John Fullbright earns 1st Grammy nomination; Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, Ronnie Dunn, Vince Gill & Time Jumpers and Kelli O'Hara also get nods
From Friday’s The Oklahoman.
Underdog Oklahoma musician John Fullbright earns Grammy nomination for debut studio album
Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, Ronnie Dunn, Vince Gill and Kelli O’Hara also are among the artists with Sooner State ties to get nods from The Recording Academy.
John Fullbright picked a new Facebook profile picture Thursday: the cartoon character Underdog.
The Bearden singer-songwriter adopted the animated avatar just hours after The Recording Academy announced that his debut studio album, “From the Ground Up,” earned a Grammy nomination for Best Americana Album.
“Hell of a day. Thanks, everybody,” Fullbright wrote Thursday on his Facebook page, which began to fill up with well-wishes from fans and fellow Oklahoma musicians soon after the nomination was revealed late Wednesday.
When the 55th Annual Grammy Awards are handed out Feb. 10, Fullbright, 24, indeed will face formidable competition: His album — funded through Kickstarter.com, released on his own Blue Dirt Records label and distributed via a deal with Nashville, Tenn.-based Thirty Tigers — is nominated alongside Bonnie Raitt’s “Slipstream,” Mumford & Sons’ “Babel,” The Avett Brothers’ “The Carpenter” and the self-titled debut from The Lumineers, also nominated for the Best New Artist Grammy.
Along with Fullbright, Oklahoma has its own heavy hitters who will contend for Grammy glory in 2013, particularly in the country music categories.
Three artists with Sooner State ties are nominated in the Best Country Solo Performance category alone: Checotah native Carrie Underwood for her chart-topping story-song “Blown Away,” Tishomingo resident Blake Shelton for his hit power ballad “Over” and former Tulsan Ronnie Dunn for his timely tale “Cost of Livin’.”
Dunn and Phillip Coleman also got a nod for Best Country Song for penning “Cost of Livin’,” while Josh Kear and Chris Tompkins are nominated in the category for writing Underwood’s “Blown Away.”
“Wrote songs all day. Just got home and my phone lights up a few minutes ago,” Dunn wrote on his Facebook after his two nominations were announced. “I’m speechless.”
