Photo Credit: Popdust

Saturday Selects is a series of posts I write the first Saturday of each month in which I talk about something completely unrelated to books and writing and all that fun stuff. Click here to see past topics. Today we get to talk about some music.

I’ll be honest. I watch the Grammys every year. Last year I was tweeting along with millions of others as Daft Punk stole the show. But every year when the nominations are announced I’m really only interested in a few categories. All the country categories. The pop ones because those are songs, singers, and albums that just about everyone knows. Usually. And I also look at the rap categories. Why? Because country music is my life. Okay…maybe not. But I love and listen to it every single day. I look at the pop categories just to see if the usual players are nominated. And I look at the rap categories to see if Eminem is nominated. I’ve been a fan of his from his late 90s days. So now that you know all of that, here’s what I think of this year’s nominations.

Best Country Solo Performance

The category is full of stars. Miranda. Carrie. Keith. Eric Church. And Hunter Hayes. I am of the opinion that Carrie Underwood should be nominated and win every year because there really is no one with her voice in country music. And very few in any other genre. But for this particular category I would be very surprised if Keith Urban or Hunter Hayes took home the trophy. Any of the other three would be justified in my eyes.

Best Country Duo/Group Performance

Miranda. Carrie. Keith. And Eric Church are all nominated again in this category. But so is Little Big Town for their song “Day Drinking.” This song has been played on country radio for seemingly the entire year. I’d have to go back and look at the actual release date, but it’s been played for a long time. I’m not going to make any prediction for this category cause it’s an open one.

Best Country Song

I believe this is a songwriting award. Miranda and Eric Church nominated again. Yes, they actually co-wrote their hit songs. The issue I have with this category is “American Kids” by Kenny Chesney is nominated. Not only do I not like the performance, but I also don’t think it’s deserving of a songwriting nomination. I’m not going to sit here and act like I’m a music critic, but this and “Meanwhile Back at Mama’s” are huge surprises to even be nominated in this category. At least to me. I hope Miranda wins just so she can go home to Blake with a million Grammys while he’s still waiting on his first.

Best Country Album

Eric Church, Dierks Bentley, and Miranda Lambert have to be the favorites in this category. But really, the favorite is Miranda. She already won this award just a few weeks ago at the CMA Awards and I’m confident that she’ll be taking home the Grammy. For those of you who don’t know, she dominates awards shows. Seriously. It’s ridiculous how often she wins. But her wins are definitely well deserved.

That’s all for the country categories. Eminem is nominated for Best Rap Album, Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, and Best Rap Performance. Pretty nice day at the office. And the pop categories didn’t offer any surprises to me. The only thing I will say is that John Legend MUST WIN for Best Pop Solo Performance for his song “All of Me.” He must. Great, great song. And I can’t imagine any artist coming close to performing it as well as he does.

That’s all I have for today. Hopefully I didn’t bore you too much. Click here to check out the full list of nominees.