It wouldn’t be a country music awards show without a slew of nominees from Georgia.
On Wednesday, four-time hosts Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley will deliver painfully scripted jokes as fluidly as possible while ushering a parade of top-name country acts across the performance stage. And oh, right, they’ll also help hand out 7.5-pound Country Music Association awards -- voted on by industry professional members of the CMA -- in a dozen categories.
The show airs live from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, and this year, Macon’s Jason Aldean and Atlanta’s Zac Brown Band will wrestle in the single and album of the year categories, while perennial fave Sugarland tries to win its fifth straight vocal duo of the year award.
Here's a look at the Georgia nominees. For live updates and a recap of the show, visit the AJC's Atlanta Music Scene Blog at http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-music-scene/ .
Jason Aldean
Entertainer of the year
Male vocalist of the year
Single of the year (with Kelly Clarkson), “Don’t You Wanna Stay”
Album of the year, “My Kinda Party”
Musical event of the year (with Clarkson), “Don’t You Wanna Stay”
It would be sweet vindication for Aldean to snag a bullet-shaped trophy in any of his five nominated categories. But since the CMAs have perennially ignored the Macon-born singer, it might indicate a new level of validation to walk away victorious as entertainer of the year or take the win for album of the year with “My Kinda Party,” which has sold nearly 2 million copies since it arrived last November.
Luke Bryan
New artist of the year
Though he’s on his third album, “Tailgates and Tanlines,” Bryan, who hails from Leesburg and attended Georgia Southern University, turned 2011 into his breakout year. The “T and T” album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Albums Chart and No. 2 on the Billboard 200, while the single “Country Girl (Shake It for Me)” rose to the top 5 on the country chart.
Lady Antebellum
Vocal group of the year
It will be difficult -- possibly impossible, actually -- to recapture the lightning in a bottle of “Need You Now,” a song and album that wrapped its furious run with a five-award haul at the Grammy Awards earlier this year. The band’s current album, “Own the Night,” bowed almost three months after the CMA June 30 eligibility deadline, so even if the group loses to the super-hot the Band Perry or mega-starry Zac Brown Band, expect to see plenty of Lady A -- whose Dave Haywood and Charles Kelley are proud University of Georgia alums -- next year.
Little Big Town
Vocal group of the year
OK, so the quartet was technically born in Alabama, where Kimberly Rhoads and Karen Fairchild met in college. But the pair has roots in Georgia -- Cornelia and Atlanta -- so they’re on the “root for the hometown team” list. LBT’s fourth album, “The Reason Why,” spawned the top 10 hit “Little White Church,” and the group recently floored Rosie O’Donnell with a truly inventive rendition of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way.”
Zac Brown Band
In the year since ZBB won new artist of the year at the CMAs, it also won a Grammy for its collaboration with Georgia’s Alan Jackson (nominated here as well) and awards from the Academy of Country Music and CMT. Considering the platinum success of its second studio album, “You Get What You Give,” expect to not only hear the name of the Atlanta-based band called several times Wednesday night, but to see it frequently on the list of Grammy nominations next month.
Vocal group of the year
Single of the year, “Colder Weather”
Album of the year, “You Get What You Give”
Song of the year, “Colder Weather”
Musical event of the year (with Jackson), “As She’s Walking Away”
Sugarland
Vocal duo of the year
The pair of Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush has nabbed this award the past four years, and it’s a bit surprising that “The Incredible Machine” album, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in October 2010, didn’t land a nomination. Still, the tragedy at the Indiana State Fair notwithstanding, it’s been a huge year for the duo with Douglas/Atlanta/Decatur roots, and it would be a surprise to see them not claim a fifth straight victory.
Brantley Gilbert and Colt Ford
Song of the year (“Dirt Road Anthem”)
Gilbert, from Jefferson, Ga., and Ford, from Athens, have a long and winding relationship with “Dirt Road Anthem.” Ford and Gilbert co-wrote the song, which Ford originally recorded on his debut album, “Ride Through the Country” and Gilbert revised for his 2010 album, “Halfway to Heaven.” But a little magic dust from Jason Aldean turned it into a No. 1 country hit -- and the biggest of Aldean’s career. Gilbert is also the muscle behind Aldean’s “My Kinda Party.”
TV preview
“The 45th Annual CMA Awards,” 8 p.m. Wednesday, ABC
Performers include Jason Aldean, the Band Perry, Kenny Chesney, Luke Bryan, Vince Gill, Scott McCreery, Lionel Richie, Rascal Flatts, Sugarland, Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood and Zac Brown Band.
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