Carrie Underwood	Rascal Flatts

Superstar and perennial fan favorite Keith Urban snagged Video of the Year honors for "Better Life," the only award viewers voted on during the actual broadcast.

Keith Urban	Dolly Parton	Hank Williams Jr.

The seemingly unstoppable Rascal Flatts were awarded Group/Duo Video of the Year for the touching "Skin (Sarabeth)," while Most Inspiring Video of the Year went to "When I Get Where I'm Going," which featured the divine harmonies of BMI Icon Dolly Parton.

Each year, the Johnny Cash Visionary Award honors a true pioneer of the country music genre. Past recipients include BMI Icon Loretta Lynn, the Dixie Chicks, Reba McEntire and Johnny Cash himself. This year, BMI living legend Hank Williams Jr. received the illustrious distinction. Williams' staggering list of accomplishments includes worldwide album sales surpassing 50 million and current preparations to release his 70th album this year.

The only awards show whose winners are strictly determined by the fans, the CMT Music Awards celebrate the music videos that capture the imaginations and tug on the heart strings of millions of country music devotees each year.

BMI's 2006 CMT Music Award Winners:

Video of the Year
Keith Urban
"Better Life"

Female Video of the Year
Carrie Underwood
"Jesus, Take the Wheel"

Group/Duo Video of the Year
Rascal Flatts
"Skin (Sarabeth)"

Breakthrough Video of the Year
Carrie Underwood
"Jesus, Take the Wheel"

Most Inspiring Video of the Year
"When I Get Where I'm Going"
featuring Dolly Parton

Johnny Cash Visionary Award
Hank Williams Jr.

That’s not to say that she isn’t bringing her impeccable lineage into her definitive, cohesive brand of songwriter’s pop, which carries tinges of Patty Griffin, Bob Dylan and Jonatha Brooke. She’s just not letting it overwhelm her. “People always say it must be really hard for you to be Hank’s daughter,” she laughs. “But really, my whole career and everything that’s happened for me has happened the same as if I was not who I am. People have been very cool about it that I’m trying to do my thing. It’s been good.”

Though she’s only been seriously pursuing songwriting for six years or so, she has already become a formidable artist, as her recent signing with Universal South attests. Williams has an album, co-produced by herself and Monroe Jones, due from the label in early fall, and in the meantime her notoriety continues to grow. A hushed, piano-tinged cover of her grandfather’s “How Can You Refuse Him Now” enjoys prominent placement on Songs Inspired By the Passion Of the Christ , which also features Dylan, Leonard Cohen and The Blind Boys of Alabama.

Those musical and personal extremes are reflected on Hank III's second album, Lovesick, Broke & Driftin', on which the brashly charismatic upstart sticks to a stark, stripped-down sound that enhances the swagger of honky-tonk tunes like "Whiskey, Weed and Women" and "Mississippi Mud," while spotlighting the darker lyrical edge of such numbers as "Walkin' with Sorrow" and "Cecil Brown."

The third-generation iconoclast launched his country-music career in a characteristically unconventional manner. Although he'd been raised on hard rock and played in a variety of teen punk combos, he accepted an offer to perform as the featured act in a Hank Sr. tribute show in Branson, Missouri.

Hank III quickly proved himself a natural. After winning a deal with Curb Records, he released his 1999 debut album, Risin' Outlaw, which he now dismisses as over-produced and unrepresentative of his musical vision. For Lovesick, Broke & Driftin', Williams took hold of the creative reigns, co-producing the album and writing 12 of its 13 songs. The remaining tune is a manic reworking of Bruce Springsteen's "Atlantic City."

"Most of the songs on Lovesick were written at times when I was feeling vulnerable and a bit blue," Williams says, "so I had no qualms about writing what I felt at the time. For some reason, in my songwriting I've always been attracted to gloomy, darker scenarios and this one is no different."

Although Curb has marketed him as a country artist, Hank III's live shows offer an unpredictable mix of honky-tonk and raw, propulsive rock, delivered in varying proportions depending on the venue. He's played the country circuit as well as sharing stages with such left-of-center rock acts as Beck, the Melvins and the Reverend Horton Heat, and has recorded a rock album that he hopes to release later this year.

"As far as songwriting goes, I'll never compete with Hank Williams Sr.," Hank III concludes. "I just try to do my own thing. But I totally respect the legacy and am well aware of its place in history and what it means to people. Hell, it means a lot to me."

Indeed, Anderson's compositions have been recorded by an impressively broad array of acts, including Tim McGraw, Alabama, Wynonna, Deana Carter, Lonestar, Shenandoah, Jerry Lee Lewis, Aaron Tippin, Neal McCoy, Asleep at the Wheel, Etta James, K.T. Oslin, Sara Evans, Charlie Daniels, Tanya Tucker, Chris LeDoux, Deborah Allen, Ty England, Sammy Kershaw, Billy Ray Cyrus, Confederate Railroad, T. Graham Brown, Joe Diffie, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Neal McCoy, Rhonda Vincent, Stacy Dean Campbell, Lari White, Jason Sellers, Robbie Fulks and Olivia Newton-John.

Though he's risen to the level of Nashville royalty in recent years, Anderson was well known to rock fans long before he stormed the country charts. He first made his mark as singer, guitarist and main writer of the Connecticut foursome the Wildweeds, who scored a substantial regional hit in 1967 with his composition "No Good to Cry," and subsequently in a 24-year stint with the beloved cult band NRBQ. Over the course of a dozen or so NRBQ albums, Anderson contributed numerous memorable tunes, and was celebrated equally for his stellar instrumental work; in 1993, Musician magazine named him one of the Top 100 guitar players of the century.
At the end of 1993, Big Al shocked NRBQ's fans by exiting the hard-touring band to concentrate on working behind the scenes as a songwriter. Anderson says the decision to quit had more to do with embracing sobriety than any dissatisfaction with the legendarily eclectic band.

"I'll tell ya, those are very fuzzy years," Anderson laughs. "Playing with NRBQ was a great school, and I can't tell you how much I learned from those guys. It wasn't until I got clean that I realized that 24 years of the Quality Inn and Red Roof and smoky clubs and the same broken chairs in the dressing room was getting old for me. I was in the most free band in rock & roll, but I started to feel limited."

Anderson had actually begun going to Nashville to co-write in the mid-'80s, and Hank Williams Jr. recorded his "You're Gonna Be A Sorry Man" in 1988, but it wasn't until after leaving NRBQ that he began pursuing the life of a professional songwriter in earnest. His transition from road warrior to pro tunesmith began when he and Carlene Carter co-wrote "Every Little Thing," which became the biggest hit of Carter's career. Anderson followed that success with another Carter collaboration, "Something Already Gone," for the Maverick film soundtrack, and hasn't looked back since.

Anderson has also found himself in demand as a session player for the inventive guitar chops he honed during his years on the road, and his distinctively gruff vocals have been tapped for numerous commercial jingles. But it's his writing talents that are his main focus these days.
"I've learned a lot, but I still have no idea what I'm doing," he says. “I'm still a rock & roll guy, and I believe in recognizing the value of dumbness. My motto is 'Make dumb good.' 'All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down' is, like, the dumbest song ever written — the chorus is exactly the same melody as the verses — but it's the greatest record goin'."

Anderson, whose discography includes three solo releases, says that he's hoping to release a new album of his own at some point in the near future, though not under his own name. He's more interesting in making an album with his Nashville-based combo Whitey, which also includes the aforementioned Jeffrey Steele, guitarist Scott Baggett, bassist Glenn Worf, keyboardist Reese Wynans and drummer Chad Cromwell. Though the band has played some local dates and Anderson admits that he misses performing, he's quick to add that he's in no hurry to return to the road.

"I'm not getting on the bus again," he says. "Considering that I'll be 54 in July, (songwriting) is a much nicer way to be making a living in music. I like feeling good every day."

Staunchly following his muse resulted in numerous hit albums and singles for Daniels in the 1970s and '80s. He will probably always be best known for his 1979 country-rock anthem, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia."

But more than anything, Daniels's independent spirit has garnered him the type of long and steady career that's rarely achieved in the record industry. The almost-64-year-old North Carolina native has toiled in the business for over 40 years, and during this span, he's released 35 albums.

Earlier this year, his Charlie Daniels Band released its latest album, Road Dogs, on the Blue Hat label. Not surprisingly, the disc finds the outfit delivering its patented mix of rock, country, bluegrass, blues and gospel. It's a musical stew Daniels simply describes as "CDB," or Charlie Daniels Band, music. Its penchant for long songs and extended instrumental solos led one critic to brand the group "a countrified Grateful Dead."

Daniels main objective as a performer is to entertain people. But he's also a committed Christian and activist with plenty of strong social and political opinions.

Since 1974, Daniels has spearheaded the Volunteer Jam, fund raising concerts benefiting such organizations as Habitat for Humanity. In the past, such singers and groups as Billy Ray Cyrus, Tanya Tucker, Amy Grant, the Outlaws, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Alabama, the Allman Brothers, Steppenwolf and Willie Nelson have performed at the Volunteer Jams. For the last two years, the Volunteer Jam has been the Volunteer Jam Tour. This year's tour featured Little Feat, Hank Williams Jr., Edgar Winter and a host of surprise guests.

Daniels's fans can find out how the vocalist-guitarist-fiddler views the world by logging onto his website, www.charliedaniels.com. Here he writes a regular column in which he expresses his largely conservative opinions on such issues as abortion (he's against it) and the confederate flag (he's distanced himself from it because it's been appropriated by racists). Fittingly, he has a standing invitation to appear on ABC's topical gabfest, Politically Incorrect.

In 1964, Daniels sold his first song, "It Hurts Me," to Elvis Presley. The track was a B side to Presley's single "Kissin' Cousins." Daniels received a check for $5 for the song. In the late '60s and early '70s, Daniels performed on four albums by Bob Dylan, including the influential country album Nashville Skyline.

In 1973, the newly formed Charlie Daniels Band began to attract attention thanks to the song "Uneasy Rider." Daniels subsequently scored hit albums with 1975's Fire on the Mountain and Saddle Tramp in 1976. Thanks to the Grammy-winning song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," his 1979 Million Mile Reflections album went multi-platinum. 1980's Full Moon, 1982's Windows and 1989's Simple Man were also popular albums.

"If you want to make a serious career, you have to take care of yourself," says Daniels. "You can't maintain that singing in the clubs and staying up all night. . . . I did my share when I was younger, but longevity is very important to me."