Thoughts on the 46th Annual ACM Nominees

Welcome back everybody to Music Reviews by a Musician where today, while in the middle of the snow apocalypse that everyone seems to be calling it, I am sitting nice and warm at my computer. Today's blog is about this morning's announcement of nominees for the 46th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards that will be shown live on CBS Sunday April 3rd from Las Vegas.

Miranda Lambert, led the ACM nominations
with a total of seven.

Now as I am reviewing the selections I have to say that nothing really surprises me to much. There are many of the familiar names here such as Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert, Taylor Swift....(ugh), The Zac Brown Band, and many more.

In all reality the nominees for the awards are to be expected. They are the hottest and brightest names in country music right now. For a full list of nominees click here. However for the purpose of this blog I would like to review briefly the nominees for the top categories and give my predictions and thoughts.

First off there is Top Female Vocalist of the Year. Those nominees are Miranda Lambert, Taylor Swift, Reba McEnitre, Carrie Underwood, and Lee Ann Womack. Now this field to me seems to be pretty accurate. The one that surprises me the most is Lee Ann Womack but hey I am not the one making the nominations. I think that the other four ladies are the top of the year and they should probably be the only ones nominated.

With that said however I have to give my nod to Miranda Lambert in the category. She has had a remarkable past year and I feel that her work and success at the CMA Awards this past November will carry over into this awards show and get her at least this award.

Now for Male Vocalist of the Year the nominees are Jason Aldean, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Blake Shelton, and George Strait. The one problem I have with this list and it is a small one is that Dierks Bentley got left out. I think he too has a great past year much like the five nominees and he would deserve to be a nominee as well. But once again I'm not making the nominations.

This group is tougher to judge who will walk out as the winner on April 3rd. I think it comes down to either Blake Shelton or Brad Paisley. Both artists seem to have had just a slightly better year then the others and if I had to pick a winner now I would go with Shelton. To me his year seems more meaningful than Paisley's and I would like to think that he would get the nod for this award.

Finally there is the award for Entertainer of The Year. The nominees for this award are Jason Aldean, Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, and Taylor Swift. Looking at these nominations I believe that from a performing standpoint it is right. All of these nominees are great performers and the only problem I have with this list is that I would like to see Blake Shelton on this list for the year he has had.

However going with the nominations that were announced I would have to say that Brad Paisley will win. He is one of the, if not the best entertainer in country music today. I would put him slightly ahead of Miranda Lambert and Keith Urban for this award simply because of his performing ability. Brad Paisley is country music today in my opinion and seeing as he won this award at the CMA's in November, I think he will get it again on April 3rd.

Once again for a full list of the nominees please click this link.

Until next time keep on rocking away music lovers,
JAS

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons/Flickr, ronnie44052

An Artist You Should Check Out

Well its Monday, the start of the work and school week, which means another new blog post from yours truly. As I was driving back from a weekend away I happened to catch a song on the radio that I really liked. That song pushed me to check out this artist, Chuck Wicks.

Chuck Wicks in concert.

Now up until now I had never really listened to anything by this rising country artist but after hearing his latest single "Old School", well lets just say I was impressed. Wicks has a few great songs and a great sound that definitely fits the mold of what I consider the new country music sound.

A perfect example of this new sound would be the song "What If You Stay". To me it really sounds like a new rock song but the elements of country are there. That is definitely the new sound that I am hearing out of Nashville these days. I touched on this in a previous blog post, What Is Country Music Anymore.

Wicks however is definitely a rising star in the world of country. He has that combination of a great country music voice and some very good songs. I know I will definitely stay tuned into this artist for time to come. The big hit off of his first album was "Stealing Cinderella" and I can definitely hear how he has already evolved as an artist listening to his latest releases.

Another new song he is currently playing on the road and that is on his second record is called "She Gets To Me". This song is definitely a branch out from country and it almost has a reggae feel to it. I really like it and I think it could be a hit down the road when it gets released.

Honestly I cannot wait for the full second album of Wicks' to be released because I have a feeling that it will be an all around well rounded album. Everybody who follows country music or music in general should keep their eyes on the lookout for Chuck Wicks because I believe he could be the next country superstar.

For more on Chuck Wicks check out his website here.

Until next time keep on rocking away music lovers,
JAS

Photo courtesy of Flickr/Creative Commons, goaliej54