Who The GRAMMYs Missed This Year In Country
It happens every year on GRAMMY nomination day. After the nominations come out and everybody starts to wonder what happened to so-and-so and so-and-so had an amazing year. Why aren’t they nominated for a GRAMMY?
The truth is not everybody can be nominated for a country music GRAMMY. There are only four country categories now and five nominees in each category and let’s face it, there is a lot of great country music being made throughout the year and there’s just not enough slots to recognize it all during the GRAMMYs.
Then there are the GRAMMY darlings, the artists like Chris Stapleton, who of course is amazing, and gets nominated, and usually wins almost every year. Kacey Musgraves is another GRAMMY darling, who has her share of GRAMMY nominations and some big wins under her belt over the years. She is a major nominee at this year’s (67th) GRAMMYs.
Country stars and their fans are all over this year‘s GRAMMY nominations and I wanted to take a moment to single out three artists who I can’t believe did not get GRAMMY love this year.
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Cody Johnson
This guy has had an amazing year in country music, and his singles “How Do You Sleep At Night?” and “I’m Gonna Love You (featuring Carrie Underwood)” should have been recognized. It’s hard to believe his music did not get recognized this year by GRAMMY voters in what has become one of the biggest years of his country music career so far. And his song “Dirt Cheap” is a gem that is bound to win a CMA this year.
Fortunately Cody does get that CMA recognition as he is a five-time nominee at this year‘s CMA awards which will be handed out on November 20.
Johnson recenty taked about the ripple effect when he sees fans at his shows each week on tour. He noted, “For me, I’ve had so many moments of people singing the words to my songs and showing up almost to a hundred thousand and singing the songs all over the place I’m like, ‘Wow, I was the guy who was told I wasn’t gonna be on the radio.’ But radio has done such a good job of playing it; look at all these new fans.”
He concluded, “18 years of hard work. Look at all these new fans. I think that is the biggest takeaway.”
Luke Combs
Luke Combs had one of the most memorable GRAMMY moments at last year’s award show when he performed with Tracy Chapman that “Fast Car” song that was a big hit for her and later became a big hit for the country superstar as well.
It feels weird not to see Luke Combs named in any of this year‘s GRAMMY nomination as he had a great album released in June called Fathers & Sons, which scored a couple number one hits.
No doubt, Luke will be back in the GRAMMY spotlight in the coming years, his omission on the ballot seems like a massive oversight.
Miranda Lambert
Miranda Lambert has won her share of GRAMMY awards over the years and has performed on the show several times as well. But this year, she got no GRAMMY love, no nominations and she put out what I think is one of the best albums of her career, Postcards From Texas.
The album really brought Miranda back to her Texas roots and made us all realize what we love about her brand of country music so much. I know you can’t include everyone in a GRAMMY nomination, but it seems crazy that Miranda did not get a nod or two for this one.
She told us of the new project, “I have not made a record in Texas since I was 18, my little independent album, so this is full circle – coming back home to the root, to kind of start fresh with a new label and sound and some new band members I haven’t played with. Being back home and really remembering why I love country music, it’s already leaning way more country, which I love.”
