Performers Announced for 2021 CMT Artists of the Year Event

Mickey Guyton, Walker Hayes and half a dozen additional country artists are scheduled to perform during the 2021 CMT Artists of the Year event. The Wednesday (Oct. 13) ceremony will also include a few out-of-genre acts as well.

Hayes, in fact, will be making his awards show debut with his performance of his viral hit-turned-Applebee's ad jingle "Fancy Like." Guyton, meanwhile, is CMT's 2021 Breakout Artist of the Year and will be performing with Yola.

In addition to Hayes, Guyton and Yola, the 2021 CMT Artists of the Year event will include performances from four of this year's five honorees: Gabby Barrett, Kane Brown, Luke Combs and Kelsea Ballerini, the latter of whom will perform with the Jonas Brothers remotely from their tour stop that night in Raleigh, N.C. Boyz II Men and Pentatonix member Kevin Olusola, meanwhile, will honor this year's fifth CMT Artist of the Year, Chris Stapleton, with their performance.

The 2021 CMT Artists of the Year show will air live from Nashville's Schermerhorn Symphony Center at 9PM ET on CMT. Randy Travis is also being honored at the event, as 2021's CMT Artist of a Lifetime.

CMT's Artists of the Year event is making its return in 2021 after a hiatus of sorts in 2020. Last year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the show switched gears to celebrate first responders and frontline workers during the pandemic-induced shutdown.

Best Country Albums of 2021 - Critic's Pick

There have been many creative country albums in 2021, but not all have hit the mark. Artists are more than ever toying with distribution methods and packaging as much as they are new sounds, so you get double and triple albums, Part 1 and Part 2, and digital EPs in lieu of a traditional 10 or 11-song release.

The bar for an EP on this list of the best country albums of 2021 is higher than an LP, but one project did crack the Top 10. Too much music proved to dampen other artist's efforts, although Alan Jackson's first album in years was filled with country music we couldn't turn away from. Where Have You Gone has 21 songs, but somehow no filler.

More than ever, this relied on staff opinion and artistic merit to allow for some parity among major label artists and independents. The 10 albums listed below are not ranked, although the year-end list published in the fall will crown a true best album of 2021.

Source: Mickey Guyton, Walker Hayes and More to Perform at 2021 CMT Artists of the Year Ceremony

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Categories: Country News