"Best $2k I Ever Spent!" The Alarmingly Low Key Fashions Of The 2011 CMT Artists Of The Year Show

Whenever I argue about modern country music with friends or relatives who listen to it, I inevitably take flack for asserting that it must really bother today's leading country artists that they don't enjoy the crossover mainstream name recognition of, say, hip-hop artists. And while I understand the counter-argument that they sell a shitload of records, I still think that there's a much wider swath of consumers that have never heard of Lady Antebellum than, say, Drake.

[Marisha Wagner, Chantell Paige, Taylor Swift, Charity Baroni, Elizabeth Huett via]

Brad Paisley, Joe Walsh

Maybe this explains why the fashion and guests of the 2011 CMT Artists Of The Year show, which taped last night in Nashville, seemed subdued, broad, and utterly designed to cross over.

[all photos via]