Back to news 02/07/13

GRAMMY AWARDS: Alan Jackson, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Eric Paslay, Little Big Town

GRAMMY AWARDS: Alan Jackson, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Eric Paslay, Little Big Town

Eric Church goes into Sunday night’s Grammy Awards with a pair of nominations afor Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Song for “Springsteen.” He co-wrote the two-week number-one hit with Jeff Hyde and Ryan Tyndell.

Other UMG Nashville artists picking up nominations include Dierks Bentley, who is nominated for Best Country Solo Performance for “Home,” Little Big Town for Best Country Duo/Group Performance for “Pontoon,” and Jamey Johnson for Best Country Album for Living For a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran. Best Country Song category features “Even If It Breaks Your Heart,” which was written by EMI Nashville’s Eric Paslay (along with Will Hoge) and Alan Jackson’s song, “So You Don’t Have to Love Me Anymore,” which was written by his nephew Adam Wright and Jay Knowles.

Dierks has been tapped to perform at this year’s Grammy Awards with his pal and Locked & Re-Loaded tour mate Miranda Lambert. The two are said to be teaming up for a “special” performance on the show. Keith Urban will appear on the show as a presenter.

This year’s Grammy Awards will broadcast live from Los Angeles on Sunday (February 10th) beginning at 8pm ET on CBS.

Check out the country nominees below:

Best Country Solo Performance:

Dierks Bentley “Home”
Eric Church “Springsteen”
Ronnie Dunn “Cost of Livin’”
Hunter Hayes “Wanted”
Blake Shelton “Over”
Carrie Underwood “Blown Away”

Best Country Song:
“Blown Away” – Josh Kear & Chris Tompkins (Carrie Underwood)
“Cost of Livin’” – Ronnie Dunn & Phillip Coleman (Ronnie Dunn)
“Even If It Breaks Your Heart” – Eric Paslay & Will Hoge (Eli Young Band)
“So You Don’t Have to Love Me Anymore” – Jay Knowles & Adam Wright (Alan Jackson)
“Springsteen” – Eric Church, Jeff Hyde & Ryan Tyndell (Eric Church)

Best Country Duo/Group Performance:
Eli Young Band “Even If It Breaks Your Heart”
Little Big Town “Pontoon”

Taylor Swift & The Civil Wars “Safe & Sound”
The Time Jumpers “On the Outskirts of Town”
Don Williams, featuring Alison Krauss “I Just Come Here for the Music”

Best Country Album:
Uncaged – Zac Brown Band
Hunter Hayes – Hunter Hayes
Living For a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran – Jamey Johnson
Four the Record – Miranda Lambert
The Time Jumpers – The Time Jumpers

AUDIO: Eric Church says his Grammy-nominated “Springsteen” takes him back to when he was 16-years-old at his first amphitheater experience.

Eric Church (Springsteen inspiration) OC: …everybody out there. :38
“Springsteen’ is one of those songs that every night that I sing it, I can remember being 16 years old at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Charlotte, North Carolina – my first amphitheater experience up there on the lawn. And I can remember spreading that blanket down, and I can still see the faces of the people that were there with me; I still remember what the weather was like; I can still remember what the air smelled like, what the sky looked like. And I think the great thing about that song – you always try to write music and record music that sparks a memory, and there’s a line in the song – ‘Funny how a melody sounds like a memory.’ That’s exactly what ‘Springsteen’ is for me, and I hope that that’s what it’s for for everybody out there.”

Audio / Eric Church (Springsteen inspiration)

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AUDIO: Eric Church talks about Grammy nominations.

Eric Church (Grammy nominations) OC: …Grammys. :10
“If you’re a musical artist, the Grammys are pretty much the Holy Grail, because it’s all genres, it’s everybody, it’s peers. That’s why they are revered the way they are – you know, they’re the Grammys.”

Audio / Eric Church (Grammy nominations)

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AUDIO: Dierks Bentley talks about his Grammy-nominated “Home.”

Dierks Bentley (Home-Americans) OC: …the bad. :09
“You know, we’re all Americans. I think that’s the most important description of all of us and I think we wanted to write a song that really captured the spirit of this country – the good and the bad.”

Audio / Dierks Bentley (Home-Americans)

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AUDIO: Dierks Bentley talks about being nominated at this year’s Grammy Awards, and he says if his pals, bluegrass group The Grascals win, he’s going up on stage with them.

Dierks Bentley (Grammys 2013) OC: …be nominated. :46
“Well, I mean, let’s look at the stats. I’ve been nominated for 12, okay? So, I’m pretty used to clapping for somebody else and the camera’s right there [clap, clap, clap, clap]. I got that down pretty good. I’m nominated, I think, for ‘Home,’ for Vocal Event of the Year, but The Grascals, I wrote a song, a Bluegrass song, that’s nominated, The Grascals are nominated for Bluegrass Album of the Year. I talked to Jamey the other day from The Grascals, and I said, ‘If you guys win, can I rush up there with you?’ ‘Cause it’s a good year for them. The Del McCoury Band is not nominated, there’s no, Ralph Stanley’s not nominated, Steve Martin-rogue category, so as far as Bluegrass goes, The Grascals’ got a pretty good shot. So, if they win, I’m running up there, so I can say I did it, because it’s a tough thing to win one, I’ve found out. But it’s always cool to be nominated.”

Audio / Dierks Bentley (Grammy nominations)

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AUDIO: Alan Jackson speaks about “So You Don’t Have to Love Me Anymore,” the song that earned his nephew, Adam Wright, and Jay Knowles their first Grammy nominations (as writers in the “Best Country Song” category).

AJ (Grammy nod for So You Don’t) OC: …this song :33
“You know, the first time I heard that song, I knew it was a great song. I called the writer, who just happened to be…one of the co-writers on it is my nephew Adam Wright who lives here in Nashville and is a singer-songwriter. I called Adam and I said, ‘Man, this is a great song. You sure you want to let me have it? I mean, there’s a lot of people that can sing this thing out there.’ And he said no – if I wanted it, he wanted me to sing it. So I was proud to have it. Everybody that heard it, the first thing they’d say was ‘Man, that thing gave me goosebumps on my arms!’ It’s just a great song, a great melody. I’m a songwriter, and I appreciate songs…so I definitely appreciate this song.”

Audio / AJ (Grammy nod for So You Don't)

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AUDIO: Eric Paslay talks about writing his Grammy-nominated song, “Even If It Breaks Your Heart.”

Eric Paslay (Even If It Breaks Your Heart) OC: …just music. :43
“I wrote ‘Even If It Breaks Your Heart’ with Will Hoge, who’s an artist in Nashville, and that song actually was released [first] on Triple A radio. I think the majority of the people that tell me they love it are the musicians or the entertainers, because it’s so much about what we do. It’s like, ‘Keep on dreaming, even if it breaks your heart.’ If you let it, it could break your heart every day from the yeses and the nos and the ‘you’re not good enough, and now you are and you should’ve done,’ whatever it is. I think being in the entertainment industry, you make it more vulnerable. You just make sure you put your heart and soul into it, but make sure you realize it’s just music too. It IS music, but it’s just music.”

Audio / Eric Paslay (Even If It Breaks Your Heart)

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AUDIO: Little Big Town’s Phillip Sweet says their new No. 1 single, “Pontoon,” celebrates summer fun.

LBT (Pontoon summer fun) OC: …summertime fun. :13
“It’s just fun. [Jimi laughs] It really is. It feels like summer, and it feels exactly what it sounds like. I grew up on pontoon boats in the summer on the lakes and just having a blast, so it’s good ole clean summertime fun.”

Audio / LBT (Pontoon-summer fun)

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