Georgia roots on display at this year's CMA Awards

When he was 10 years old, Dave Haywood would beg his parents to allow him to stay up late to watch the CMA Awards.

On Nov. 10, the Augusta native will sit anxiously in the audience at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena with his bandmates in Lady Antebellum, hoping to have a reason to give his own acceptance speech -- or six.

“To go from seeing Reba [McEntire] and Alabama winning stuff to be able to be part of this now, it’s pretty surreal,” Haywood said from a recent tour stop.

Indeed, it’s also a long road from Fiddlin’ John Carson to Lady A, but one that is peppered with names such as Brenda Lee and Ray Stevens, Clayton McMichen and Jerry Reed.

A decade ago, country music soared on the platinum hits of Alan Jackson, Trisha Yearwood and Travis Tritt.

And now, along with the megastar showings of Sugarland, Jason Aldean and the Zac Brown Band, peeks a burgeoning crop of upstarts including Billy Currington and Luke Bryan.

Common denominator?

They're all from Georgia.

The state will be well-represented at the "44th Annual CMA Awards" not only by Lady Antebellum, but also Sugarland, the Zac Brown Band, Bryan, Jackson and Little Big Town, who collectively earned nods in nine of a dozen categories.

While Tennessee and Texas often receive the bulk of recognition as breeding grounds for country performers, Georgia has churned out a healthy collection of stars destined for the music history books -- and their influences can be traced directly to many of today’s chart toppers.

“Many of these acts have been exposed to a lot of great, diverse music in Georgia,” said Lisa Love, executive director of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, noting that along with the country exports, Georgia also can claim Otis Redding, James Brown and Ray Charles among its natives. “That emotional connection has inspired their interpretation of modern country music. They’ve grabbed and held the attention of the masses.”

Aldean, a product of Macon, didn’t receive any CMA recognition despite enjoying a tremendous year with his “Wide Open” album (his latest, “My Kinda Party,” arrived Nov. 2, and he is up for two American Music Awards on Nov. 21). But he unabashedly credits his roots as the inspiration for his career.

Aldean grew up in a musically supportive household and at 15 began playing in the house band at Macon’s Nashville South club. From his teen years, the 33-year-old recalls witnessing the ascent of Georgia country artists, which hugely encouraged his future.

“I’d see that Travis Tritt was playing in Atlanta, and I knew Trisha [Yearwood] when I was younger because she’s from Monticello, where my dad was,” Aldean said. “Seeing them succeed, it made it seem like it was not that impossible. Being that close to where other people got their starts and playing some of the same clubs ... that was huge for me.”

Lady Antebellum’s Haywood -- who played in a jazz band at Lakeside High School in Evans with Josh Kelley, brother of Lady A’s singer Charles Kelley and a successful solo singer -- recalls hearing plenty of non-country Georgia acts during his musically formative years.

“There was a lot of country, like Alan Jackson, but we kind of grew up hearing James Brown and the Allman Brothers -- a lot of Southern rock, a little soul,” Haywood said.

Lady Antebellum also doesn’t duck from its affinity for pop sounds. The band debuted in 2007 as guest vocalists on a Jim Brickman song (“Never Alone”) and its monster, multi-CMA-nominated hit, “Need You Now,” became the type of pop radio crossover unseen by country artists not named Taylor Swift or Shania Twain.

Haywood joked that the working version of the song was “pretty awful,” but that the band loved the lyrics and melodies enough to shape it into the polished ballad that landed on the album.

Still, “We didn’t set out and say, ‘We’re going to write a crossover song.' We literally had no idea what it would become.”

And despite some resistance at country radio to embrace the more poplike offerings from the current assembly of hit makers -- Sugarland’s reggae-inflected “Stuck Like Glue” recently reinvigorated the debate of what makes a country song authentic -- Lady Antebellum has so far proved to be an industry darling.

“We’ve had incredible support from the country community,” Haywood said. “Some of our stuff winds up sounding more contemporary, but we have a lot of influences -- a lot of old country and a lot of new country. But at our core, Charles and I are both Georgia boys. Country is just in our bones.”

TV preview

“44th Annual CMA Awards”

8 p.m. Nov. 10, ABC

Performers include Sugarland, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Zac Brown Band with Alan Jackson, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert with Sheryl Crow, Gwyneth Paltrow and George Strait.

CMA nominations with Georgia ties

Entertainer of the Year

Lady Antebellum (roots in Augusta)

Zac Brown Band (Atlanta)

New Artist of the Year

Luke Bryan (Leesburg)

Zac Brown Band

Vocal Group of the Year

Lady Antebellum

Zac Brown Band

Little Big Town (roots in Cornelia and Atlanta)

Vocal Duo of the Year

Sugarland (Atlanta)

Single of the Year

“Need You Now,” Lady Antebellum

Album of the Year

“Need You Now,” Lady Antebellum

Song of the Year

“Need You Now,” Lady Antebellum

“Toes,” Zac Brown Band (Atlantan Shawn Mullins also shares writing credit)

Musical Event of the Year

“Can’t You See,” Zac Brown Band featuring Kid Rock