On February 27, the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences will hold its 44th annual Grammy Awards ceremony. The prestigious honors, recognizing talented and creative members of the music industry, will take place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The Grammy Awards telecast will reach an international audience of nearly two billion people in 180 countries.
Ten-time Grammy winner Alison Krauss is among the most-nominated artists in this year's Country categories. The 30-year-old singer and fiddle player earned three nominations with her band Union Station, including Best Bluegrass Album, Best Country Instrumental Performance and Best Country Performance by a Duo Or Group With Vocal. Alison could win two additional Grammys for her contributions to the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. The Lucky One, from Alison Krauss and Union Station's latest album, New Favorite, is a nominee in the songwriter's category of Best Country Song. Also nominated are four songs that reached the top of the Country chart: Lonestar's I'm Already There; Diamond Rio's One More Day; and two tracks from Jamie O'Neal's debut album Shiver; When I Think About Angels and There Is No Arizona.
There Is No Arizona also earned Jamie O'Neal a nomination for Best Female Country Vocal Performance, a category she shares with Trisha Yearwood, Dolly Parton, Lucinda Williams and Sheryl Crow. Lucinda and Sheryl received mentions for their performances on the Hank Williams tribute album, Timeless. And, in the category of Best Male Country Vocal Performance is Ryan Adams, who covered Hank's Lovesick Blues on Timeless.
A tie in voting placed six names in the Best Male Country Performance category this year. Along with Ryan Adams are Johnny Cash, Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson, Ralph Stanley and Tim McGraw, who had the only radio hit in the group.
The Best Country Album category covers contemporary and traditional Country styles. Nominees include One More Day by Diamond Rio, Set This Circus Down by Tim McGraw, Timeless - The Hank Williams Tribute, Trisha Yearwood's Inside Out and Willie Nelson's children's collection, Rainbow Connection.
The album that recreated the music of the Deep South in the Depression era received five nominations. O Brother, Where Art Thou? is named in the general category of Album of the Year and Best Compilation Soundtrack Album For A Motion Picture. Three of its tracks are also nominated for Grammys. Ralph Stanley's recording of O Death is up for Best Male Country Vocal Performance, and vying against each other for Best Country Collaboration With Vocals are Didn't Leave Nobody But The Baby by Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch, and I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow by the Soggy Bottom Boys.