Tuesday night was the big night for country music artists, songwriters and their labels. The winners were announced and the party started. There were surprises for some artists and disappointments for others.

Alan Jackson lead the nominations with 7 total but walked away empty handed. Toby Keith came to the awards show with 6 nomination and also walked away empty handed for the second straight year. One of the biggest surprises of the night was on Kenny Chesney who won Entertainer of the Year, along with Album of the Year, his first ever CMA awards. Not really a surprise, given their current popularity, Rascal Flatts won Vocal Group of the Year for the second straight time and Brooks & Dunn won Duo of the Year for the 12th time. Gretchen Wilson, on her daughter Gracie's birthday, took home the Horizon Award. Tim McGraw took home Single of the Year honors for "Live Like You Were Dying" and the songwriting duo of Tim Nichols and Craig Wiseman took home the Song of the Year honors for the same song. Martina McBride took home Female Artist of the Year honors and Keith Urban Male Artist of the Year honors. Musical Event of the Year and Music Video of the Year honors went to Brad Paisley and Allison Krauss for "Whiskey Lullaby".

Brooks & Dunn hosted the event and seemed to enjoy themselves. They did do a bit of laughing at themselves making jokes about where Vince Gill might be. Although, in this viewers opinion, the guys didn't seem to feel quite comfortable and sometimes a bit stiff, following Vince can't be an easy thing, they did a good job hosting. Dolly Parton, who presented the Entertainer of the Year award, was her usual robust, funny self making jokes about her having won the award before and if anyone remembered the year she won, they were to keep it to themselves.

The vocal performances lived up to previous years, the one performance that I enjoyed was the one with Toby Keith and his daughter Krystal. They came onstage and sang "Mockingbird". Someone better sign that little girl quick, she could give her daddy a run for his money in my opinion. So now it's your turn, stop by the forum and let me know what you thought of the show and the winners.