On' Grammys 2010: An early look at album of the year 'Thug Story' and beyond: The Taylor Swift award show reign begins Rihanna, Taylor & Miley: Not their grandma’s type of feminism Grammys: Even without a nom, Taylor Swift wins big Photo credits: Getty Images