Even though the Academy Of Country Music won’t present its premier awards until their Awards Show is broadcast on May 23rd, the winners of their Pre Show Awards were announced yesterday. Bryan Sutton is the 2006 recipient of the Specialty Instrument Award, with the actual trophy to be handed out prior to the televised presentation on 5/23. Congratulations to Bryan for this honor.

We’ll leave it to others to ponder what it says about modern country music when the acoustic, steel string guitar is considered to be a specialty instrument.