Miranda Lambert, Ingrid Andress lead country nominations for Grammy Awards 2021

Miranda Lambert’s ace album “Wildcard” continues to cash in award season nominations.

The perennial hitmaker tops country music nominations for the 63rd annual Grammy Awards, per the Recording Academy. Lambert earned nods in three categories: Best Country Solo Performance (for her song “Bluebird”), Best Country Song (“Bluebird”) and Best Country Album (“Wildcard”).

A two-time Grammy Award winner, Lambert’s 2021 nominations bring her career total to 21. She released “Wildcard,” her seventh studio album, last November.

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Breakout singer-songwriter Ingrid Andress joins Lambert in earning three nominations, two in country categories: Best Country Song for debut chart-topping single “More Hearts Than Mine” and Best Country Album for her critically embraced eight-song release, “Lady Like.”

Andress earned her third nomination in the all-genre Best New Artist category.

Artists joining Andress with two nominations include Brandy Clark, Old Dominion and Little Big Town.

Unlike country radio, a format that continues to play women remarkably less than men, the Recording Academy recognized Nashville’s leading female artists in resounding numbers. Female artists earned more nominations than men in three categories -- Best Country Solo Performance, Best Country Song and Best Country Album, the latter featuring women in each qualifying slot.

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It marks the first year in Grammy Awards history that each Best Country Album nomination features female representation.

First-time nominees include Mickey Guyton, who earned a nod for her vital 2020 song “Black Like Me." She's the first Black woman to ever be nominated for Best Country Solo Performance (as well as the former female-only category).

Supergroup The Highwomen, which competes for Best Country Song, and Old Dominion join Guyton as first-time nominees.

Eric Church, the defending CMA Awards’ Entertainer of the Year, earns his 10th career Grammy nomination in Best Country Solo Performance (“Stick That In Your Country Song”); Church has yet to win a golden gramophone. Vince Gill, a 21-time Grammy Award winner, earns his 47th career nod. Grammy winner Maren Morris returns to Best Country Song (“The Bones”), her third nod in the category since 2017.

Notable omissions include Luke Combs, who’s dominated the Billboard charts and earned CMA Awards’ Album of the Year for his late 2019 sophomore effort, “What You See Is What You Get” and 12-time Grammy Award winner The Chicks (formerly The Dixie Chicks), which released comeback album “Gaslighter” earlier this year.

See a full list of country nominees below.

Best Country Solo Performance

• Eric Church - “Stick That In Your Country Song”

• Brandy Clark - “Who You Thought I Was”

• Vince Gill - “When My Amy Prays”

• Mickey Guyton - “Black Like Me”

• Miranda Lambert - “Bluebird”

Best Country Duo/Group Performance

• Brothers Osborne - “All Night”

• Dan + Shay with Justin Bieber - “10,000 Hours”

• Lady A - “Ocean”

• Little Big Town - “Sugar Coat”

• Old Dominion - “Some People Do”

Best Country Song

(This award recognizes songwriters)

• Miranda Lambert - “Bluebird” (Songwriters: Luke Dick, Natalie Hemby and Miranda Lambert)

• Maren Morris - “The Bones” (Songwriters: Maren Morris, Jimmy Robbins and Laura Veltz)

• The Highwomen - “Crowded Table” (Songwriters: Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby and Lori McKenna)

• Ingrid Andress - “More Hearts Than Mine” (Songwriters: Ingrid Andress, Sam Ellis and Derrick Southerland)

• Old Dominion - “Some People Do (Songwriters: Jesse Frasure, Shane McAnally, Matthew Ramsey and Thomas Rhett)

Best Country Album

• Ingrid Andress - “Lady Like”

• Brandy Clark - “Your Life Is A Record”

• Miranda Lambert - “Wildcard”

• Little Big Town - “Nightfall”

• Ashley McBryde - “Never Will”

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Grammy nominations: Miranda Lambert leads, Luke Combs snubbed