Plant/Krauss disc snares multiple AMA nominations

Last year’s magnificent Alison Krauss & Robert Plant CD Raising Sand successfully merged elements of many genres, so it’s no surprise that this disc earned three of the most prestigious nominations for the seventh annual Americana Awards.

Besides being nominated for Album of the Year, Krauss and Plant are also among those tabbed for Duo/Group of the Year, and a tune from the CD earned a Song of the Year bid when the nominations were announced Wednesday afternoon in Nashville.

The seventh annual Americana Music Association Honors & Awards show will be held Sept. 18 at the Ryman Auditorium. Once again the show will be hosted by Jim Lauderdale and feature a house band led by Buddy Miller.

This year’s ceremonies will recognize John Hiatt with the Lifetime Achievement Award in Songwriting and Jason and the Scorchers with a Lifetime Achievement Award in Performance.

Additional performers for the Sept. 17 will be announced later.

Along with Raising Sand, other Album of the Year nominees include Hayes Carll’s Trouble In Mind, James McMurtry’s Just us Kids and Levon Helm’s Dirt Farmer.

Steve Earle joins Lauderdale, Helm and McMurtry as Artist of the Year nominees. The Drive-By Truckers, The Avett Brothers, and the tandem of Kane Welch Kaplin are the other Duo/Group of the Year nominees along with Krauss and Plant.

Buddy Miller, Chris Thile, Gurf Morlix and Sam Bush are wying for Instrumentalist of the Year, while Justin Townes Earle, Mike Farris, Ryan Bingham and The Steeldrivers are competing for New Emerging Artist of the Year.

Tift Merritt’s “Broken” is a Song of the Year nominee. Her tune joins McMurtry’s “Cheney’s Toy,” “Gone Gone Gone” from the Krauss/Plant collaboration, Helms’ “Poor Old Dirt Farmer” and Carll’s “She Left Me for Jesus” in that category.

The nominations were announced by Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn on Wednesday in a ceremony in BMI’s Music Row lobby. Nominees were chosen by members of the Americana Music Association, with eligibility based on work released between June 1, 2007 and May 31, 2008.

The two-hour Americana Music Association Honors and Awards will be broadcast live on XM Satellite Radio and rebroadcast on Sirius Satellite and BBC2 Radio.

For information about purchasing tickets to the show, or more details about the upcoming ninth annual Americana Festival and Conference Sept. 17-20 at the Nashville Convention Center visit americanamusic.org.