Forget whether or not New York City or country music need each other: If having the CMA Awards means that Mayor Bloomberg must awkwardly wear cowboy hats and hold guitars, then four more year! The CMA tried to pull out all the stops: Mayor Bloomberg introducing Garth Brooks (as Garth Brooks, but file this: A great Halloween costume idea is to be "Chris Gaines"), and then Bon Jovi! Billy Joel! Olivia Newton-John! 
Gothamist caught a little bit of the show last night (we couldn't quite liveblog as there was Gilmore Girls, My Name is Earl, The Office, and Law & Order: SVU on) but we did watch the duo Big & Rich perform:
- "Big & Rich" is the name of the group? Really?
- Big & Rich look stylized in the way that only musicians and gay men can (one of them looks totally like a cross between the gay decorator on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Carson Kressly)
- There's confetti which looks just litter, so that's a NYC connection!
- They are singing something about New York City, but the Southern twang is confusing us (the NY Times explains that the song is "Comin' to Your City" but changed the chorus to "Comin' to New York City")
The NY Post doesn't hide its feelings about the CMA's: "The star of last night's Country Music Awards at Madison Square Garden didn't sing a note or win a prize. It was New York City, which lent the show the credibility and elegance it's always lacked." Well, a backhanded compliment is better than none, we guess.
Lee Ann Womack and Keith Urban were big winners. Did you see the telecast?
