The nominations for the 50th Academy of Country Music Awards have been announced, via its social media outlets.
The awards show will take place April 19th at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Blake Shelton and Luke Bryan return to co-host the event.
Entertainer of the Year
Jason Aldean
Garth Brooks
Luke Bryan
Miranda Lambert
Florida Georgia Line
Male Vocalist of the Year
Jason Aldean
Dierks Bentley
Luke Bryan
Eric Church
Brad Paisley
Blake Shelton
Female Vocalist of the Year
Brandy Clark
Miranda Lambert
Martina McBride
Kacey Musgraves
Carrie Underwood
Group of the Year
Lady Antebellum
Little Big Town
Rascal Flatts
The Band Perry
Zac Brown Band
Album of the Year
Old Boots, New Dirt, Jason Aldean
Producer: Michael Knox
Record Label: Broken Bow Records
Pain Killer, Little Big Town
Producer: Jay Joyce
Record Label: Capitol Records Nashville
Platinum, Miranda Lambert
Producers: Chuck Ainlay, Frank Liddell, Glenn Worf
Record Label: RCA Nashville
Riser, Dierks Bentley
Producers: Ross Copperman, Jaren Johnston
Record Label: Capitol Records Nashville
The Outsiders, Eric Church
Producer: Jay Joyce
Record Label: EMI Records Nashville
Vocal Duo of the Year
Brothers Osborne
Florida Georgia Line
Dan + Shay
Maddie & Tae
The Swon Brothers
New Artist of the Year (currently open for fan voting)
Brett Eldredge
Tyler Farr
Sam Hunt
Kip Moore
Thomas Rhett
Chase Rice
Cole Swindell
Dan + Shay
Single Record of the Year (awarded to artist/producers/record company)
“American Kids” Kenny Chesney
“Automatic” Miranda Lambert
“Dirt” Florida Georgia Line
“Drunk On A Plane” Dierks Bentley
“I Don’t Dance” Lee Brice
Vocal Event of the Year
Lonely Tonight – Blake Shelton Featuring Ashley Monroe, Producer: Scott Hendricks, Record Label: Warner Bros. Records
Meanwhile Back At Mama’s – Tim McGraw Featuring Faith Hill, Producers: Byron Gallimore, Tim McGraw, Record Label: Big Machine Records
Somethin’ Bad – Miranda Lambert Duet With Carrie Underwood, Producers: Chuck Ainlay, Frank Liddell, Glenn Worf, Record Label: RCA Nashville
The South – The Cadillac Three Featuring Florida Georgia Line, Dierks Bentley & Mike Eli, Producers: Dann Huff, Justin Niebank, Record Label: Big Machine Records
This Is How We Roll – Florida Georgia Line Featuring Luke Bryan
Video of the Year
American Kids – Kenny Chesney. Director: Shaun Silva, Producer: Don Lepore
Cop Car – Keith Urban, Director: John Urbano, Producer: Michelle Abnet
Drunk On A Plane – Dierks Bentley, Director: Wes Edwards, Producer: Clarke Gallivan
I’m Not Gonna Miss You – Glen Campbell, Director: James Keach, Producer: Julian Raymond
Somethin’ Bad – Miranda Lambert Duet With Carrie Underwood, Director: Trey Fanjoy, Producer: Trent Hardville
LBT (hopes for Pain Killer) 2 OC: …test of time. :24Audio / Little Big Town’s Phillip Sweet talks about his hopes for Pain Killer.
Download
PHILLIP: “Winning awards and having success, commercial success with Tornado, I think, gave us a bigger platform, and for me, I hope that platform – I’m really proud that we made Painkiller, because it’s the best thing we’ve ever done and that we have a platform to share it on is amazing. So, I think we wanted to step up to the challenge and know there’s a great platform here, what are we going to put on it? And we wanted something to stand the test of time.”
Kacey Musgraves (Follow Your Arrow) 2 OC: …accepting other people. :43Audio / Kacey Musgraves is passionate about her song, “Follow Your Arrow.”
Download
“I get like fired up when I talk about this song, because it’s so fun to play and it’s always interesting. I’m always wary whenever I play it a little bit because it does push some buttons, but people young and old seem to get a kick out of it and just appreciate that fact that like I’m showing love to people who don’t usually get that in our genre. And, too, it’s just funny because no matter what side of the coin you’re on, gay, straight, left, right, black, white, anything, I mean there’s always going to be an opposing opinion so it doesn’t matter. Like society is going to have an opinion either way. You’re never going to make society happy completely. I mean if you’re too fat, then you need to lose weight, but if you lose too much weight, then oh, she’s on crack. It’s just about being who are and accepting other people.”
Audio / Dierks Bentley says his ACM-nominated album Riser is a snapshot of his life at the moment.
DownloadDierks Bentley (Riser snapshot) OC: …decided for me. :45
“I think every record I’ve made has always been a little bit of a Polaroid snapshot of where I was at that place and time when I made it. This particular album just has a lot of scenery in the picture. I mean there’s a lot that’s gone on in the last two years, more so than any other time in my life. You look at some of the bookends of the making of this record – my Dad passing away at the start of the process and then my son Knox being born at the end of the process. It was unexpected…when I made this record I just wanted to have the best songs. I wasn’t sure what they were going to be about, but I wanted them to be the best. I wanted to write my best songs, I wanted to write a lot of songs. I wanted to listen to a lot of outside songs and find the best songs that I could for whatever I was going to write about, but I wasn’t sure what it was gonna be, and then life came along and decided for me.”
Audio / Eric Church says the story of his ACM-nominated “Give Me Back My Hometown,’ appeals to him as a songwriter.
DownloadEric Church (Give Me Back My Hometown) OC: …songwriter. :41
“I love that it’s about ‘Give Me Back My Hometown,’ but it’s about a guy that’s still in his hometown. He’s in the most familiar place, the place he knows better than anything, but because his female lover left him there, all those places that he knows so well, become so haunting and foreign to him. The loneliness and sadness of it, it’s one of the sadder songs we’ve ever done. To be at the place that you grow up at that is your home, and the person that left you there took that from you, there’s nothing lonelier than that. So, I love that dichotomy of ‘Give Me Back My Hometown,’ when the person’s in it, they’re standing in it, and that appealed to me as a songwriter.”
Audio / Luke Bryan talks about one of his favorite songs on the album, “Drink a Beer.”
DownloadLuke Bryan (Drink a Beer) OC: …the album. :50
“‘Drink a Beer’ is the best way I can describe it is — it’s the coolest sad song I’ve ever heard. It’s the saddest sad song you’ve ever heard but it’s like it could be played at any really environment and you’re not going to tank the mood. You’re just going to make people reflect and the perfect way you’re going to make them revert back to somebody that they lost, whether it’s their granddad that they used to sit on a boat and drink a beer with. It’s whoever in your life that you’ve lost that you would have shared a beer with, and I think it’s just a perfectly written sad song, and it’s one of those that I’m honored that it found its way to me and I’m honored that it can be on the album.”
