I watched the Academy Of Country Music Awards last night and I was very disappointed. There was very little country music. It seemed more like the pop music awards. It is a shame what happened to country music over the years. To me, there is nothing country about Taylor Swift, Lady Antebellum or Gloriana. Even some of the music from Carrie Underwood really isn't country. It was almost a chore to watch the entire show.

The highlights of the show, in my opinion, were Charlie Daniels on the fiddle in the beginning, Toby Keith's tribute song to Wayman Tisdale, "Crying For Me" and, aside from the microphone malfunction, Brooks And Dunn. Laure Bell Bundy's "Giddy On Up" was also good.

Country music has evolved over time from the days of Hank Williams Sr. to Willie Nelson to Travis Tritt to Kenny Chesney. Today's country music is missing the two stepping songs, the steel guitar, the fiddle solos and the "Southern Twang" of yesteryear. With the rare exception, most of today's country can and is played on mainstream radio. 20 years ago there was no country music on the radio except the few country stations that were left. I first notice that country music was changing back in 2001 when my wife and I decided to use the song Amazed by Lonestar for our wedding song. I discovered that there was the original version and the "radio version". Apparently the radio version didn't have the steels guitars. I had to make sure we had the "country version".

At the rate country music is changing and evolving, pretty soon there won't be any country music left at all.

Well, at least I still have my country CDs and the country music channels on TV.