The red carpet just keeps rolling out for singer-songwriter Chris Stapleton. After dominating November’s Country Music Association Awards, and watching his album jump from nowhere to No 1, he’s now one of the top nominees at next year’s Grammy Awards.
Stapleton's four nominations, announced this month by the Recording Academy, include Best Country Album, Country Solo Performance and Country Song for Traveller.
His debut album – which was released in May and became a huge hit and performed alongside Justin Timberlake at the CMAs – is also up for the coveted Grammy for Album of the Year, marking a return to the top prize nominations for country music after a lean spell.
The last country-tinged album to be nominated for Album of the Year was at the 2014 Grammys with Taylor Swift's Red – but that was not completely country, thanks to its pop anthems We Are Never Getting Back Together and I Knew You Were Trouble. Before that, you have to go back to Lady Antebellum's Need You Now in 2011.
“I don’t make records with the thought of awards,” Stapleton says. “That being said, what a wonderful treat to be recognised by your peers for the work that you have done. It’s kinda crazy.”
His competition is tough in the top category, with Swift's 1989, Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly, Alabama Shakes' Sound & Color, and the Weeknd's Beauty Behind the Madness in contention – the last one is the hot favourite after it was revealed to be the most-streamed album on Spotify this year.
“The Album of the Year category, you look at that, it’s some pretty heavy company,” Stapleton said. “We are grateful for it. We don’t take it that lightly.”
Little Big Town also helped country music return to top Grammy categories with Girl Crush, which is up for Song of the Year (the nomination goes to its writers, Lori McKenna, Hillary Lindsey and Liz Rose).
It's the first time a country song has been nominated for the top honour since the 2011 Grammys, at which the nominees included Miranda Lambert's The House That Built Me and Lady Antebellum's Need You Now, the winner.
"It's the biggest deal," says Little Big Town's Karen Fairchild. "There is no way to describe the importance. It means a lot to the band for this song and the record to be acknowledged like this from our peers. It's incredible." Girl Crush is also nominated for Best Country Song and Country Duo/Group Performance, while Little Big Town's Pain Killer is up for Best Country Album.
As in the CMAs, Stapleton has a strong chance of winning Grammy gold because he is beloved and respected in the music community – he has written songs for just about every hot country act, from George Strait to Luke Bryan to Kenny Chesney – and he earned acclaim, and Grammy nominations, as the lead singer of bluegrass band The SteelDrivers. Even Adele covers one their songs at her live shows.
“I have been working for a long time, writing songs for other people and playing on records, playing shows and doing all those things,” he says.
“So many artists and producers and record-label folks and publishers – everyone in Nashville, but also outside of Nashville, too. I really have had very few bad experiences.”
While country music could triumph at the Grammys ceremony – on February 15 – so could rap.
Lamar's Butterfly could be the first hip-hop project to win Album of the Year since Outkast took home the prize in 2004 with Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. And his Alright, produced by Pharrell Williams, could be the first rap tune to ever win song of the year.
Lamar is the leading nominee with 11 nods, followed by Swift and The Weeknd, who each have seven. More than 21,000 submissions were entered for the 83 Grammy categories.
Voting for the second round, completed by mail, ends on January 15.
* Associated Press