Country music's past and future came together all in one place at the 2016 ACM Awards in Las Vegas on Sunday night (April 3), when Luke Bryan opened the show with his latest single, 'Huntin', "Fishin' and Lovin' Every Day."

Bryan was clad in his usual ball cap and playing acoustic guitar during the track. He opened the show after a brief chat with co-host Dierks Bentley, assuring him he'd bring him on as planned ... but in a comic twist, when he announced Bentley, former ACMs co-host Blake Shelton took the stage instead, joining Bryan for the latter half of the track.

"Huntin', Fishin' and Lovin' Every Day" is the current single from Bryan’s Kill the Lights album, which he released in August of 2015. The song is a step in a slightly different direction for the ultra-contemporary country superstar, featuring a strong streak of classic Alabama in the arrangement.

Bryan is co-hosting the awards again this year, joined for the first time by Dierks Bentley, who is stepping in for the departing Blake Shelton. He also nominated for Entertainer of the Year again this year, an award he took home in 2015. He's facing off against Miranda Lambert, Eric Church, Garth Brooks and Jason Aldean for the biggest honor of the night.

“Anytime you get the Entertainer nomination, it is a huge deal, and you know you are always going to be in there with the best of the best, and certainly all of the other nominees are that,” he tells The Boot. “It is always an exciting moment of the night; the big Entertainer portion of the show is pretty crazy stuff.”

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