Grammy Nominations Bring A Nod

I’m usually one to shake my head and roll my eyes when awards nominations are announced. As the Grammy nominees were released today, I was actually raising my eyebrows, with a bit of a smile.

Tanya Tucker, Willie Nelson, Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton, Rosanne Cash, Vince Gill… all on the list for Grammy nods. Did we turn the clock back 30 years? Nope. It’s a testament to the resilience and relevance of country artists of previous decades who focus more on good music and less on what’s going to be ‘a hit.’

Tanya was nominated for overall Song of the Year, Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Song with “Bring My Flowers Now” as well as Best Country Album for “While I’m Livin’.”

Tanya will be going head-to-head with Willie for Best Country Solo Performance, which includes Willie’s “Ride Me Back Home.”

Reba McEntire got a nod for Best Country Album with “Stronger Than The Truth.”

There’s no sign of slowing down for Dolly Parton, who has a nomination for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song for her collaboration with for King & Country on “God Only Knows.” She also has a second nomination, which is for Best Song Written For Visual Media, “Girl In The Movies” that Dolly wrote with Linda Perry for the movie, “Dumplin’.”

Rosanne and Vince will be going head-to-head for Best American Roots Song. Rosanne’s “Crossing To Jerusalem” co-written with her husband, John Leventhal, goes against Vince’s “I Don’t Wanna Ride The Rails No More.”

Looking at the list of nominations also reminded me of how the last two years have been huge for Brandi Carlile, not just as a singer, but also as a songwriter, producer, collaborator and an overall do-er. Brandi was a producer for Tanya Tucker’s album, “While I’m Living’” as well as co-songwriter for Song of the Year & Best Country Song nominee, Tanya’s “Bring My Flowers Now.” Brandi was also nominated for Best Country Duo/Group Performance with Maren Morris on Maren’s “Common.”

I also need to give a nod to recognition for Ashley McBryde, who was nominated for Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Song for “Girl Goin’ Nowhere.”

A few other ladies to be recognized for Grammy nominations include the Pistol Annies with Best Country Album for “Interstate Gospel” and Natalie Hemby and Lori McKenna for some songwriting credits.

Brandi Carlile's new album

Brandi Carlie has a new album set for release on Tuesday, June 5th. Bear Creek, Brandi's fourth studio album was recorded at Bear Creek Studios outside of Seattle. The first single from the album, "That Wasn't Me," is available online now.

Brandi has also performed a few other songs from the album at various shows recently. You can find them on YouTube.

the track listing for Bear Creek:
1 - Hard Way Home
2 - Raise Hell
3 - Save Part Of Yourself
4 - That Wasn't Me
5 - Keep Your Heart Young
6 - 100
7 - A Promise To Keep
8 - I'll Still Be There
9 - What Did I Ever Come Here For
10 - Heart's Content
11 - Rise Again
12 - In The Morrow
13 - Just Kids

new music

Two new albums to pick up this week:

Patty Loveless has a sequel to her highly acclaimed 2001 release, Mountain Soul.
Mountain Soul II will be released on Tuesday.


Also released on Tuesday is the new album from Kris Kristofferson titled, Closer to the bone.



Two releases for October 6th include:
the new album from Rosanne Cash titled The List.


and Brandi Carlile's new one, Give up the ghost


Be sure to check them out!

Brandi Carlile

If you're like me and enjoy good music that reminds you of the way it used to be back in the day - where music was made for the love of it and not for how much money & fame it could bring - then you need to check out Brandi Carlile.

My introduction to Brandi's music was via a video on CMT's 'wide open country' almost two years ago. That in itself is a bit eyebrow-raising because I have rarely watched videos on tv for a number of years - ever since CMT started to forget what their initials actually stood for. Anyway, when her video for 'Turpentine' began, I was mesmerized - not by the video itself, but by the song and the power of her voice. After the video finished playing, I quickly got online and found more songs with this wonderful voice. From that search came my 'discovery' of her incredible album, "The Story". It's become one of my all-time top 5 favorites.

Last year, Brandi opened up a few shows for another of my favorites, Sheryl Crow. It brought a smile to my face when I saw Sheryl post a message on her website of how she was blown away by Brandi, her music and stage presence as well.

Check out a few of these songs by Brandi:
Turpentine
Throw it all away
The Story