Country Universe favorites Kelsea Ballerini, Kane Brown, Ashley McBryde, and the War and Treaty are among this year’s ACM nominees.
Here is a complete list of this year’s nominees.
Entertainer of the Year
Kane Brown
Luke Combs
Jelly Roll
Cody Johnson
Chris Stapleton
Morgan Wallen
Lainey Wilson
Who’s In: Jelly Roll, Cody Johnson, Lainey Wilson
Who’s Out: Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood
Male Artist of the Year
Luke Combs
Jelly Roll
Cody Johnson
Chris Stapleton
Morgan Wallen
Who’s In: Jelly Roll, Cody Johnson
Who’s Out: Kane Brown, Jordan Davis
Female Artist of the Year
Kelsea Ballerini
Ashley McBryde
Megan Moroney
Kacey Musgraves
Lainey Wilson
Who’s In: Megan Moroney, Kacey Musgraves
Who’s Out: Miranda Lambert, Carly Pearce
Duo of the Year
Brooks & Dunn
Brothers Osborne
Dan + Shay
Maddie & Tae
The War and Treaty
Who’s In: None
Who’s Out: None
Group of the Year
Flatland Cavalry
Lady A
Little Big Town
Old Dominion
Zac Brown Band
Who’s In: Flatland Cavalry
Who’s Out: Midland
New Female Artist of the Year
Kassi Ashton
Ashley Cooke
Hannah Ellis
Kylie Morgan
Megan Moroney
New Male Artist of the Year
Ernest
Kameron Marlowe
Dylan Scott
Conner Smith
Nate Smith
New Vocal Duo or Group of the Year
Neon Union
Restless Road
Tigirlily Gold
Album of the Year
Gettin’ Old, Luke Combs
Higher, Chris Stapleton
Leather, Cody Johnson
One Thing at a Time, Morgan Wallen
Rollin’ Up the Welcome Mat, Kelsea Ballerini
Single Record of the Year
“Burn it Down,” Parker McCollum
“Fast Car,” Luke Combs
“Last Night,” Morgan Wallen
“Need a Favor,” Jelly Roll
“Next Thing You Know,” Jordan Davis
Song of the Year
“Fast Car”
Written by Tracy Chapman
Recorded by Luke Combs
“Heart Like a Truck”
Written by Trannie Anderson, Dallas Wilson, and Lainey Wilson
Recorded by Lainey Wilson
“Next Thing You Know”
Written by Jordan Davis, Greylan James, Chase McGill, and Josh Osborne
Recorded by Jordan Davis
“The Painter”
Written by Hunter Phelps, Jordan Schmidt, Michael Hardy, and Renee Blair
Recorded by Cody Johnson
“Tennessee Orange”
Written by David Fanning, Megan Moroney, Paul Jenkins, and Ben Williams
Recorded by Megan Moroney
Visual Media of the Year
“Burn it Down,” Parker McCollum
“Human,” Cody Johnson
“In Your Love,” Tyler Childers
“Next Thing You Know,” Jordan Davis
“Tennessee Orange,” Megan Moroney
Music Event of the Year
“Can’t Break Up Now,” Old Dominion & Megan Moroney
“Different ‘Round Here,” Riley Green featuring Luke Combs
“I Remember Everything,” Zach Bryan featuring Kacey Musgraves
“Man Made a Bar,” Morgan Wallen featuring Eric Church
“Save Me,” Jelly Roll with Lainey Wilson
Songwriter of the Year
Jessie Jo Dillon
Ashley Gorley
Hillary Lindsey
Chase McGill
Josh Thompson
Artist-Songwriter of the Year
Zach Bryan
Ernest
Hardy
Chris Stapleton
Morgan Wallen
A few stray thoughts, imported from our socials:
The centering of Bobby Bones in the industry forever has me arching an eyebrow.
These are super white, super dudeish, per usual.
“Artist-Songwriter” is a total LOL of a category for one of these shows.
Merge the Duo / Group categories, as I’ve been saying since 2005.
Carly Pearce sure has fallen from favor quickly.
The Good:
– Total Aldean shutout.
– Kane Brown for Entertainer.
– Lambert out of Female Artist in an off-cycle year for once.
– The War & Treaty, outclassing the field.
– Childers’ first nomination (for Visual Media); Bryan & Musgraves up for Musical Event.
– CoJo, Ballerini, Stapleton for Album.
– Tracy Chapman / “Fast Car” in Single and Song.
The Wretched:
– Wallen, on principle.
– The ongoing embrace of Megan Moroney as an insult to every black woman in the country space who can sing and write her off literally any table in Nashville.
– McCollum, also on principle.
– 0 women, POC in the “tech” categories. Not even Jenee Fleenor got in.
So, “Heart Like a Truck” in Song when it was nominated for Single at this same awards show a full year ago. I will never understand their rules, and I will never understand why voters don’t move tf on.
That’s one of the absurdities of these awards that’s so ingrained in the process that I didn’t even register the carryover nod for “Heart Like a Truck” this year. But yes: Whatever rule allows for that needed to change decades ago, and it highlights the ways that the industry hoards its recognition for a select few.
There’s so much good stuff happening in country music right now, but you’d hardly know it based on this slate of nominations. Good to see Kacey Musgraves back in the mix, though I can’t for the life of me fathom how anyone could justify handing Moroney a nomination for an award with the word “vocalist” in the title. Some solid songs, but c’mon! Meanwhile, also glad Ballerini’s RUTWM continues to get some AOTY attention. It’s a song cycle that continues to impress me, even after many, many listens.
Re: Carly Pearce
I put the blame for her falling out of favor so quickly solely on the shoulders of Scott Borchetta and BMLG. Her label has all but killed her momentum. “We Don’t Fight Anymore” might have Chris Stapleton, but it’s not enough to go toe-to-toe with Lainey Wilson. It’s essentially been DOA for the last 10 months (very little buzz or excitement surrounding it) yet her label continues to push it at radio all the while releasing, as of now, five preview tracks from her upcoming album, including two last fall, when she could’ve used an attention grabbing new radio single instead.
Her new album will finally see the light of day June 15, god only knows how many months after she turned it in. It’s just been too damn long between releases from her, in this short attention span climate especially. At this point I doubt we’ll even see a second single from this album and quite frankly I doubt anyone beyond her fan base even cares. It’s sad. She should be capitalizing on and benefiting from the success of 29: Written In Stone and yet, it’s as if she doesn’t even exist.
This whole album era has been botched and badly. I don’t see how she can recover from this. I fear all that’s transpired has been completely out of her control, which has echos of Curb Records. I don’t get it either. Carly deserves all the success in the world and certainly doesn’t deserve what’s happened to her career.
Borchetta and BMLG made it clear they have no idea what they’re doing when they couldn’t be bothered to market one of Trisha Yearwood’s best albums nearly 20 years ago, and they’ve not learned the first thing since then. I don’t think Pearce belongs in the same conversation with Yearwood, generally, but I fully agree that it’s a shame how quickly her label and management have tanked what was an A-list career on the make.
The run-up to this album release has been baffling, as thought they’re committed to proving that Pearce can do nothing but sing ballad-to-midtempo downers that are either overtly or obliquely about her sleazy ex-husband. As someone who still thinks “Hide the Wine” is her best single, they really need to show that she’s not so one-dimensional, but I can barely tell four of the five pre-release tracks apart, and the fifth one is super slut-shamey and problematic.
She deserves far, far better. And, for whatever her limitations might be, the idea that she’d lose her spot to Moroney is just beyond appalling.
…carly pearce, no doubt, is a fine vocalist. but she ain’t quite the star yet that can capture the full attention of an audience over a longer time. not in the media nor on stage. i saw her two and a half years ago live and had a quick interview with her. everything was quite fine – but not exactly memorable. she displayed the attitude of a star (not in a bad way) but did quite fill those shoes yet was my personal impression. same place, just a couple of years earlier i meet and saw ashley mcbryde there – let me tell you that was memorable in every aspect. steak vs salad, metaphorically speaking.
carly pearce just needs more time to develop further. putting her on tour with tim mcgraw this year is not a bad decision at all and this regular exposure in front of big arena crowds ahead of a seasoned superstar might help her to reach that next level her talent holds promise of. she already got a little taste of that next level after “29” but couldn’t quite hold it. although, her output over the last 18 months was of good quality – just not special enough. let’s see what her “hummingbird” album will turn out to be in june.
sometimes the public expectations are just slightly too high and impatient. most musical careers are not a linear thing actually. furthermore, she’s the queen of material that grows on you over time, like the gorgeous “every little thing” or “i hope you’re happy now”. having said that, the single “hummingbird” may not exactly fall into that category.