Hey everybody, it’s Eric Church back for the forty-sixth episode of “Outsiders Radio.”  A lot has happened in the past month.  Grammy nominations came out, and there are a lot of my friends on that list.  We were in Asheville, NC recently for the 30^th annual Warren Haynes Christmas Jam.  That was certainly an honor.  Plus I’ve been working on the setlist for the Double Down tour, kicking off in a few weeks. Full rehearsals will happen in early January, so we’re getting close!

I’m looking forward to playing a lot of the new songs from the Desperate Man album.   Here’s one I don’t think I’ve done in a show yet.

There’s a long story about that song.  The short version is it was a last minute addition to the Desperate Man album, and I’m glad it’s there. 

I’m Eric Church and this is Outsiders Radio.  Early in December I traveled to Ashville NC to take part in the 30^th annual Warren Haynes Christmas Jam.  Warren is a brilliant guitar player who played with the Allman Brothers Band and founded the jam band Gov’t Mule.  He was born in Ashville, so he wanted to give back to his hometown.  A lot of great musicians have played the benefit, and this year’s guests were Dave Grohl, Grace Potter, Mike Gordon of Phish, and me.  The show raised $2.3 million for the Ashville Area Habitat For Humanity  We did a few acoustic songs before Warren and the Xmas All Stars joined me for this song.  It’s one I did for the Gregg Allman tribute record a few years ago: Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More.

Interesting fact: The Allman Brothers were nominated for 8 Grammy Awards during their career, and one win in the Best Rock Instrumental Performance category for their song Jessica.  That came back in 1995, and Warren Haynes was part of the band at that time.

With that in mind, the 2019 Grammy nominations were released a few weeks ago.  First of all, let me say how happy I am that a lot of these women are getting recognized for the music they’ve made.  We’re going to spotlight a bunch of them here today, starting with my good friend Ashley McBryde.  I got a chance to meet her a few years ago at a show in Chicago.  We did “Bible & A .44” that night, and I think I called her “a whiskey drinkin’ bad ass.”  She hasn’t changed a bit, even after getting a Grammy nomination for her debut album Girl Going Nowhere.

Not bad for a ‘Girl Goin’ Nowhere.’  She’s goin’ to the Grammys!  Pretty cool, and the 61^st annual Grammy Awards take place Sunday February 10^th, and you can watch ‘em on CBS-TV. 

I’m ALSO excited about all of the nominations for Maren Morris, not only in the Country category, but also in the Pop category for her monster song The Middle. That could be “the big one” on Grammy night.  But she has 3 nominations in the Country category, including two for a song that’s special to her AND me: Dear Hate.

Maren: I really didn’t expect to get nominated for Dear Hate with Vince but that was a beautiful surprise because I released that song after the Vegas shooting to raise money for the victims families, and it wasn’t a single, it was just for charity. To be nominated a year later, it was just a cool bonus to an already amazing healing response to that song. Hopefully it just brings more awareness to that song because with the Pittsburgh shooting, it’s like, unfortunately Dear Hate will always be timely.  I love that music has helped me so much get my feelings on paper, and then singing live and having a human connection with everyone in the crowd with that song in particular is why I do this.

That’s Maren Morris & Vince Gill and “Dear Hate,” nominated for Best Performance by a Duo or Group and Best Country Song at the Grammy Awards. Some interesting nominations, not the OBVIOUS ones, which is why I love them.  Maren is ALSO nominated in the Best Country Solo Performance category, but not for one of her hits.  Instead it’s for her version of a song written by Elton John & Bernie Taupin called Mona Lisa & Mad Hatters. 

Lots of great songs and performances on that album, “Restoration: Reimagining The Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin.  In addition to Maren Morris, there are performances by Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, Willie Nelson, and many more, including my buddies Brothers Osborne.  Those guys are nominated for two Grammy Awards this year, for Best Country Album and Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group.  This is actually their fourth straight year of getting Grammy nominations.  I was honored to have them join me to perform “Tears In Heaven” on the Grammy show last January.  Here’s their nominated performance: Shoot Me Straight.

Listening to Brothers Osborne reminds me to congratulate them on winning their third straight Vocal Duo award at the CMAs.  It was a great night of music.  I really enjoyed Maren’s performance with Chris Stapleton & Mavis Staples.  I was also very happy for my friend Keith Urban, who was named Entertainer of the Year.  Keith has a Grammy nomination in the Best Country Solo Performance category for a song that wasn’t one of his big hits, but a great song written by Ed Sheeran called Parallel Lines.

Once again, congratulations to Keith Urban on being named CMA Entertainer of the Year.  I know Keith doesn’t make music for awards or hits, but because he wants to make great music.  That’s also the motivation for Kacey Musgraves.  Some people may have been surprised when her latest album, “Golden Hour,” won CMA Album of the Year.  Now it’s is nominated for Best Country Album at the 61^st annual Grammy Awards.  Here’s Kacey talking about her album.

Kacey: This album is probably my most personal yet. Going into the record, I was kind of in a confused place.  I didn’t have a lot of self confidence, didn’t know what I wanted to do, I just knew I wanted to change it up, and work with different people, to find that thing that made my soul happy again. It was important for me to give people a bit of a hiding place, we live in a tumultuous and chaotic time, and I think people expected some social commentary from me, not that there isn’t on this record, but I wanted to turn away from that because I was inspired to write about this beautiful world, my husband, getting married, leaving my 20s, looking ahead to my 30s, and this album was inspired by that.

Kacey Musgraves and Butterflies, from her Grammy-nominated album: Golden Hour.  That song is nominated for Best Country Solo Performance, and like some of the other songs we’ve played, it wasn’t a hit or even a single!  She’s also nominated in the category of Best Country Song for “Space Cowboy.”  For those of you old school rockers, that’s not the Steve Miller Band song from the 60s.  It’s very different…give a listen.

That’s Kacey Musgraves and a nominee in the category of Best Country Song at this year’s Grammy Awards.  LAST year’s winner isn’t even in that category this year.  Chris Stapleton won three Grammy awards last year.  He’s nominated for three more this year: Best Country Album, Best Country Solo Performance for his current single “Millionaire,” and Best Pop Performance by a duo or group.  That’s right…best POP performance.  It’s for his duet with Justin Timberlake: “Say Something.” 

That may be the first time that song has been played on The Highway, but that’s Chris Stapleton all over that huge hit song by Justin Timberlake.  I’m Eric Church and I’m spotlighting some Grammy nominees on this edition of Outsiders Radio. There is a true country legend in the category of Best Country Solo Performance this year.  None other than Miss Loretta Lynn for Wouldn’t It Be Great.

The unmistakable voice of Loretta Lynn, the title song of her latest album: Wouldn’t It Be Great.  It’s nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Country Solo Performance.  The 61^st annual Grammy Awards will take place on Sunday February 10^th in LA, and will be broadcast on CBS-TV. 

Loretta of course has won a few Grammy Awards in her career.  She also received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement in 2010.  But in 2003, Loretta Lynn was saluted at the Kennedy Center Honors.  That’s one of those awards given for a lifetime of contributions to American culture.  THIS year, the country star receiving that honor was Reba McEntire. 

Reba: Well the Kennedy Center Honors is a huge thrill for me, I have been a part of that show helping four honorees: Dolly, Lily Tomlin, Carol Burnette, and Loretta Lynn.  So to get to be a part of that was a lot of fun, now to be honored is the icing on the cake, because it takes all genres, everything you do in the entertainment business, and says way to go.  So it’s a huge thrill to be a part of that list of people who’ve been honored in the past.

Congratulations to Reba McEntire on her Kennedy Center Honor.  It’s just one of the great moments from the month of December.  I’m Eric Church, next on my schedule is the Double Down tour.  It kicks off with two nights in Omaha, January 18 & 19.   When I think of Omaha, I think of many things, but one in particular is THIS song by Bob Seger that we did the last time we were there two years ago.  See you next time on Outsiders Radio.