CMA Awards: Chris Stapleton, New Presenters, Country Now, AT&T

Chris Stapleton has been added to the 49th annual CMA Awards’ star-studded lineup. He will perform with a special guest who will be announced on Monday, Nov. 2.

Stapleton is nominated in the categories of Album of the Year (for Traveller), Male Vocalist of the Year, and New Artist of the Year.

Presenting trophies will be Edie Brickell and Steve Martin; Miss America 2016 Betty Cantrell; ABC’s Wicked City actress Erika Christensen; ESPN College GameDay’s Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit; Sports Illustrated cover model Hannah Davis; reigning New Artist of the Year Brett Eldredge; Charles Kelley of nominated Vocal Group of the Year Lady Antebellum; CMA Country Christmas host Jennifer Nettles; Heather O’Reilly and Megan Rapinoe of the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team; best-selling a cappella group Pentatonix; Reba; Darius Rucker; actor Kiefer Sutherland; Cole Swindell; and Female Vocalist of the Year nominee Lee Ann Womack.

The presentation of pre-televised CMA Awards and honors, including CMA Broadcast Personality and Station of the Year trophies, will be hosted by Warner Music Nashville’s Frankie Ballard.

The producers behind the CMA nominees for Album of the Year are being spotlighted at Country Now, a country music-dedicated YouTube channel. Country Now spoke with Buddy Cannon (Kenny Chesney’s The Big Revival), Dave Cobb (Stapleton’s Traveller), Michael Knox (Jason Aldean’s Old Boots, New Dirt), Jay Joyce (Little Big Town’s Painkiller), and Shane McAnally (Kacey Musgraves’ Pageant Material) about the makings of these CMA-nominated recordings.

The first two segments, featuring Musgraves’ Pageant Material and Aldean’s Old Boots, New Dirt, aired on Oct. 28. Today (Oct. 29) brings videos about Chesney’s The Big Revival and Stapleton’s Traveller.

Meanwhile, AT&T is giving country music fans a front row seat to the red carpet arrivals for The 49th Annual CMA Awards. Available to DIRECTV and U-verse subscribers, Audience Network presents the AT&T CMA Awards Red Carpet show, which will be hosted by Craig Morgan, Michael Ray and Cam, with performances from Hunter Hayes and Jana Kramer.  

The AT&T CMA Awards Red Carpet will air live Nov. 4 (DIRECTV Ch. 239 or U-verse TV Ch. 1114) beginning at 7 p.m. ET to all DIRECTV and AT&T U-verse(®) TV customers, with live streaming beginning 6 p.m. ET at att.com/cmaredcarpet/.

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Jessica Nicholson

Jessica Nicholson serves as the Managing Editor for MusicRow magazine. Her previous music journalism experience includes work with Country Weekly magazine and Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) magazine. She holds a BBA degree in Music Business and Marketing from Belmont University. She welcomes your feedback at jnicholson@musicrow.com.

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