Inside the Grammy Race for Contemporary & Traditional Country Albums

In the biggest change to the upcoming 68th Grammy Awards, the best country album category has been split into best contemporary country album and best traditional country album.

The change marks the first time two country albums will be honored in the country field. The move is a smart one because it helps bring the country categories more in line with other genres that had already separated contemporary and traditional albums or performances, including R&B, pop and blues.

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The switch also highlights the huge umbrella that country music now spans. Americana and folk have their own categories, but the lines blur for many people between all the subsets (except bluegrass, which is pretty easy to distinguish), so it’s nice to have another award to honor one of music’s most popular genres.

Whether intended or not (and most likely not), this change could bring the contemporary country album category more in line with the album of the year category for the CMA Awards and ACM Awards. Those Nashville-based organizations and voters have leaned more toward mainstream, commercially successful efforts in their nominations than Grammy voters often do. The Grammys, perhaps because of a wider voter base, have sometimes awarded albums that weren’t even nominated for the CMAs or ACMs, most notably Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter. The set took home the best country album award at this year’s Grammys after not even being nominated in the same category for the CMAs or ACMs, with much debate over whether it was a country album at all.

Over the decades, the Grammy for best country album has often gone to a critical country favorite who does not receive a CMA or ACM nomination for the same project. At the 1997 ceremony, Lyle Lovett’s The Road to Ensenada took home the best country album award while not being nominated for album of the year at the CMAs or ACMs. Same in 2023 when Willie Nelson’s A Beautiful Time won the Grammy. But the awards shows have occasionally shared a winner: There have been nine times that the same album took home the country album award at the CMA, ACM and Grammy Awards; most recently, Chris Stapleton’s 2020 album Starting Over and Lainey Wilson’s 2022 effort, Bell Bottom Country.

For clarity’s sake, the Recording Academy defines best contemporary country album contenders as “music recordings, both vocal and instrumental, which utilize a stylistic intention, song structure, lyrical content, and/or musical presentation to create a sensibility that reflects the broad spectrum of contemporary country style and culture.”

That’s perhaps intentionally very broad, but the description for best traditional country album contenders is much more specific: “Traditional country includes country recordings that adhere to the more traditional sound structures of the country genre, including rhythm and singing style, lyrical content, as well as traditional country instrumentation such as acoustic guitar, steel guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, piano, electric guitar, and live drums. It also includes sub-genres such as Western, Western Swing, and Outlaw country.”

The splitting of the category has immediately yielded way more entries: last year 79 albums were entered for best country album. This year, a total of 130 between the two categories were entered: 68 for contemporary and 62 for traditional.

The traditional country category feels more competitive, and it certainly spans a broader range of artists and musical possibilities than the contemporary country category. It’s very likely that a legendary artist like Nelson will find his 77th solo studio album Oh What a Beautiful World competing with newcomer Zach Top’s second full-length set Ain’t In It for My Health. Nelson is also going up against his son, Lukas, who released his first solo album, the well-received American Romance in June. Parker McCollum, whose self-titled album is getting some of the best reviews of his career, could also find himself on the short list, as could Jamey Johnson with Midnight Gasoline and Cody Jinks with In My Blood. Smartly, George Strait, who won his only country album of the year award in 2009 for Troubadour, is smartly entered in the traditional category with Cowboys and Dreamers. Other names to look for include Margo Price with Hardheaded Woman, Trisha Yearwood with The Mirror and Turnpike Troubadours with The Price of Admission.

With so many Grammy faves in the traditional country category, the contemporary country category feels a little less hefty than in years past, and some names that likely wouldn’t have made the cut may now have a good shot. Additionally, Morgan Wallen, who has the year’s biggest country album, did not enter I’m the Problem for consideration, so it’s out of the picture. Among the top contenders is Tyler Childers’ Snipe Hunter, which is a perfect example of an album and artist that Grammy voters would likely nominate in this category, but the CMA and ACMs tend to ignore (Childers received an ACM Award nomination for video last year). Other albums that are strong possibilities to get a nod are Miranda Lambert’s Postcards From Texas, Jelly Roll’s Beautifully Broken, Kelsea Ballerini’s Patterns and Eric Church’s Evangeline vs. the Machine. There’s some room for some longshots in there, and with Top entered in traditional, there are some other hot-shot newcomers who could get attention, like Tucker Wetmore with What Not To and, though he’s not a newcomer, Riley Green has had a tremendous year, so his deluxe version of Don’t Mind If I Do could also find favor among voters.

First-round voting ends Wednesday (Oct. 15). Nominations will be announced Nov. 7, with final-round voting taking place Dec. 12-Jan. 5. The Grammys will take place Feb. 1.

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