Regardless of what folks may think about Taylor Swift, she currently is serving as a fine ambassador for country music while also helping the genre maintain a presence on the charts and in record books is it has been her ‘home’ genre.  Swift is second to Beyoncé‘s 10 Grammy Nominations with her own eight nominations.   Five of those are for general categories and we’ll get to those later but for now we’ll focus on the country categories which Swift tied George Strait and Lee Ann Womack with three separate nominations. 

Best Female Country Vocal Performance:

• "Dead Flowers" — Miranda Lambert
• "I Just Call You Mine" — Martina McBride
• "White Horse" — Taylor Swift
• "Just A Dream" — Carrie Underwood
• "Solitary Thinkin'" — Lee Ann Womack

Taylor Swift may or may not win here but I am really hoping that Miranda Lambert starts a run of Grammy wins with her superlative performance on “Dead Flowers.” If she doesn’t win, it’d be great to see Womack or Underwood win.

Best Male Country Vocal Performance:

• "All I Ask For Anymore" —Trace Adkins
• "People Are Crazy" — Billy Currington
• "High Cost Of Living" — Jamey Johnson
• "Living For The Night" — George Strait
• "Sweet Thing" — Keith Urban

Keith Urban really could win here and so could Jamey Johnson but they may get passed over for name by George Strait and his solid single “Living For The Night.”  In all honesty I think that Trace Adkins should win here and if it’s not going to be him, I hope that Jamey Johnson takes home the hardware.

Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals:

• "Cowgirls Don't Cry" — Brooks & Dunn
• "Chicken Fried" — Zac Brown Band
• "I Run To You" — Lady Antebellum
• "Here Comes Goodbye" — Rascal Flatts
• "It Happens" — Sugarland

Grammy voters have notoriously given awards ‘posthumously’ and while Brooks & Dunn haven’t passed away, they’re ‘retiring’ after the year so it’s possible that they’ll get a Grammy here but in all honesty this award is likely a two horse race between Zac Brown Band and Lady Antebellum.  Yes, I know Sugarland won this category last year and that gives them ‘street cred’ with non country voters but Lady Antebellum have had a fantastic year and with their high-profile album released this past week (with a multi-week crossover #1 in “Need You Now) and I think that they have a huge shot as do the Zac Brown Band who have made multiple appearances on award shows and are up for Best New Artist as well. 

Best Country Collaboration With Vocals:

• "Beautiful World" — Dierks Bentley & Patty Griffin
• "Down The Road" — Kenny Chesney & Mac McAnally
• "Start A Band" — Brad Paisley & Keith Urban
• "I Told You So" — Carrie Underwood & Randy Travis
• "Everything But Quits" — Lee Ann Womack & George Strait

This is a pretty easy call to make.  “Start A Band” by Paisley and Urban will win this award.  While that may be the case, It’d be a whole bag of awesome if Dierks Bentley and Patty Griffin or George and Lee Ann Womack win win.  I could see this also being a place where Carrie Underwood and Randy Travis take home the award. 

Best Country Song:

• "All I Ask For Anymore" — Casey Beathard & Tim James, songwriters (Trace Adkins)
• "High Cost Of Living" —Jamey Johnson & James Slater, songwriters (Jamey Johnson)
• "I Run To You" — Tom Douglas, Dave Haywood, Charles Kelley & Hillary Scott, songwriters (Lady Antebellum)
• "People Are Crazy" — Bobby Braddock & Troy Jones, songwriters (Billy Currington)
• "White Horse" — Liz Rose & Taylor Swift, songwriters (Taylor Swift)

Raw and real, “High Cost of Living” is an excellent choice here.  Actually, all the songs here are worthy of winning but I hope that “High Cost of Living” is the winner here.  If it doesn’t win, my second choice would be for “I Run To You” to take home the award.  Still, like I said before any song is worthy of winning here. 

Best Country Album:

• The Foundation — Zac Brown Band
• Twang — George Strait
• Fearless — Taylor Swift
• Defying Gravity — Keith Urban
• Call Me Crazy — Lee Ann Womack

The Zac Brown Band has a wonderful album that is totally worthy of winning and if I had my druthers, I’d be picking that record to win but something tells me that Taylor Swift will take home the award here. 

As for the other nominations with Swift and The Zac Brown Band, we’ll now discuss whether they have a shot at taking home that hardware. 

Best Country Instrumental Performance

• "Under The (Five) Wire" — Alison Brown
• "The Crystal Merchant" — The Greencards
• "Mansinneedof" — Sarah Jarosz
• "Producer’s Medley" — Steve Wariner

This category only has four contenders and while I know who all the artists are, I have to think Wariner's tribute to Chet Akins will win himself this award. 

Best AmericanaAlbum:

• Together Through Life — Bob Dylan
• Electric Dirt — Levon Helm
• Willie And The Wheel — Willie Nelson & Asleep At The Wheel
• Wilco (the Album) — Wilco
• Little Honey — Lucinda Williams

For the Americana category, this is, like the genre itself, an eclectic mixture of roots music.  Dylan’s long been a Grammy favorite.  Helm won for his privous album “Dirt Farmer” and Willie Nelson has seven previous grammy wins but he’s never won an album award.  Wilco, surprisingly, is the only one in this category to not win a Grammy yet and I don’t think they’ll win one here as Helm or Dylan are likely to win the award here. 

Best Bluegrass Album:

• Could We Get Any Closer? — Jim Lauderdale
• The Crow/ New Songs For The five-String Banjo — Steve Martin
• Buckaroo Blue Grass — Michael Martin Murphey
• Almost Live — Bryan Sutton And Friends
• Destination Life — Rhonda Vincent

Lauderdale has won in this category twice before for Lost In The Lonesome Pines and The Bluegrass Diaries and he could to take home this award again, unless Steve Martin (also a two-time winner for his comedy work in the 1970’s) takes it from him, which I actually think will happen. 

Album Of The Year:

• I Am…Sasha Fierce — Beyoncé
• The E.N.D. — Black Eyed Peas
• The Fame — Lady GaGa
• Big Whiskey And The Groogrux King  — Dave Matthews Band
• Fearless — Taylor Swift

This category is a pretty easy one to call.  If Grammy chooses to go by the album that made the biggest impact, they’ll chose the Taylor Swift album.  Ultimately, I think that’s where they’ll go even though I think Beyoncé and Lady Gaga’s albums both have a shot as well.   One thing’s for sure, this is a year for the ladies. 

Record Of The Year:

• "Halo" — Beyoncé
• "I Gotta Feeling" — Black Eyed Peas
• "Poker Face" — Lady GaGa
• " Use Somebody " — Kings of Leon
• "You Belong With Me” — Taylor Swift

Once again, I can see where Beyonce will compete with Taylor Swift for this award.  Both songs were everywhere last year but so were the other three tracks.  In the end, I think the Black Eyed Peas or Taylor Swift will take home this award.  It just really seems like Taylor’s year, even more so than Beyoncé’s. 

Song Of The Year:

• “Pretty Wings” – Hod David & Musze songwriters (Maxwell)
• "Single Ladies" — Thaddis Harrell, Beyoncé Knowles, Terius Nash & Christopher Stewart, songwriters (Beyoncé)
• "Poker Face" — Lady GaGa & Red One, songwriters (Lady GaGa)
• " Use Somebody " —  Caleb Followill, Jared Followill, Matthew Followill & Nathan Followill, songwriters (Kings of Leon)
• "You Belong With Me” — Taylor Swift & Liz Rose, songwriters (Taylor Swift)

There are four huge hits in this category with previous Grammy darling Maxwell added to the mix for his single from his latest R&B recording.  With those big hits, Maxwell likely doesn’t have a big shot at winning.  “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” is more known for its video and dance than the songwriting of it.  “Poker Face” is popular but I don’t see how that song can win here.  This leaves the Kings of Leon song and Taylor Swift’s popular song as the likely top two and while I’d love for “Use Somebody” to win, I think Miss Swift is going to walk home with this award. 

Best New Artist:

• Zac Brown Band
• Keri Hilson
• MGMT
• Silversun Pickups
• The Ting Tings

This category really is an interesting one. The Silversun Pickups are an indie band who broke through with their first neo-grunge album a few years ago and they returned with a well-known follow-up album this past year, resulting in their placement in this category.  MGMT and The Ting Tings both have the neo synth pop rock that is insanely catchy while Keri Hilson came out with a critical favorite R&B album but really isn’t known to too many people outside of the hit single with Kanye West and Ne-Yo.  That leaves the Zac Brown Band who really should be the front-runners for this award as they mixed a critically acclaimed album with commercial success and respect amongst their peers.  If they don’t win this award, it’d be a minor upset for any of the other nominees.

Best Female Pop Vocal Performance

• "Hometown Glory" — Adele
• "Halo" — Beyoncé
• "Hot-N-Cold" — Katy Perry
• " Sober" — P!nk
• "You Belong With Me” — Taylor Swift

This is a category where four songs have a real shot with Adele’s song a possible threat to steal the award because of her Grammy success a year ago.  Still, I think this award will come down to P!nk, Beyoncé and Taylor.  In the end, I think this one will go to Beyoncé, one of the few times I think she surpasses Taylor for an award.   

Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals

• "Sea of Heartbreak" — Rosanne Cash & Bruce Springsteen
• "Love Sex Magic" — Ciara & Justin Timberlake
• "Lucky" — Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat
• " Baby, It’s Cold Outside" — Willie Nelson & Norah Jones
• "Breathe” — Taylor Swift & Colbie Caillat

This is an interesting category in that it features lots of Grammy favorites and three artists that are ‘country’ and not really pop.  This category is likely going to go to Springsteen & Cash or Nelson & Jones but if any song will take it away from them it will be “Breathe” from Swift and Caillat. 

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album

• "A Swingin’ Christmas" — Tony Bennett
• "Michael Buble Meets Madison Square Garden" — Michael Buble
• "Your Songs" — Harry Connick, Jr.
• " Liza’s At The Palace" — Liza Minnelli
• "American Classic” — Willie Nelson

This is an odd category and it spotlights pop vocal albums and that’s something most people wouldn’t consider Willie Nelson to be and in a category with other Grammy favorites, I don’t know if Willie can take home this award. I hope he can but I am guessing Tony Bennett or Harry Connick, Jr walk away with this award.