Miranda Lambert, Lady Antebellum score at CMAs

It was ladies night in more ways than one.

Though Texas-born birthday girl Miranda Lambert entered the night with the most nominations -- nine -- and walked away with four wins, artists with links to Georgia stamped their presence across the 44th Annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday.

Lady Antebellum earned the second-highest tally, winning in two of its six nominated categories, while the Zac Brown Band and Sugarland can each clear their shelves for one more trophy.

Airing live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, the three-hour show galloped briskly under the command of hosts Carrie Underwood and Entertainer of the Year victor Brad Paisley, the pair teetering between stilted and charming.

Their opening patter touched on the Nashville flood, the oil spill and 3D movies (apparently some show writer still thinks jokes about Dolly Parton’s famous assets are hip), and the duo quickly targeted the night’s most buzz-worthy guest, Gwyneth Paltrow.

“Can you get me two Coldplay tickets?” Paisley asked the willowy blond wife of band frontman Chris Martin.

When the visibly tense actress hit the stage in the last quarter of the show for her live singing debut with Vince Gill, she unveiled a perfectly affable, Sheryl Crow-like voice on “Country Strong.”

Earlier in the night, Lady Antebellum offered the first surprise when “Need You Now,” its polished ballad of longing, beat Lambert’s heralded “The House That Built Me” as Single of the Year. The group won the category last year with “I Run To You.”

During the acceptance speech, band multi-instrumentalist Dave Haywood acknowledged his date -- his dad -- in the audience, while bandmate and fellow Augusta native Charles Kelley thanked his musician brother, Josh, who was in the audience with his wife Katherine Heigl, “for making me move to Nashville six years ago.”

But Lambert’s work on “House,” a comforting blanket of nostalgia co-written by Atlanta's  Tom Douglas, triumphed as Song of the Year, defeating Lady A and Atlanta’s Zac Brown Band, nominated for “Toes.” Lambert returned for another marquee win when “Revolution” snatched Album of the Year honors over Lady A.

Lambert’s fiancé, Blake Shelton, also had a triumphant evening, winning Musical Event of the Year for his “Hillbilly Bone” pairing with Trace Adkins and finally landing his first Male Vocalist of the Year award.

“This is a really big deal for me,” a misty-eyed Shelton said.

A similar sentiment emanated from Lady A’s Kelley.

“This has been the most incredible year of our lives,” he said, cradling the band’s trophy for Vocal Group of the Year, a category which included ZBB and Little Big Town, which has roots in Cornelia and Atlanta.

ZBB shocked no one with its New Artist of the Year score, besting Leesburg’s Luke Bryan, as well as Easton Corbin, Jerrod Niemann and Chris Young.

The Dahlonega-bred Brown, clad in his usual knit cap, offered a pithy thank you and a promise to “try to be the best musicians we can be.”

The group also performed a fiddle-laden “As She’s Walking Away,” with Georgia legend Alan Jackson, whose mere presence elicited cheers from the audience when he popped out from behind a curtain to share some verses with Brown.