Last night on CBS, The Academy of Country Music recognized George Straight as the Artist of the decade for 1999-2009.  They held a tribute concert in which all the big names of country music sang George Straight songs.  The show aired last evening (way past my bedtime) so I DVRed it and watched it this morning on my lunch break.  It was a fantastic event to recognize one of the greatest country music singers of all time.  It was amazing to see the artists come up to the stage, one after the other, and every one of them talked about how much they had been influenced by George Straight.  George sat there with a big smile on his face and would gently nod in a sign of approval as each artist sang his songs.  Several of the singers came over and had George sign their guitars.  It was cool to see that even though these people are considered "big time" stars you could still see they were true fans and idolized George Straight.  Garth Brooks was the artist of the decade for the 1990s and "passed the torch" on to George.  He did an excellent job in describing how awkward it felt for him to pass an award on to George Straight.  He said "I pass on the torch to a man that has been carrying the torch of country music for the past 30 years."  It was a cool moment.  The ending was very neat as George sang his final song he invited all the artists that had sang that night up on stage to sing along with him.  So here you had all the huge names of country music from Toby Keith to Tim McGraw to Taylor Swift singing on the same stage as George Straight, yet there was no doubt who the true "king" was.

Did you catch the show?  What are your thoughts?