Eric Church picked up a pair of Grammy nominations for Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Song for “Springsteen,” which he co-wrote with Jeff Hyde and Ryan Tyndell…one of which was announced during the Grammy Nominations Live concert on Wednesday night (December 5th).
Dierks Bentley and The Band Perry kicked off the show with a tribute to Johnny Cash performing “Jackson,” while Luke performed his multi-week number-one hit, “I Don’t Want This Night to End.”
Other UMG Nashville artists picking up nominations include Dierks, Eric Paslay, Little Big Town (who announced the nominees for Best New Artist) and Jamey Johnson. Also picking up a nod was Alan Jackson’s song, “So You Don’t Have to Love Me Anymore.” 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 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: 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.”
