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Neil Perry, Kimberly Perry and Reid Perry of The Band Perry backstage at The GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live! Countdown to Music's Biggest Night at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on November 30, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

Nominations for the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards® were announced tonight by The Recording Academy®  on “The GRAMMY® Nominations Concert Live!! — Countdown To Music’s Biggest Night®,” which aired live on CBS.  From the country category, fans got to see The Band Perry ^[2] perform their new song “Independence,”  Jason Aldean ^[3] took the stage with Ludacris to perform “Dirt Road Anthem,” and Sugarland ^[4] joined forces with Lady Gaga to close out the show with a performance of “You And I.”

The Recording Academy changed up and whittled down the categories this year — here are the ones related to country music and few others you might be interested to see…

Best New Artist (all genres)

The Band Perry
Bon Iver
J. Cole
Nicki Minaj
Skrillex

Best Country Solo Performance

“Dirt Road Anthem” — Jason Aldean
“I’m Gonna Love You Through It” — Martina McBride ^[5]
“Honey Bee” — Blake Shelton ^[6]
“Mean” — Taylor Swift ^[7]
“Mama’s Song” — Carrie Underwood ^[8]

Best Country Duo/Group Performance

“Don’t You Wanna Stay” — Jason Aldean With Kelly Clarkson
“You And Tequila” — Kenny Chesney ^[9] Featuring Grace Potter
“Barton Hollow” — The Civil Wars ^[10]
“Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not” — Thompson Square ^[11]

Best Country Song

“Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not”
Jim Collins & David Lee Murphy, songwriters (Thompson Square)
“God Gave Me You”
Dave Barnes, songwriter (Blake Shelton)
“Just Fishin’”
Casey Beathard, Monty Criswell & Ed Hill, songwriters (Trace Adkins ^[12])
“Mean”
Taylor Swift, songwriter (Taylor Swift)
“Threaten Me With Heaven”
Vince Gill ^[13], Amy Grant, Will Owsley & Dillon O’Brian, songwriters (Vince Gill)
“You And Tequila”
Matraca Berg & Deana Carter, songwriters (Kenny Chesney Featuring Grace Potter)

Best Country Album

My Kinda Party — Jason Aldean
Chief — Eric Church ^[14]
Own The Night — Lady Antebellum ^[15]
Red River Blue — Blake Shelton
Here For A Good Time — George Strait ^[16]
Speak Now — Taylor Swift

Best Bluegrass Album

Paper Airplane — Alison Krauss & Union Station ^[17]
Reason And Rhyme: Bluegrass Songs By Robert Hunter & Jim Lauderdale — Jim Lauderdale
Rare Bird Alert — Steve Martin And The Steep Canyon Rangers
Old Memories: The Songs Of Bill Monroe — The Del McCoury Band
A Mother’s Prayer — Ralph Stanley
Sleep With One Eye Open — Chris Thile & Michael Daves

Best Americana Album

Emotional Jukebox — Linda Chorney
Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down — Ry Cooder
Hard Bargain — Emmylou Harris ^[18]
Ramble At The Ryman — Levon Helm
Blessed — Lucinda Williams

Best Song Written For Visual Media

“Born To Be Somebody” — (From Never Say Never)
Diane Warren, songwriter (Justin Bieber)
“Christmastime Is Killing Us” — (From Family Guy)
Ron Jones, Seth MacFarlane & Danny Smith, songwriters (Danny Smith, Ron Jones & Seth MacFarlane)
“I See The Light” — (From Tangled)
Alan Menken & Glenn Slater, songwriters (Mandy Moore & Zachary Levi)
“So Long” — (From Winnie The Pooh)
Zooey Deschanel, songwriter (Zooey Deschanel & M. Ward)
“Where The River” Goes — (From Footloose)
Zac Brown ^[19], Wyatt Durrette, Drew Pearson & Anne Preven, songwriters (Zac Brown)
“You Haven’t Seen The Last Of Me” — (From Burlesque)
Diane Warren, songwriter (Cher)

For a complete list of GRAMMY nominees in all categories, visit grammy.com ^[20].

The 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards will be held on “GRAMMY Sunday,” Feb. 12, 2012, at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles and once again will be broadcast live on CBS from 8 – 11:30 p.m. (ET/PT).

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