Best: Luke Combs Is Mr. Reliable

There’s a reason Luke Combs’s performance of “1, 2 Many” was chosen to open the CMT Awards broadcast — and with no disrespect to his Country Music Hall of Fame guests, it wasn’t because of Brooks and Dunn. The North Carolina songwriter has evolved into country music’s most reliable star. Every single is a winner, his album and EP releases are events, and his gregarious stage presence suggests a good time is on the way. For “1, 2 Many,” he did exactly what CMT needed him to do: create a party atmosphere for a show whose goal was to relieve viewers’ pandemic fatigue. That Combs shot-gunned a beer onstage didn’t hurt either.
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