The last time the country superstar accepted the major award of the night was in 1998, almost 20 years ago, when he was the biggest superstar country music had seen.

And something this year’s award ceremony did exceptionally well, was pay homage to the past. There were tributes to great songs and great artists, and it kicked off in fine fashion with the impressive voice of Vince Gill and an acoustic guitar.

Singing the late Merle Haggard’s 1968 hit Mama Tried, with Haggard’s son Ben joining him on lead guitar, the traditional country classic was the first of many fitting tributes.

A medley of songs followed taking us from Brad Paisley singing Buck Owens’ Tiger By The Tail through to the Randy Travis song Forever and Ever Amen.

In between we saw Carrie Underwood belting out Tammy Wynette’s Stand By Your Man, Charley Pride’s Kiss An Angel Good Morning, The Devil Went Down To Georgia, and Alan Jackson’s Don’t Rock The Jukebox.

With all the artists performing Forever and Ever Amen on stage to wind up the medley, there among them stood Randy Travis, who can no longer perform following a stroke. But he received great applause as he managed to utter the final ‘Amen’ in the song’s lyrics, as Carrie Underwood told the audience that Travis was the most recent inductee to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

A highlight of the evening was Dolly Parton receiving the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award. Before she accepted the award, Kacey Musgraves, Reba McEntire, Carrie Underwood, Martina McBride and Jennifer Nettles performed a medley of her hits including Jolene, Nine to Five, Here You Come Again, and I Will Always Love You.

It was 1967 when the first CMA Awards, hosted by Sonny James and Bobbie Gentry, were held at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium. Jack Greene’s hit, There Goes My Everything, won three of the 10 awards that night.

This year, the 1978 Song of the Year, Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue, was included in a medley of classics performed by Brooks and his wife Trisha Yearwood, who won back-to-back Female Vocalist of the Year awards in 1997-98. Brooks and Yearwood also included three duets, kicking off with Johnny Cash and June Carter’s Jackson, later performing Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man which was a hit for Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty, and wrapping up their performance with George Jones and Tammy Wynette’s Golden Ring.

Beyonce joining the Dixie Chicks on stage to sing her song Daddy Lessons stole most of the headlines following the awards evening, but the way the evening paid tribute to its past was first class.

Apart from Brooks, the big winners on the night were Chris Stapleton, who won male vocalist and music video of the year, female vocalist Carrie Underwod and Eric Church who collected Album of the Year.