Updated:
Best Country Duo/Group Performance
- The Band Perry, “Gentle on My Mind”
- Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood, “Somethin’ Bad”
- Little Big Town, “Day Drinking”
- Tim McGraw featuring Faith Hill, “Meanwhile Back at Mama’s”
- Keith Urban featuring Eric Church, “Raise ‘Em Up”
Best American Roots Performance
- Greg Allman & Taj Mahal, “Statesboro Blues”
- Rosanne Cash, “A Feather’s not a Bird”
- Billy Childs featuring Alison Krauss and Jerry Douglas, “And When I Die”
- Keb’ Mo’ featuring the California Feet Warmers, “The Old Me Better”
- Nickel Creek, “Destination”
Best Country Solo Performance
- Eric Church, “Give Me Back My Hometown”
- Hunter Hayes, “Invisible”
- Miranda Lambert, “Automatic”
- Carrie Underwood, “Something in the Water”
- Keith Urban, “Cop Car”
Best New Artist includes last year’s actual best new artist!
- Iggy Azalea
- Bastille
- Brandy Clark (!!!!)
- HAIM
- Sam Smith
Best Americana Album
- Rosanne Cash, The River & The Thread
- John Haitt, Terms of My Surrender
- Keb’ Mo’, Bluesamericana
- Nickel Creek, A Dotted Line
- Sturgill Simpson, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music
Best Country Song
- “American Kids” – Rodney Clawson, Luke Laird, and Shane McAnally
- “Automatic” – Nicolle Galyon, Natalie Hemby, and Miranda Lambert
- “Give Me Back My Hometown” – Eric Church and Luke Laird
- “I’m Not Gonna Miss You” -Glen Campbell and Julian Raymond
- “Meanwhile Back at Mama’s” – Tom Douglas, Jaren Johnston, and Jeffrey Steele
The best lineup for Best Country Album that we can remember:
- Dierks Bentley, Riser
- Eric Church, The Outsiders
- Brandy Clark, 12 Stories
- Miranda Lambert, Platinum
- Lee Ann Womack, The Way I’m Livin’
Record of the Year includes a former country artist and a CMA Awards duet partner:
She probably has no chance, but I’m rooting for Brandy Clark’s “12 Stories”. I’ve had the album for over a year and I still play it frequently.
Platinum is probably Miranda’s best and most mature album so far. I love Lee Ann Womack, and of course Brandy Clark deserves the nomination. But I would actually vote for Dierks’ Riser as country album of the year. It surpassed my expectations, and it gets better and better with each listen. In the context of the album, even “Drunk on a Plane” is a welcome and enjoyable song, with something of a storyline.
Brandy Clark up for Best New Artist!!!
Why do the Grammys always have better country nominees than the country industry awards?
While the Grammys typically do better with their country nominations, they even outdid themselves this year!
I have a good feeling album is going to either Brandy or Lee Ann. The Grammys have a solid track record of giving it to the album that’s actually the best without being swayed too much by sales and airplay numbers.
Quote by Jess:
Why do the Grammys always have better country nominees than the country industry awards?
I think at least one reason may be that the Grammy votes are out of more than just the Nashville branch, which I think makes a difference. Those outside the Nashville circle tend to think country music as being much more diverse than the Music Row hierarchy wants to let on, which explains the diversity ranging from a stalwart veteran like Glen Campbell to someone more recent like Brandy Clark.
Words cannot describe how glad I am to see Glen Campbell’s nomination. What an amazing song. And how great to see someone from his generation getting recognized. Way to go, Grammys.
Rooting for Carrie on both her nominations! :)
Other than “Gentle on My Mind” (I prefer Glen Campbell’s version), I don’t see any great songs among the nominations for duo/group performance, solo performance and song. A few I don’t like at all and others, as I mentioned earlier in the year in a comment on CU’s review of “Meanwhile Back at Mama’s”, “I like it but i don’t love it. I don’t feel the urge to play it again and again”.
At least there was more good news with BC’s second nomination.
As everyone else has already pointed out, the Grammys NAILED it this year with the Country nominations. And YAY! for Brandy Clark’s all-genre Best New Artist nom! Such a pleasant surprise. Even if she doesn’t win it (and let’s be real, Sam Smith is all but certain to take the prize), it’s still so, so cool to see her on the list and to know that we WILL see her name mentioned, her face shown, and a clip of her music heard on the live telecast.
Anyways…
-Country Album, I hope, goes to Clark, but I wouldn’t be disappointed with any of them winning it. I think Clark will take it, but I wouldn’t bet against Church or Lambert. After all, they each have nominations in every Country category this year. (Impressive!) My call is for “12 Stories”. That might just be the extreme optimist in me speaking, though.
-I think Lambert will see a win in Country Song with “Automatic”. Even though the “Staying married is the only way to work your problems out” line kind of rubs me the wrong way since, uh, her and Shelton wouldn’t be married if that was the modern day case, I still think the song is well-assembled, from its lyrics to its current-yet-somehow-nostalgic feel.
-I think Carrie Underwood will take her eighth Grammy in the Country Solo Vocal category, as well as her fifth (FIFTH!!!) win in the category, and rightfully so. Even on her weakest vocal performance, she still outshines her competition in spades. (Lol, and even on her weakest single, “Mama’s Song”, she still got a nomination — see 2011.) Urban and Hayes won’t win, Church’s vocal doesn’t compare to Lambert’s or Underwood’s (and the Grammys almost always treat this award as an actual vocal award, unlike certain awards shows and their “vocalist of the year” awards…), and Underwood A) is a Grammy darling (especially compared to Lambert) and B) flat-out released the better song and the better vocal performance along with it.
-Country Duo/Group Vocal? I’ll go out on a limb and say that it’ll go to The Band Perry. It’s tributing Glen Campbell (who also saw a nom himself, and rightfully so!) and the Grammys eat that stuff up. McGraw/Hill are another good bet for a win, but I don’t think they’ll pull out a win. “Somethin’ Bad” could do it since it is by the format’s two leading ladies, and the Grammys love to make statements, so a “girl power!” move by giving them the award wouldn’t be entirely too shocking. I think TBP is going to win this one, though. “Day Drinking” can remain uncalled.
I don’t think Church will see a win anywhere this year (again), unfortunately. It’s not that his output is bad or undeserving by any means (far, far from that, actually); it’s just that it’s always bettered by someone/something else. The only thing I can see him pulling out a win in is MAYBE Country Song, but I still think Lambert will get the gold there.