New honor. Who dis?
When Luke Bryan was planning his acoustic set list for last night’s (Oct. 22) show at the Grand Ole Opry, he had no idea what was about to happen.
It was this:
The Academy of Country Music’s R.A. Clark (RAC) honored Bryan with the ACM’s first-ever Album of the Decade award for his 4th album, from 2013, Crash My Party.
“Crash My Party was such a life-changing album for us,” Bryan said as he picked up the trophy. “We didn’t know it at the time, we were just loving making music for you guys. It blew my mind the love and support we had from the fans. It’s so fun getting to do this. Thank you to my producer Jeff (Stevens) and my record label and management for sharing this experience with me tonight!”
This new AOTD award recognizes an album that has impacted country music over a ten-year span. Some of the things that determine the recipient is the music’s success at country radio, the album concept, the sales and streaming, and most importantly, the album’s artistic merit. All of which Bryan had on that album six years ago.
According to a press release, Crash My Party was the largest sales debut for a country male artist since 2004, selling nearly 530,000 albums its first week and debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and the Country sales chart. As for artistic merit, the stack of No. 1 singles from the album was staggering: “Crash My Party,” “That’s My Kind of Night,” Drink A Beer,” “Play It Again,” “Roller Coaster,” and “I See You.”
And that brings us to 2029. If the ACM does this again in ten more years, what album do you think might be worthy of the new Album of the Decade honor by then? Or should we just wait and see what’s next from all the country stars out there making their best music every damn day?
Bryan was also at the Opry to flip the switch for the 11th annual Opry Goes Pink, the tradition of changing the signature barn pink to raise awareness for the fight against breast cancer.
