Best Contemporary Country Album Nominees

Leading up to the Grammy nominations on Nov. 16, Rolling Stone is breaking down 11 different categories. For each, we’re predicting the nominees, as well as who will (and who should) win on Grammy night.

With the country album nominations now split into traditional and contemporary categories, things are a bit more interesting (and complicated) when it comes to records with twang. What’s not complicated, though? Ella Langley’s dominance this year. Her sophomore LP Dandelion is the one to beat, which is probably an impossible feat. “We’re talking about a cultural phenomenon here,” says RJ Curtis, executive director of Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc. Still, it’s a category rich with dynamic records made by some of the genre’s biggest stars.

Best Contemporary Country Album – Our Predictions

Luke Combs, The Way I Am
Carter Faith, Cherry Valley
Ella Langley, Dandelion
Megan Moroney, Cloud 9
Kacey Musgraves, Middle of Nowhere

Who Will Win?

Ella Langley, Dandelion
Once again, everything is coming up Ella Langley. But it’s a tough category, primarily led by boundary-pushing records made by female artists. “It’s a statement year for women,” says Ward Guenther of Nashville’s live institution Whiskey Jam and a country music host for Apple Music. “Ella, Kacey, and Megan with huge projects. Carter Faith has an outside, but critically deserved, chance to join them. It’s fun to hypothesize, but realistically this goes to Ella.” Dandelion is deserving: an excellent, expansive country album co-produced by Langley, Miranda Lambert, and Ben West, with scores of memorable moments that aren’t just “Choosin’ Texas.” Leslie Fram, a country music executive who leads the artist-development company FemCo, agrees. “Contemporary country voters reward big, crossover-friendly albums that still feel rooted in the genre,” she says. “And this fits perfectly.”

Who Should Win?

Carter Faith, Cherry Valley
Langley will take the prize, but it shouldn’t outshine the creative, vibrant songwriting and vocal performances on Faith’s Cherry Valley. Fully formed debut albums don’t come around that often, but Faith’s Tofer Brown-produced concept LP shows an artist who knows exactly who she is. It’s the kind of project that will never be fully embraced by country radio, but deserves the spotlight, and new audiences, that a Grammy can bring. “She is truly writing because she feels what she feels,” Brown told Rolling Stone.

Forecasting the Field

Voters got this category wrong last year — Tyler Childers’ Snipe Hunter should have taken the win over Jelly Roll. That misstep aside, the Grammys do have a history of recognizing country albums that didn’t score the most airplay (See: the Chicks Taking the Long Way). We’d love to see Ashley Monroe’s Dear Nashville have a chance here, or Shaboozey’s ambitious The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other Western Tales. “He deserves a Grammy album nomination because his breakout project successfully redefined modern country music by blending roots, folk, hip-hop, and Americana,” Fram says. Fram also thinks Cody Johnson’s Banks of the Trinity could make an appearance. “It’s a personal, Texas-rooted project,” she says, “drawing on his childhood near the Trinity River, with tracks that mix traditional country, some progressive edges, Motown and bluegrass flavors, and great collaborations.”

A dark horse? Charlie Worsham’s Once Upon a Second Time Around. Criminally overlooked when it comes to awards, he’s had the momentum on his side: in December, he will be inducted to the Grand Ole Opry.