50th Annual Academy Of Country Music Awards Nominations!

It’s time for the nominations for the 50th annual Academy Of Country Music (ACM) Awards nominations! This is the show that airs on CBS in April – April 19th this year, to be exact, hosted by country’s biggest name bros, Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton. This year, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the ACM, the show is moving from its usual Las Vegas digs to the big football stadium in Arlington, Texas, where the Dallas Cowboys play. Not only that, they are super-sizing the show, adding 1/2 hour (for a broadcast that’ll run from 8p to 11:30p Eastern) and featuring performances to honor 7 superstars who “have achieved significant milestones in ACM history.” Hey, maybe they can honor Justin Moore for winning last year’s (“fan-voted”) ACM award for New Artist despite being ineligible for it!

The bulk of the nominations will be announced this morning. Already in the books? The 8 semifinalists for New Artist Of The Year, a list that is noteworthy not so much for artistic merit as it for being 100% male. A reflection of how steep the odds are against new women at country radio? Sure. On the other hand, Dot Record/Big Machine Label Group duo Maddie & Tae hit #1 and went gold with 2014’s buzziest country song, a song that topped this year’s Nashville Scene Country Critics Poll, and clearly deserved a spot among the semifinalists.

Why didn’t they get one? Odds are this is about Big Machine Label Group strategy (BMLG) – last year, a legitimately new Valory/BMLG act Thomas Rhett lost out on ACM New Artist finalist status (and the TV time it brings) to the aforementioned Justin Moore, who, not coincidentally, is also Valory/BMLG. So this year, it’s Thomas Rhett’s turn as far as BMLG is concerned. Maddie & Tae would rally a lot of fan votes if they were among the semifinalists, both because of the witty and pointed stand they took with “Girl In A Country Song” and because they would have been the only female act nominated, plus they were all but guaranteed a nomination in the Duo Of The Year category (which is a thin category).

So what likely happened is BMLG sought to maximize Thomas Rhett’s odds of being among the 3 New Artist finalists (who each get a short TV performance during the ACMs) by delaying Maddie & Tae’s New Artist nomination by a year (which they can do as long as Maddie & Tae don’t sell 500k copies of an album by next year and/or the ACMs choose to apply “flexibility” to their rules as they have in the past). And so you see another reason why last year’s Justin Moore mess was a bad thing – it created a backlog that delays other people’s New Artist nominations from when they would logically take place.

Also announced yesterday, the nominees for Songwriter Of The Year, also a 100% male group that was heavily relied upon by country’s dudebros of the moment, as well as the broadcast radio nominees.

Last but not least, the ACM Video Of The Year nominees were revealed on Entertainment Tonight and include both Idol alum Carrie Underwood and Idol judge Keith Urban!

The remaining nominees will be revealed by “digital press conference” this morning. Stay tuned for updates to this space!

Entertainer Of The Year
Jason Aldean
Garth Brooks
Luke Bryan
Miranda Lambert
Florida Georgia Line

Quick take: George Strait is out, despite the record-setting closer to his The Cowboy Rides Away tour. But the bigger surprise is perennial nominee Blake Shelton’s absence – wonder whether that’s to give wife Miranda a better chance at picking enough fan votes for a win? Luke Bryan is considerably more popular (and would likely win a pure fan vote), but the ACM Board has the ability to weight the industry vote over the fan vote, so it’s possible they’ll choose to crown Miranda. In place of the veteran George Strait is the veteran Garth Brooks, whose comeback tour has been enormous even though his radio presence has been tepid and his album sales merely good, and Florida Georgia Line slips into Blake’s old spot. Eric Church was campaigning hard for an Entertainer nomination, and can legitimately be called a snub here. 4 out of the 5 nominees here are represented by William Morris Endeavor agency, and 4 out of the 5 participated in last year’s Live Nation Country Megaticket. 2 of the nominees are Sony Nashville acts, and Big Machine Label Group, UMG Nashville, and Broken Bow Records have 1 nominee apiece.

Female Vocalist Of The Year
Brandy Clark
Miranda Lambert
Martina McBride
Kacey Musgraves
Carrie Underwood

Quick take: Yay Brandy Clark! This is a milestone nomination for her. It would be great to see her win, but nomination leader Miranda Lambert has the combination of mainstream presence, critical acclaim, industry acclaim, and political pull to win this in a walk. Carrie Underwood may have had the most daring and highest impact single of all the nominees, but her team simply doesn’t have the pull to get the win.

Male Vocalist Of The Year
Jason Aldean
Dierks Bentley
Luke Bryan
Eric Church
Brad Paisley
Blake Shelton

Quick take: As hard as it would be to fill the 5 Female Vocalist slots if you only listened to radio, it’s as hard to limit the Male Vocalist category to 5 slots based on country radio. So we get 6 nominees instead, and Sony Nashville gets Brad Paisley back into the mix. Missing? The format veteran who, after starting 2014 with a laughably bad misstep, has scored 2 extremely successful singles and suddenly become the go-to guy for good, 90s country sounding songs: Tim McGraw. Also missing is Kenny Chesney, who had one of the biggest singles of the year in “American Kids,” which is recognized elsewhere (but maybe that’s why he’s missing here – Sony Nashville chose to try to get Brad in instead). Capitol Nashville (a UMG Nashville label) has 3 of the 6 nominees here, while Sony Nashville, Warner Brothers Nashville, and Broken Bow Records have 1 apiece. 5 out of the 6 nominees are represented by William Morris Endeavor agency, and 5 out of the 6 were part of last year’s Live Nation Country Megaticket lineup. Jason Aldean is the 2-time defending winner here, and in the absence of a big push for the more critically acclaimed Dierks Bentley or Eric Church (Capitol Nashville would have to choose 1 or the other), he may take the title again this year.

Vocal Group Of The Year
Lady Antebellum
Little Big Town
Rascal Flatts
The Band Perry
Zac Brown Band

Quick take: Rascal Flatts makes it back here after an absence of a few years. But Little Big Town is the only act with support in other categories, so look for them to take the win here.

Vocal Duo Of The Year
Brothers Osborne
Dan+Shay
Florida Georgia Line
Maddie & Tae
The Swon Brothers

Quick take: Another thin category, which allows The Swon Brothers to get in, as well as the excellent Brothers Osborne. It would be amazing if the industry rewarded Maddie & Tae for their buzzworthy “Girl In A Country Song,” but FGL’s multi-category support points to an easy win for them here.

Album Of The Year
Old Boots, New Dirt by Jason Aldean
Pain Killer by Little Big Town
Platinum by Miranda Lambert
The Outsiders by Eric Church
Riser by Dierks Bentley

Quick take: Everybody and their cousin seemed to release a new album last year, which made this a tough category. Tim McGraw’s well reviewed Sundown Heaven Town misses the cut, as does Blake Shelton’s Bringing Back The Sunshine (which scored neither critical acclaim nor big sales). Jason Aldean joins 4 critically acclaimed choices. Eric Church combines critical acclaim with the best sales in that category (though Jason Aldean will likely surpass him before the ACMs). Miranda is the likely winner here, especially since 3 of the 5 nominated albums are Capitol Nashville albums while she is the only Sony Nashville nominee.

Song Of The Year
“American Kids” (Rodney Clawson / Luke Laird / Shane McAnally, performed by Kenny Chesney)
“Automatic” (Nicolle Galyon / Natalie Hemby / Miranda Lambert, performed by Miranda Lambert)
“Drink A Beer” (Jim Beavers / Chris Stapleton, performed by Luke Bryan)
“Follow Your Arrow” (Brandy Clark / Shane McAnally / Kacey Musgraves, performed by Kacey Musgraves)
“Give Me Back My Hometown” (Eric Church / Luke Laird, performed by Eric Church)
“I Hold On” (Dierks Bentley / Brett James, performed by Dierks Bentley)

Quick take: This category was chosen by a committee of representatives from performance rights organizations (PROs), 3 established songwriters, and 1 representative of the Individual Membership class & 1 representative of the Corporate Membership class. That may have helped “Follow Your Arrow” get in here. “Follow Your Arrow” won the CMA, so will ACM voters feel like they want to make the same statement? If not, odds favor 1 of the 2 songs also nominated in the Single category (“American Kids” or “Automatic”), or Dierks Bentley (who is nominated in Single for a different song).

Single Of The Year
“American Kids” by Kenny Chesney
“Automatic” by Miranda Lambert
“Dirt” by Florida Georgia Line
“Drunk On A Plane” by Dierks Bentley
“I Don’t Dance” by Lee Brice

Quick take: Curb Records usually succeeds in making its voice known at the ACMs, and sure enough, there’s Lee Brice. If there is vote-splitting between the 2 Sony Nashville songs, we could see an upset win by Dierks Bentley’s “Drunk On A Plane,” which is the only UMG Nashville song nominated.

Vocal Event Of The Year
“Lonely Tonight” (Blake Shelton featuring Ashley Monroe)
“Meanwhile Back At Mama’s” (Tim McGraw featuring Faith Hill)
“Somethin’ Bad” (Miranda Lambert with Carrie Underwood
“The South” (The Cadillac Three featuring Florida Georgia Line, Dierks Bentley, & Mike Eli)
“This Is How We Roll” (Florida Georgia Line featuring Luke Bryan)

Quick take: Big Machine Label Group gets 3 out of the 5 nominees here, which may hurt its most respected contender, the Tim/Faith song. The Blake/Ashley song will be freshest in people’s minds. Sony can focus on “Somethin’ Bad,” but hit though it was, it’s mostly thought of as a waste of the considerable talents of the format’s 2 biggest female stars.

Video Of The Year
“American Kids” (performed by Kenny Chesney, directed by Shaun Silva)
“Cop Car” (performed by Keith Urban, directed by John Urbano)
“Drunk On A Plane” (performed by Dierks Bentley, directed by Wes Edwards)
“I’m Not Going To Miss You” (performed by Glen Campbell, directed by Stacy Keach)
“Somethin’ Bad” (performed by Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood, directed by Trey Fanjoy)

Quick take: The “Somethin’ Bad” video is the most high concept and best-executed of all of these, but Dierks Bentley carries more good will than that particular duet, so he is likely the favorite to back up his CMA Video win with a win here.

Songwriter Of The Year
Rodney Clawson
Ashley Gorley
Luke Laird
Josh Osborne
Chris Tompkins

Quick take: The ACM Songwriter nominations often reward quantity (of hits) over quality, and that’s reflected here too. Rodney Clawson & Chris Tompkins combined for 2 big hits in Florida Georgia Line’s “Dirt” and Jason Aldean’s “Burnin’ It Down” (they cowrote the latter with Florida Georgia Line) not to mention Frankie Ballard’s “Helluva Life” (which they cowrote with Josh Kear), and Clawson also cowrote Lady Antebellum’s “Bartender” (with Lady A), “American Kids” (with Luke Laird and Shane McAnally). It may be the non-bro forays, especially “American Kids” that get Clawson the win here in a year where there’s no nominee with a lot of critical acclaim and buzz (a la last year’s winner Shane McAnally).

Awards for studio musicianship and production/engineering will be announced at a later date – thanks @HunterKelly for the info.

About Deb B 432 Articles
Also known as Windmills, I cover country music news and live televised country events, in addition to recapping ABC's 'Nashville.' Additionally, I occasionally do long-form chart analysis that has been cited by Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The Guardian, The New Republic, NPR, and more.