The Country Music Association announced the full slate of nominees for its annual awards– their 60th– on Thursday morning, and there are several interesting threads.
Choosin’ Ella
As expected, Ella Langley racked up the most nominations, including the rare double-nod (for “Be Her” and “Choosin’ Texas”) in both the Single and Song of the Year categories. If she runs the table, she’ll walk away with a total of 7 awards against her total of 9 nominations. Considering the year she’s had, both in terms of historic crossover successes and the release of music that’s been embraced by both critics and the industry, it’s hard to argue against this recognition.
After winning an armful of ACM awards back in the Spring and now scoring this haul of CMA nominations, the question becomes to what extent she will figure into the Grammy nominations. Their eligibility year ended (oddly…) on August 28, but voting is still a ways out. While a rule-change has made her the clear front runner for Best New Artist, country acts have struggled of late in the General Field’s Album, Record, and Song of the Year categories. “Choosin’ Texas” is almost certainly too big of a crossover hit to ignore in Record and Song of the Year, while Dandelion is probably a longshot in a very crowded (and very strong) Album of the Year field led by the likes of Olivia Rodrigo, Olivia Dean, Phoebe Bridgers, and Madonna.
CMAs So White
Not that the industry’s awards have ever truly recognized the actual diversity within the genre, but it’s especially egregious that not a single artist of color made this year’s final ballot. Scroll back through the albums we’ve reviewed over the last year, and there’s no shortage of artists who aren’t straight and white (and mostly men) whose work is deserving of recognition.
The CMAs have never done right by Kane Brown, and that continues this year, but they also shut out Shaboozey, who just dropped a tremendous album and who didn’t even get nominated in the Vocal Event category with Jelly Roll for their Grammy-winning collab or for the terrific music video for “Cowgirl.” And Thelma & James are making terrific music, but that they landed in Vocal Duo instead of The War & Treaty, who also dropped one of the year’s strongest contemporary country albums, is definitely a choice.
She’s Back?
Taylor Swift scored her first hit at country radio in this decade with “I Knew It, I Knew You,” from Toy Story 5, though there has been a whole lot of online chatter about the record label shenanigans that went on behind the scenes to account for its success. Either way, that translated into a Single of the Year nomination, Swift’s first major category nod since a Song of the Year nomination for penning “Better Man.” Oddly, she was left out of that category, even as she’s slated for induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame later this year.
The Swifties are convinced that all of this points to both a “Taylor’s Version” release of her self-titled debut album– only that one and reputation. have yet to receive the re-recorded treatment, which stopped after she won back the rights to her master recordings– and to her next “era” being a proper country album.
Surprises and Snubs
Did anyone have multiple nominations for Stephen Wilson, Jr. on their radar? His performance at the ACMs was one of that broadcast’s highlights, and he did win there for Music Video of the Year, but seeing him crop up at the CMAs in the Male Vocalist and Song of the Year categories is a huge shock. That he made the former category over Riley Green or Morgan Wallen is especially surprising… and not in a bad way!
Wallen, of note, was relegated to two nominations, both in the Vocal Event category. Incidentally, that’s the only category where Green showed up, for his collaboration with Carly Pearce.
After scoring a whopping 9 nominations at the ACMs– where, it’s worth noting, she did not actually win anything– Megan Moroney was limited to just 2 categories here: Female Vocalist and Song of the Year. Given her label’s relentless promotion (and critical acclaim we continue to find baffling and entirely unwarranted), this is a stunning turn. She seemed like a lock for Album, Single, and Music Video nominations and a solid bet for Entertainer based upon her headlining tour.
Instead, CMA voters were more impressed by Kacey Musgraves’ return to form and return to a more straightforwardly country aesthetic. She landed in the Album, Song, Video, and Event categories in addition to Female Vocalist, quite deservedly ending a long dry spell with the CMAs.
The full list of nominees is here:
Entertainer of the Year
Luke Combs
Cody Johnson
Ella Langley
Chris Stapleton
Lainey Wilson
Female Vocalist of the Year
Miranda Lambert
Ella Langley
Megan Moroney
Kacey Musgraves
Lainey Wilson
Male Vocalist of the Year
Luke Combs
Cody Johnson
Chris Stapleton
Zach Top
Stephen Wilson, Jr.
Vocal Duo of the Year
Brooks & Dunn
Brothers Osborne
Dan + Shay
Muscadine Bloodline
Thelma & James
Vocal Group of the Year
Lady A[ntebellum]
Little Big Town
Midland
Old Dominion
The Red Clay Strays
New Artist
Avery Anna
Carter Faith
Emily Ann Roberts
Tucker Wetmore
Stephen Wilson, Jr.
Musician of the Year
Tom Bukovac, guitar
Jenee Fleenor, fiddle
Paul Franklin, steel guitar
Rob McNelley, guitar
Charlie Worsham, guitar
Album of the Year
Ain’t in it for My Health, Zach Top
Dandelion, Ella Langley
Middle of Nowhere, Kacey Musgraves
Parker McCollum
The Way I Am, Luke Combs
Single of the Year
“Be Her,” Ella Langley
“Choosin’ Texas,” Ella Langley
“I Knew It, I Knew You,” Taylor Swift
“Somewhere Over Laredo,” Lainey Wilson
“The Fall,” Cody Johnson
Song of the Year
“Be Her,” Smith Ahnquist, HARDY, Ella Langley, Jordan Schmidt
“Beautiful Things,” Jessi Alexander, Jessi Jo Dixon, Connie Harrington, Megan Moroney
“Choosin’ Texas,” Luke Dick, Ella Langley, Miranda Lambert, Joybeth Taylor
“Dry Spell,” Luke Laird, Shane McAnally, Kacey Musgraves, Josh Osborne
“Gary,” Stephen Wilson, Jr.
Vocal Event
“A Song to Sing,” Miranda Lambert feat. Chris Stapleton
“Horses and Divorces,” Kacey Musgraves feat. Miranda Lambert
“I Can’t Love You Anymore,” Ella Langley feat. Morgan Wallen
“If I Don’t Leave, I’m Gonna Stay,” Carly Pearce feat. Riley Green
“McArthur,” HARDY, Eric Church, Morgan Wallen, & Tim McGraw
Music Video
“Choosin’ Texas,” Ella Langley
“Dry Spell,” Kacey Musgraves
“Gary,” Stephen Wilson, Jr.
“The Fall,” Cody Johnson
“White Horse,” Chris Stapleton
What did the CMA voters get right and very, very wrong this year? Sound off in the comments!
Happy that Wallen and Moroney were (mostly)shut out and that Musgraves is deservedly back in play. Nice to see Pearce get the one (mostly) thankless nod for a song that got zero traction at radio (and, sadly, on the back of her career best album debuting to career worst sales). Hope Wilson walks away empty handed (she already has at least five trophies too many from both of the genre’s respective awards bodies).
Of note, the Pearce & Green collab just had its best week at radio, moving up to #42. Holding out hope she can at least eke out a top 25 peak for that one. On pace, she might get there by this time next year…
Would love to see her get a modest hit off that song; Green isn’t a particular favorite, but I know he’s probably the reason they chose it as a single considering his relatively high profile in the last few years. I like the song, even if it isn’t one of the album’s top 5 or 6 tracks (She Don’t and WWJD seem like obvious singles, though in my own little fantasy world You Can Have Him would be a multi-week Number One).
Wow. I haven’t heard it in months. I wasn’t aware it was still being promoted as a single.
Rhetorical question here: Who among us is shocked that Ella Langley is cleaning up with these awards nominations? “Choosin’ Texas”, by the way, has perhaps by this time dethroned Ms. “All I Want For Christmas Is You” for the longest-running #1 hit on the Hot 100.
As for Taylor–well, she’s been driving people crazy for twenty years now, so her nomination for “I Knew It, I Knew You” is par for the course for her. But anyone who has visited the Saving Country Music website has most likely seen how much invective she’s getting over there for the idea of releasing “a proper country album”. Truth be told I’m not really a T-Swift fan, with a few scattered exceptions (“Begin Again”; “Back TO December”); but seeing the way she often gets attacked makes it, to say the least, much easier to sympathize with her and her most ardent Swifties.
I prefer Swift in “pop mode”; she’s written a decent number of good songs and several albums I can get behind (especially starting with Red). Can’t say I’m a big fan of her “country era”, which was littered with a few good songs and a fair amount of off key singing. I’ve seen the narrative that SCM has been peddling; I tend to take what the owner of that website says with a small grain of salt, but I guess they’re not the only ones pushing that theory, so maybe? ♂️
The Swifties have been screeching about a return to country for almost a year now, when they did the math and realized we’re fast approaching the 20th anniversary of her self-titled debut album. The Nashville Songwriters HoF recognition and then the release of this as-country-as-any-of-her-country-singles Toy Story 5 song only made them louder over the last several months. So this narrative has for sure been building for quite some time.
Obviously, I’ve long been on record at Slant as being far more in favor of her pop career than her country one, though there are some days that I might even go to bat for the Taylor’s Version of RED as her best album overall. I’ve never bought the idea that she or any artist need to “pick a lane” and stay in it, which is anathema to notions of making music as a popular art medium.
And to pull on this week’s album reviews post comment thread… she’s a fine example of someone who actually put in the very real work to improve the technical limitations of her singing.
Well, you know I’m a fan of your Slant takes, and can certainly cop to her doing the work to improve her singing; the delta between her debut and where she is now from a vocal standpoint is wide and far reaching (I can say with all honesty that I for the most part enjoy her singing now). Another thing I thought about that might add to the next “era” being country is the wildly polarizing response to The Life of a Showgirl; yes, it moved a zillion units, and did have a pretty strong earworm in the lead single, but boy did she ratchet the cringe factor up to somewhere unreachable with that record. I know her take is “I want everyone to feel how they feel about it” but I can’t imagine that some of the very negative viewpoints on that album (all justified in my opinion) didn’t sting just a little.
I actually like that she has a genuine soft spot for country music and revisits the genre now and again even after the 2013 pop pivot. I’ve never been a huge fan but I got why her music worked, then and now, and her success in expanding the country audience to a new generation of listeners can’t be overstated. As far as I’m concerned, she earned her country bona fides and can resume releasing music marketed as country as she sees fit.
I am once again asking the powers that be to stop inexplicably nominating Old Dominion every year and finally acknowledge the actual best band in country music, Turnpike.
Billboard even made a completely absurd prediction that this would be the year that Parmalee finally got nominated. As long as they’re in the game, Old Dominion will still have the, “Hey, we’re still not as faceless as Parmalee” card to play.
I gave up on turnpike getting any nominations after the price of admission wasn’t nominated at the Grammys for traditional country album. It seemed like everything was lining up for them there and it didn’t happen. For whatever reason they just have never quite broken through the way sturgill, Childers, isbell have.
After the ACMs threw nominations to 49 Winchester and Flatland Cavalry, I thought there was at least an outside chance of Turnpike making it in… though perhaps the ACMs are more inclined to that than the CMAs are. Still, the CMAs haven’t been immune to quality-first nominations– Brandy Clark and Jason Isbell have made the Album of the Year category– but they stopped publishing their “showcase” website with the second-round ballots a few years back, so it’s harder to know what the big picture voting trends look like.
Lukas Nelson took what should’ve been Turnpike’s spot in the inaugural Traditional Country Album category at the Grammys… He had the weakest record nominated (other than the underwhelming Zach Top set that eventually won, which was never not going to make it in) in that field.
If I had to pick one thing as the most egregious snub this year… Ashley McBryde’s video for “What if We Don’t” is an especially galling oversight, given the thoughtfulness and vulnerability of the video, along with her performance in its dramatic arc.