Author: Marissa R. Moss / Source: Rolling Stone
Ashley McBryde was among the deserving artists inexplicably overlooked at the 2018 CMA Awards nominations.
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The nominations for the 2018 CMA Awards were unveiled Tuesday morning and the list of contenders is as unsurprising as a Luke Bryan song going to Number One: men ruled, radio exerted its omnipresent influence and good luck breaking through if your record label doesn’t operate within the traditional Music Row sphere.
There were some moments of light — Kacey Musgraves, Chris Stapleton and Dierks Bentley’s albums were all welcome and deserving inclusions, as were Chris Janson’s “Drunk Girl” and anything related to the Brothers Osborne — but a lot of disappointments, too. We break down what we learned from studying this year’s nominees.Radio Rules
Want a nomination? Better have a hit. Nowhere is the power of country radio more apparent than in this particular group of contenders, from the top down. Just take a look at Song of the Year, a category that is supposed to be more about lyrical content than chart success or production. Instead, it’s a group of tracks that all have enjoyed success at country radio, somehow including Sam Hunt’s “Body Like a Back Road” for the second year in a row. How about “A Little Dive Bar in Dahlonega” by Ashley McBryde? Or “Space Cowboy” by Kacey Musgraves”? (Oh right, they weren’t hits.) And even though it’s women who suffer discrimination when it comes to radio rotation, there’s proof here that even deserving men are losing out. Glance at the Male Vocalist of the Year field and ask where is Brent Cobb, Charlie Worsham or Kip Moore? It’s no surprise that on…
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