The good news: An Alabama band having a breakout year is among the newly announced nominees for the 58th Country Music Association Awards. The bad news: They’re up against two other acts with Alabama ties.
The CMA announced its nominations Sunday. They were dominated by familiar names: Morgan Wallen had seven and other multiple nominees included Cody Johnson, Chris Stapleton, Lainey Wilson, Luke Combs, Jelly Roll and Kacey Musgraves. Post Malone earned four with his blockbuster country crossover album, while Beyonce got none for hers, a conspicuous contrast.
The Red Clay Strays, a group from southwest Alabama that has been enjoying a banner year, is among the nominees for vocal group of the year. Their fellow nominees include two other groups with Alabama ties: Little Big Town, featuring Alabama native Jimi Westbrook and two other members, Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman, who met at Samford University; and the Zac Brown Band, whose members include Birmingham native Chris Fryar.
Both the Zac Brown Band and Little Big Town have been nominated repeatedly in the category, and Little Big Town has won it a half-dozen times. Old Dominion and Lady A round out this year’s nominees in the category.
There’s also an Alabama contender in the “radio station of the year” categories, where WXFL-FM 96.1, aka Kix 96, a station serving Florence and the Muscle Shoals area, is nominated in the small market bracket. (Some Alabama listeners can also hear one of the other small-market nominees, Pensacola based WYCT, aka Cat Country 98.7.)
For the Red Clay Strays, news of the nomination came right after the group wrapped up a sold-out tripleheader at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium. “Well that’s pretty neat,” the group said in a Facebook post. While at the Ryman, the group celebrated the fact that one of its singles, “Wondering Why,” had gone platinum.
