Carly Pearce received not one but two CMA Awards nods, both for Female Vocalist of the Year and Album of the Year. The Album of the Year nomination, for her bold 29 project, is the only EP in the category, and the only record by a female artist, a nomination that has Pearce happily surprised.
“To see 29 recognized like this, it blows me away,” Pearce says. “To be the only woman in the category, well, that speaks to the hunger people have for real life… even when it’s the tough stuff.”
ALBUM OF THE YEAR NOMINEE 😭❤️ To see 29 recognized like this, it blows me away. To be the only woman in the category, well, that speaks to the hunger people have for real life… even when it’s the tough stuff. Thank you @CountryMusic!!! pic.twitter.com/T9GGLKWMDd
— Carly Pearce (@carlypearce) September 9, 2021
Other nominees for Album of the Year include Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album, Eric Church’s Heart, Brothers Osborne’s Skeletons and Chris Stapleton’s Starting Over.
Pearce, who shares the Female Vocalist of the Year category with Gabby Barrett, Miranda Lambert, Ashley McBryde and Maren Morris, has never been nominated for Female Vocalist before. The Kentucky native says the acknowledgement is that much more meaningful because of the other artists nominated.
“To be included this year with so many incredible peers and vocalists makes me feel like people can hear the truth I try to carry in my voice,” Pearce says. “I am so honored.”
FEMALE VOCALIST NOMINEE 🥺❤️
To be included this year with so many incredible peers and vocalists makes me feel like people can hear the truth I try to carry in my voice. I am so honored. 🙏🏻 @CountryMusic pic.twitter.com/gNpJVUfoaI— Carly Pearce (@carlypearce) September 9, 2021
Pearce’s next album, 29: Written in Stone will be released on September 17. Pearce co-wrote all 15 songs on the record, which includes collaborations with McBryde and Patty Loveless, a project that is a welcome nod to the traditional sounds of the country music of the past, with Pearce’s personal stamp on all of the tracks.
“I want to be a country artist,” Pearce tells Everything Nash. “I don’t want to collaborate outside the genre. I don’t want to do anything else. I just want to be a country artist. And I think that this music for the first time really shows that. If you look at the credits of writers on this, it’s pretty small, and you see a lot of the same names coming up because these people just really tapped into what I was doing. Obviously I went through a lot of brutal things in the process of making this album. I didn’t really want to air all of my information out to a bunch of people. So I kind of kept it with just my friends and the people that I felt comfortable with.”
The 2021 CMA Awards will air live on November 10 at 8:00 PM ET on ABC.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of BMLG / Allister Ann
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