THE 49th annual Country Music Association Awards are now in the history books, and one thing is for sure: If music fans weren’t already aware of the name Chris Stapleton, they are now.

    The Mercury Nashville recording artist surprised the industry with a trio of unlikely wins — for male vocalist, new artist of the year and album of the year — and the singer also scored the most-talked about musical moment of the night via his performance with Justin Timberlake. In fact, Stapleton’s night even overshadowed Luke Bryan’s second straight win as entertainer of the year — the first time an artist had repeated in the category since Kenny Chesney won three straight times between 2006 and 2008. Taylor Swift won the award in 2009 and 2011.

    Stapleton — an artist without a top 40 single on the country charts — might not have tallied at radio, but he did receive a ton of positive press for his “Traveller” disc, which took the prize for album of the year. For the first time in 12 years, the CMA voters selected a winner in the album category that didn’t include a top 40 hit, with the last example being “American IV: The Man Comes Around” by Johnny Cash in 2003.

    Little Big Town walked away with single of the year for “Girl Crush.” Florida Georgia Line won their third vocal duo of the year award, while Little Big Town claimed their fourth win for vocal group of year. A streak of six belongs to Miranda Lambert as female vocalist. (SD-Agencies)