Chris Stapleton, Jon Pardi, Lauren Alaina, more recognize country's best at ACM Honors

Some of country music’s newest and boldest names gathered for the 12th annual ACM Honors at Ryman Auditorium Wednesday night to recognize some of the genre’s most impactful stars. 

Hosted by Lauren Alaina and Jon Pardi, ACM Honors is the program in which the Academy of Country Music recognizes its off-camera award winners. The group presents its annual Academy of Country Music Awards each spring on CBS. And while star-studded categories including Entertainer of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year get television time, specialty award winners and the categories that recognize high achievers in the radio and touring side of country music receive their own night of praise at Ryman Auditorium. 

The sold-out crowd was treated to a night of memorable performances, touching speeches and a bit of nostalgia. 

Alaina and Pardi kicked the event off with a performance of Alan Jackson’s 1990s hit “Chasin’ that Neon Rainbow.” Jackson, who was awarded the Cliffie Stone Icon Award at the end of the program, was also honored with a soulful performance of his first hit “Here in the Real Word” by Chris Stapleton.

Via video, George Strait said Jackson “writes great country songs (and) sings them real (well). He’s the whole package.”

Jackson wasn’t present, but his daughter Mattie Jackson Selecman accepted the trophy on his behalf.

Dierks Bentley was recognized with the Merle Haggard Spirit Award. Before the show, Bentley joked that it’s an honor to receive anything with Haggard’s name on it – even a bottle of salad dressing.

Artists ranging from U2’s Bono to country duo Maddie & Tae shared their love of Bentley via video, and Pardi did an acoustic version Bentley’s signature hit “I Hold On” as Bentley watched from the audience.

“When he sings ‘Home,’ I feel patriotic about America and I’m not even American,” Bono said. 

Ricky Skaggs, who presented Bentley with the award, explained: “Dierks has never been afraid to color outside the lines because like Merle Haggard, he keeps his heroes close to his heart. I think that’s what country music needs.”

The honor is much more meaningful to Bentley than a condiment.

“I don’t take this lightly,” Bentley said. “It’s always going to be easy when you do something you love to do. For all of my success and failures, I’ve always loved country music. It’s the reason I still crank the dial on 650 AM. It’s the reason my band and I go on dressed in '90s clothes and sing Alan Jackson songs.”

Matraca Berg gets 'verklempt'

Alaina, Ashley McBryde and Deana Carter formed a powerhouse trio to honor country singer/songwriter Matraca Berg who, along with Norro Wilson, received the Poet’s Award. Alaina covered Kenny Chesney’s “You and Tequila,” McBryde jammed through Trisha Yearwood’s “Wrong Side of Memphis" and Carter sang her signature hit “Strawberry Wine.” Berg penned all the songs and said that watching Carter launch her career with “Strawberry Wine” was one of her proudest moments as a songwriter.

“Hearing her material changed the way I write songs and if it happened for me, it happened for countless others,” McBryde said of Berg.

“There are few people who inspire me in songwriting, who show us how to take an emotion and build off of it,” Chesney said in a video for Berg. 

“Girls rule,” Berg said, her voice breaking, while accepting her trophy. “I’m a little verklempt. I was born and raised in Nashville in a music business family … to get one along with the great Norro Wilson is so special. Thank you so much. This means the world.”

Darius Rucker credits his mom

Old Crow Medicine Show delivered a raucous version of “Wagon Wheel” for Darius Rucker. The band’s Ketch Secor told the audience to “sing it up in the Mother Church” as he danced with his fiddle at the edge of the stage.

Kip Moore presented Rucker with his Gary Haber Lifting Lives Award, which recognizes Rucker’s charity work. Currently, the singer is working to raise money to build a children’s hospital in his hometown of Charleston, S.C.

“In a world that feels like it’s all gone to Hell a little bit this year, we can all look at Darius Rucker and know there are good people around us,” Moore said. 

Rucker gave his mother all the credit for his charity work. 

“I don’t do what I do for awards,” Rucker said. “I do it because my mom taught me when I was a kid that if you can help anyone less fortunate than you, that’s what you’re supposed to do.”

The night’s other highlights included Kassi Ashton’s sexy, sassy performance of “Body Like a Back Road” for Sam Hunt, who was given the Gene Weed Milestone Award. Cam got the night’s first standing ovation for her crystalline delivery of “Crying Time” during her tribute to Eddie Miller, and Mickey and Chris Christensen who were given the Mae Boren Axton Service Award.

Morgan Evans memorably paid tribute to his former manager Rob Potts who was posthumously awarded the Jim Reeves International Award. Potts was killed last year in a motorcycle accident. Evans, who just charted his first No. 1 song with “Kiss Somebody,” built his backing music to his song “Things that We Drink To” track-by-track as the audience watched. The crowd leaped to its feet. 

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Rhett Akins: 'This goes out to all the dreamers.'

Rhett Akins was named ACM’s Songwriter of the Year. His frequent songwriting partners Dallas Davidson and Ben Hayslip along with hit country singer Dustin Lynch sang a medley of Akins’s songs including “ Huntin,’ Fishin’ and Lovin’ Every Day,” “I Lived It” and Lynch’s recent multi-week No. 1 “Small Town Boy.”

“This goes out to all the dreamers, this can happen for sure,” Akins said.

The Georgia native came to Nashville for the first time in the early ‘90s, visited the Ryman Auditorium and dropped into a nearly vacant bar on Lower Broadway to hear the singer. The guy invited him on stage, handed him his telephone number and told him to call him if he ever moved to Nashville. 

“Six one five, Kenny Chesney,” Akins said. “He had nothing. And if he could do it, I could. Kenny Chesney is playing for 65,000 people a night and my son (Thomas Rhett) is on tour with Kenny Chesney.”

Reach Cindy Watts at 615-664-2227, ciwatts@tennessean.com or on Twitter @CindyNWatts.