LAINEY! LAINEY! LAINEY!

Clearly it is Lainey Wilson’s world, and clearly we’re all just living in it. With nine nominations for The 57th Annual Country Music Association Awards, the Louisiana-born-and-raised singer-songwriter lands almost double the nominations of the second-most-nominated artist. Taking Entertainer of the Year, Album of the Year for Bell Bottom Country, Song and Single of the Year for “Heart Like A Truck,” a triple of Musical Event, Music Video and Single of the Year with HARDY for “Wait In The Truck” and a second Musical Event with Jelly Roll for “Save Me,” she’s clearly a woman who’s come into her own since taking Female Vocalist and New Artist last year.

Writing from a serious blue collar, working for it perspective, the farmer’s daughter who’s spent 10 years in Nashville trying to break through is dominating in a way that puts her on par with the mostly male breakout artists; and she’s done it with a progressively traditional lean that is as much Loretta Lynn-candid as it is Dolly Parton-detailed.

Jelly Roll, who has five nominations, has the second-most nods in a competitive year that should make Broken Bow’s Jon Loba one happy camper. Besides his Musical Event, “Need A Favor” lands in Single and Music Video of the Year. And in a “he-ja” vu, Jason Deford mirrors Wilson’s 2022 Female/New Artist dominance with his own Male Vocalist and New Artist nominations. For the former rapper who has served time and spent the last year musically offering a symbol of truth, hope and redemption, the five nominations validate an artist who’s made some of the truest ’70s- and ’80s-informed country music in today’s Nashville.

Like Wilson, Jelly Roll is staunchly his own brand of country. Both artists aren’t looking to be pop crossover—though Jelly Roll’s intensity has seen him on the rock charts—or soft-sell their sonics or life-anchored lyrics.

Back-to-back and reigning Entertainer of the Year Luke Combs, who’s also won a pair of Album of the Year and Male Vocalist Awards since walking off with New Artist in 2018, receives four nominations including Entertainer, Male Vocalist, Album for Gettin’ Old and Single for the Tracy Chapman-penned “Fast Car,” which also received a Song of the Year nomination. Having kept his Everykid bona fides through his rise to stadium-sized success, Combs embodies the young people of the flyover finding their way. It’s a simple life, finding love and contentment where you are, that evokes Kenny Chesney’s equally massive reach across America.

Entertainer of the Year sees perennial standard-setter Chris Stapleton looking for his first Entertainer after taking that award at the Academy of Country Music Awards this spring. The category also includes Morgan Wallen, doing stadium-sized business and maintaining his streaming ubiquity, and powerhouse vocalist Carrie Underwood, currently alternating dates with Guns N’ Roses, a Vegas residency and her own arena-sized tours, while maintaining her dominance as a total package who takes country from NFL opening packages to faith-based songs.

Almost as coveted as Entertainer, Album of the Year is looking to be the most music-forward, songwriter-driven category it’s been in years. Beyond Wilson’s Bell Bottom Country and Combs’ Getting Old, Ashley McBryde’s y’all sing, small town concept project Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville, featuring Brothers Osborne, Caylee Hammack, Pillbox Patti, Charlie Worsham, Connie Harrington, Aaron Raitiere, Benjy Davis and Brandy Clark, offers a look at strip club gospel nights, grocery store meltdowns, gossip, the patriarchy versus redneck women, white trash and tribulations from a girl who comes from that realm.

Wallen’s can’t-be-stopped One Thing At A Time brings the streaming supernova into the Album of the Year category. Perhaps the most heard Nashville-launched artist this side of Taylor Swift, Wallen and his Big Loud creative team have continued focusing on making music that draws from the kid who grew up with just enough trouble that he’s a little riskier, but also the kind of young man that makes all the girls sigh. This is a masterclass in flyover youth today.

At the other end of the spectrum, Kelsea Ballerini’s almost unplugged, deeply intimate Rolling Up The Welcome Mat shows that songcraft and vulnerable performances connect with CMA voters in a way slick pop just isn’t right now. Not quite “true confessions,” her candid moments of walking away from a young marriage—the doubts, decisions, sadness and even self-blame—gives her and co-producer Alysa Vanderheym recognition for a project done solely for the music.

Welcome Mat also returns five-time Female Vocalist nominee Ballerini to the category for the first time this decade. Voters sometimes respond as much to an aching, true vocal as a slamming powerhouse or a coy chanteuse; for Ballerini, the initimacy did the trick. Seven-time Female Vocalist Miranda Lambert joins reining Female Wilson, 2021 Female Carly Pearce, Ballerini and McBryde, Each woman has a singular way of leaning into their songs; but all five of this year’s nominees embrace a decidedly country approach to writing songs and making records.

Male, too, is a diverse sample of what genuine country music can embody. Six-time winner Chris Stapleton’s sweltering soul country faces off against Texas’ brawniness with Cody Johnson who won 2022’s Single of the Year with “’Til You Can’t,” Jelly Roll’s almost emo-meets-Haggard country, Wallen’s feel pretty good goin’ down country and Jordan Davis’ warm, almost Don Williams’ kind of country, and of course, two-time winner Combs, whose “good buddy” country offers a friend you’ve known all your life. For the men this year, even Jordan Davis’ warm, almost Don Williams’ kind of country shows a shift.

Davis, who won 2022’s Song of the Year with the populist “Buy Dirt,” triples with a Song and Single nomination for “Next Thing You Know.” Friendly, warm and using denial as the device that sees a young man’s coming-together, Davis has found a lane for good guys trying to build a solid life—and the women seeking same.

Combs’ “Fast Car,” Wilson’s “Heart Like A Truck,” Davis’ “Next Thing” and HARDY’s “Wait in the Truck” are all populating Song and Single. Jelly Roll breaks out with a Single nom for the wrenching “Need A Favor,” while brand new Megan Moroney earns a Song of the Year nod for her “Dawgs betraying” song of innocence “Tennessee Orange.”

Both Jelly Roll and Moroney are also in one of the most competitive New Artist categories CMA has seen. They are joined by Parker McCollum and Hailey Whitters, who’ve both won the Top New Male and New Female respectively at the ACMs, and massive industry outlier/festival headliner Zach Bryan. No filler, just artists writing their names across history on a daily basis.

PHOTO CREDITS:
Lainey Wilson: Rich Polk
HARDY: Ryan Smith