The nominations for the 47th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards have been announced, and Capitol/EMI acts are up for numerous awards. The trophies will be handed out live from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas April 1st beginning at 8pm ET/PT delayed on CBS.
Lady Antebellum leads group nominations with five nods, including Vocal Group of the Year, which they have won for two consecutive years. They are also nominated for Album of the Year for Own The Night as artists and producers, and for Song and Video of the Year for “Just A Kiss.”
Eric Church scores a pair of nominations, including the prestigious Album of the Year for his R.I.A.A. gold-certified Chief. He also picks up a nod for the insightful video for “Homeboy,” which was shot at the old Tennessee State Prison.
Dierks Bentley, who is scaling the charts with his inspirational anthem and ACM-nominated “Home,” could potentially take home two awards for Song of the Year honors as both artist and composer.
AUDIO: Lady Antebellum’s Hillary Scott discusses how the band’s ACM-nominated album, Own The Night, documents specific moments in life that shape the person you become.
Lady A (theme of OTN) OC: …who you are, you know? :20
HS: “The theme that I’ve kind of seen throughout it is a lot of these songs are about very specific moments in time. It’s not just an overall emotion or an overall feeling that’s portrayed in a song, It’s just very specific to moments that throughout your life end up defining who you are.”
AUDIO: Lady Antebellum’s Hillary Scott explains the band’s personal connection to their ACM-nominated Song of the Year, “Just a Kiss.”
Lady A (Just a Kiss story) OC: …personal experience. :25
“The song, we pulled from our own personal experience with Charles [Kelley] meeting his wife and the first night he met his now-wife and the magic that was there and how the restraint he knew to have because she was something special. And that’s a lot like where I’m in my life too with recently engaged and really in love and blissfully happy. So, it’s all from personal experience.”
AUDIO: Eric Church talks about making his ACM-nominated album, Chief.
Eric Church (making of Chief) OC: …its heartbeat. :59
“We have built our career on the backs of our fans. We have not cared what else was going on around us. The other thing, we went and played shows, and we have given those fans the keys to this vehicle, and we said, ‘Drive it!’ And they have told people about it, and they’ve spread the word, and they’ve preached that gospel, and they’ve just become an army out there. This record when we made it, it needed, for me, to sound like a live show. It needed to sound like we had recorded it live, like you were watching something that we didn’t rehearse, that we didn’t think out. And there’s so many tracks on this record, where I am interacting with the musicians, because I am in the room with them, and either I will sing a melody line or the guitar will be playing a melody line, and we’ll pick up on each other, and it will turn into this little jam moment. And that is where the magic happens. We didn’t plan it, we didn’t talk about it, there’s as much unrehearsed magic on this record as we’ve ever had. There’s a lot of mistakes on it, and I think that’s part of a live show. We mess up every night live, and we talk about it after a show. We left it on this record. Those mistakes are in there, and I think that’s what gives it its heartbeat.”
AUDIO: Eric Church talks about his ACM-nominatedvideo for “Homeboy.”
Eric Church (Homeboy video) 2 OC: …love that shot. :24
“And seeing the story line develop, and being in the place, I mean I’ve been there, I was feeling the stuff the kid was feeling, that despair. I think we have all been in places like that. It just came across great. I love the lighting. I love the angles. I love the slow motion. The slow motion is one of the coolest things. There’s a scene with a match where he lights a match and throws it at the camera, and you can see the match extinguish itself, in super, super, super slow motion. I love that shot.”
AUDIO: Dierks Bentley describes his hopes for his ACM-nominated Song of the Year, “Home.”
Dierks Bentley (Home-hopes) OC: …come together. :32
“The song is written in a way that is open-ended as far as how people, what they want to walk away with. I mean I think it’s obvious that it’s a song about our country and about the ups and downs and the scars we have in our past, but at the end of the day, no matter what side of the fence you’re on, where you stand on certain issues, or where you come from, your background, we all live here. You have to walk through the front door of your house every day. This is our house. This is our home. This is our country. You know, I hope in some sense that it brings people together, and finds a bit more in common than we don’t. I hope people feel inspired and come together.”
