Grammy Nominees announced!

They both won at the CMA Awards and now at the Grammy’s Kacey Musgraves is up for Album of the Year and Luke Combs is up for New Artist!

Here are the highlights and Mike Jones’ picks for who WILL and SHOULD win

Here is the full list of nominees for the 61st Grammy Awards:

GENERAL FIELD

Record Of The Year:
“I Like It” — Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin
“The Joke” — Brandi Carlile
“This Is America” — Childish Gambino
“God’s Plan” — Drake
“Shallow” — Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
“All The Stars” — Kendrick Lamar & SZA
“Rockstar” — Post Malone Featuring 21 Savage
“The Middle” — Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey

Extended to 8 songs this year. Some good songs and some big question marks (really- Cardi B?). Great to see Maren Morris in there as well as Gaga & Cooper from Star Is Born. No doubt, This Is America is the early (and deserving) favourite)

Album Of The Year:
“Invasion Of Privacy” — Cardi B
“By The Way, I Forgive You” — Brandi Carlile
“Scorpion” — Drake
“H.E.R.” — H.E.R.
“Beerbongs & Bentleys” — Post Malone
“Dirty Computer” — Janelle Monáe
“Golden Hour” — Kacey Musgraves
“Black Panther: The Album, Music From And Inspired By” (Various Artists)

Interesting to see a soundtrack nominated (and perhaps just as surprising it isn’t A Star Is Born). Go Kacey!

Song Of The Year:
“All The Stars” — Kendrick Duckworth, Solána Rowe, Al Shuckburgh, Mark Spears & Anthony Tiffith, songwriters (Kendrick Lamar & SZA)
“Boo’d Up” — Larrance Dopson, Joelle James, Ella Mai & Dijon McFarlane, songwriters (Ella Mai)
“God’s Plan” — Aubrey Graham, Daveon Jackson, Brock Korsan, Ron LaTour, Matthew Samuels & Noah Shebib, songwriters (Drake)
“In My Blood” — Teddy Geiger, Scott Harris, Shawn Mendes & Geoffrey Warburton, songwriters (Shawn Mendes)
“The Joke” — Brandi Carlile, Dave Cobb, Phil Hanseroth & Tim Hanseroth, songwriters (Brandi Carlile)
“The Middle” — Sarah Aarons, Jordan K. Johnson, Stefan Johnson, Marcus Lomax, Kyle Trewartha, Michael
Trewartha & Anton Zaslavski, songwriters (Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey)
“Shallow” — Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando & Andrew Wyatt, songwriters (Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper)
“This Is America” — Donald Glover & Ludwig Goransson, songwriters (Childish Gambino)

Best New Artist:
Chloe x Halle
Luke Combs
Greta Van Fleet
H.E.R.
Dua Lipa
Margo Price
Bebe Rexha
Jorja Smith

Bebe Rexha had a monster year with Florida Georgia Line and she’s definitely a front runner. Country artists typically don’t do super well in the mainstream categories but Luke Combs should be hard to ignore this year. Also interesting to see a rock band in this category- it’s been a while (Greta Van Fleet)

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album:

“Love Is Here To Stay” —Tony Bennett & Diana Krall
“My Way” — Willie Nelson
“Nat “King” Cole & Me” — Gregory Porter
4. Standards (DELUXE) —
Seal
5. THE MUSIC…THE MEM’RIES…THE MAGIC! —
Barbra Streisand

Go Willie!!!

Best Rock Performance:

“Four Out Of Five” —Arctic Monkeys
“When Bad Does Good” — Chris Cornell
“Made An America” — The Fever 333
“Highway Tune” — Greta Van Fleet
“Uncomfortable” — Halestorm

Beyonce was nominated in this category in recent years so nice to see some actual rock artists. Chris Cornell as a posthumous nomination is a favorite.

Best Metal Performance: 

“Condemned To The Gallows “— Between The Buried And Me
“Honeycomb” — Deafheaven
“Electric Messiah” — High On Fire
“Betrayer” — Trivium
“On My Teeth — Underoath

A category that once went to Jethro Tull over Metallica- it’s nice to see actually heavy acts in here.

COUNTRY FIELD

Best Country Solo Performance:

“Wouldn’t It Be Great?” — Loretta Lynn
“Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters” — Maren Morris
“Butterflies” — Kacey Musgraves
“Millionaire” — Chris Stapleton
“Parallel Line” — Keith Urban

Nice to see Loretta Lynn in here. This should be a battle between Kasey and Chris

Best Country Duo/Group Performance:

“Shoot Me Straight” — Brothers Osborne
“Tequila” — Dan + Shay
” When Someone Stops Loving You” — Little Big Town
“Dear Hate” — Maren Morris Featuring Vince Gill
“Meant To Be” — Bebe Rexha & Florida Georgia Line

If you’re looking for the biggest hit it’s a no brainer for Meant To Be. Tequila was also a monster for Dan + Shay.

Best Country Song:

“Break Up In The End” — Jessie Jo Dillon, Chase McGill & Jon Nite, songwriters (Cole Swindell)
“Dear Hate” — Tom Douglas, David Hodges & Maren Morris,
Songwriters (Maren Morris Featuring Vince Gill)
“I Lived It” — Rhett Akins, Ross Copperman, Ashley Gorley & Ben
Hayslip, songwriters (Blake Shelton)
“Space Cowboy” — Luke Laird, Shane McAnally & Kacey Musgraves,
songwriters (Kacey Musgraves)
“Tequila” — Nicolle Galyon, Jordan Reynolds & Dan Smyers, songwriters (Dan + Shay)
“When Someone Stops Loving You” — Hillary Lindsey, Chase McGill & Lori McKenna, songwriters (Little Big Town)

Dear Hate was a great tribute released after (But written prior to) the Las Vegas Route 91 shootings. Tough category to pick as I like almost all of these songs but I’d have to go with Cole Swindell

Best Country Album:
“Unapologetically” — Kelsea Ballerini
“Port Saint Joe” — Brothers Osborne
“Girl Going Nowhere” — Ashley McBryde
“Golden Hour” — Kacey Musgraves
“From A Room: Volume 2” — Chris Stapleton

Looking pretty different than the CMA nominations look for the result to be the same with Kacey grabbing gold. Although very cool to see THREE women nominated here!

AMERICAN ROOTS MUSIC FIELD

Best American Roots Performance:

“Kick Rocks” — Sean Ardoin
“Saint James Infirmary Blues” — Jon Batiste
“The Joke”  Brandi Carlile
“All On My Mind” — Anderson East
“Last Man Standing” — Willie Nelson

Best American Roots Song:

“All The Trouble” — Waylon Payne, Lee Ann Womack & Adam Wright, songwriters (Lee Ann Womack)
“Build a Bridge” — Jeff Tweedy, songwriter (Mavis Staples)
“The Joke” — Brandi Carlile, Dave Cobb, Phil Hanseroth & Tim Hanseroth, songwriters (Brandi Carlile)
“Knockin’ On Your Screen Door” — Pat McLaughlin & John Prine, songwriters (John Prine)
“Summer’s End” — Pat McLaughlin & John Prine, songwriters (John Prine)

Best Americana Album:
“By The Way, I Forgive You” — Brandi Carlile
“Things Have Changed” — Bettye LaVette
“The Tree Of Forgiveness” — John Prine
“The Lonely, The Lonesome & The Gone” — Lee Ann Womack
“One Drop Of Truth” — The Wood Brothers

Best Bluegrass Album:

“Portraits in Fiddles” — Mike Barnett
“Sister Sadie II” — Sister Sadie
“Rivers and Roads” — Special Consensus
“The Travelin’ McCourys” — The Travelin’ McCourys
“North of Despair” — Wood & Wire

Best Folk Album:

“Whistle Down the Wind” — Joan Baez
“Black Cowboys” — Dom Flemons
“Rifles & Rosary Beads” — Mary Gauthier
“Weed Garden” — Iron & Wine
“All Ashore” — Punch Brothers

COMEDY FIELD 

Best Comedy Album:
“Annihilation” — Patton Oswalt
“Equanimity & The Bird Revelation” — Dave Chappelle
“Noble Ape” — Jim Gaffigan
“Standup For Drummers” — Fred Armisen
“Tamborine” — Chris Rock

MUSIC VIDEO/FILM FIELD 

Best Music Video:

“APES***” — The Carters, Ricky Saiz, video director; Mélodie Buchris, Natan Schottenfels & Erinn Williams, video producers
“This Is America” — Childish Gambino, Hiro Murai, video director; Ibra Ake, Jason Cole & Fam Rothstein, video producers
“I’m Not Racist” Joyner Lucas & Ben Proulx, video directors; Joyner Lucas, video producer
“Pynk” —  Janelle Monáe, Emma Westenberg, video director; Justin Benoliel & Whitney Jackson, video producers
“Mumbo Jumbo” — Tierra Whack Marco Prestini, video director; Sara Nassim, video producer

Best Music Film:

“Life in 12 Bars”— Eric Clapton, Lili Fini Zanuck, video director; John Battsek, Scooter Weintraub, Larry Yelen & Lili Fini Zanuck, video producers
“Whitney” — (Whitney Houston), Kevin Macdonald, video director; Jonathan Chinn, Simon Chinn & Lisa Erspamer, video producers
“Quincy” — Quincy Jones Alan Hicks & Rashida Jones, video directors; Paula DuPré Pesmen, video producer
“Itzhak”— Itzhak Perlman, Alison Chernick, video director; Alison Chernick, video producer
“The King” — (Elvis Presley), Eugene Jarecki, video director; Christopher Frierson, Georgina Hill, David Kuhn & Christopher St. John, video producers