Jim Nash V. explores the reason an artist on his 3rd year of major success is just now getting a “Best New Artist” nomination.
As new artists are signed up to perform at this years CMA Awards, I took a look at the nominations.
Under New Artist of the Year I saw Luke Bryan. Uhh….. Luke Bryan? New Artist of the Year? This is 2010. Don’t they mean of 2007? Did someone forget to update their calendars?
For reference, Luke Bryan release his first full length CD “I’ll Stay Me” on August 14, 2007. His released singles from that Album were “All My Friends Say” and “Country Man”, both of which did pretty well.
Now, with an August CD release it’s not unusual that he did not make the CMA cut for New Artist (or the Horizon Award as it was known back then) in 2007, but why not a nod in 2008?
So Luke releases his sophomore CD on October 6, 2009 and has so far seen success with “Do I”, “Rain is a Good Thing” and most recently “Someone Else Calling You Baby”.
Now I like Luke. He’s a good country act complete with a pedal steel and fiddle player. We’ve seen him open for Sara Evans in 2007 and Dierks Bentley in 2008 and is currently opening for Jason Aldean on his Farm Tour.
But has why is Luke getting New Artist recognition in 2010, on his second CD, and 3 years after he broke onto the scene? Anyone have any answers?
Remember to watch The 44th Annual CMA Awards on Wednesday. November 10th on ABC at 8:00pm/7:00pm Central time. http://www.cmaawards.com.
Keep it Countriversy,
Jim Nash V.
Jim Nash V is a contributing writer with a passion for country music. Jim works to promote line dancing and country music in Long Island New York. For more on Jim, visit YeeHawLI.com
Glad you asked Jim! Here’s the official word from the Country Music Association:
NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR – This Award is to the artist, whether individual or a group, who is known primarily as a Country artist, who has for the first time demonstrated the most significant creative growth and development in overall chart or sales activity (of a debut or sophomore album), live performance, professionalism and/or national media recognition related to the launch of their career. Any artist who has previously won a CMA Award (except Song of the Year, Musical Event of the Year and Video of the Year) or who has twice been a final nominee for the Horizon Award or New Artist of the Year Award is ineligible for nomination.
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