Info From Music Row 07/27/2023

In case you missed it...

It's been 46 years since more than one country song was up for the GRAMMY for "Record Of The Year." That year - 1977 - three women with three country hits (that were also big pop hits) were up for the coveted award: Crystal Gayle ("Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue"), Debby Boone ("You Light Up My Life") and Linda Ronstadt ("Blue Bayou"). Fast forward to 2023, and we again have multiple country artists that could be nominated for that prestigious award. We have no way of knowing for sure, but based on chart performance and sales figures for the first half of 2023, two country singers and their huge hit songs are favored to be among the nominees: Luke Combs for "Fast Car" and Morgan Wallen for "Last Night." While both have been huge cross-genre hits, Luke is considered more likely to score a nomination, as he has been nominated before and the song is written by Tracy Chapman, a Black queer woman whose diversity may well gain favor points with some voters. Wallen, on the other hand, despite the song's mammoth success, has never been a GRAMMY nominee, and is still trying to shake off the bad PR from his 2021 "n-word" incident - something that may still linger in the minds of some voters. We won't know for sure until November 10th, when the nominations are revealed - but both singers have a strong case for consideration.

For fans of 90's country, Lainey Wilson's new single "Watermelon Moonshine" has very strong "Strawberry Wine" vibes. The song that made Deana Carter a star back in 1996, "Strawberry Wine" and "Watermelon Moonshine" are very much songs with identical themes: young love spurred on by a little bit of alcohol. So what about combining the two tracks? After all, Cole Swindell leaned heavily on Jo Dee Messina's "Heads Carolina, Tails California" to create a huge hit with "She Had Me At 'Heads Carolina.'" So can it happen again? Lainey jumped on her socials to post an acapella mashup of the two songs - and even though her song is already well on its way to being a huge hit, the potential for a mashup or even a duet with Carter is obvious. Fans are commenting on the video clip, already clamoring for this to be a thing. Check out Lainey's acapella mashup here - and keep your fingers crossed.