Traditional Country Artists: Now Is The Time to Submit to the Grammys
You might have heard back on June 12th that the Grammy Awards added a new “Best Traditional Country Album” category to the 2026 roster, and renamed the existing Best Country Album category “Best Contemporary Country Album.” For traditional country artists, their fans, and advocates, this is a huge victory. Finally, traditional country is being allowed to exist on its own as opposed to having to compete with the big pop-oriented names of mainstream country, or being relegated to “Americana.”
The Grammy’s Best Traditional Country Album definition states, “Traditional country includes country recordings that adhere to the more traditional sound structures of the country genre, including rhythm and singing style, lyrical content, as well as traditional country instrumentation such as acoustic guitar, steel guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, piano, electric guitar, and live drums. It also includes sub-genres such as Western, Western Swing, and Outlaw country.”
This (hopefully) means that traditional country artists making traditional country music will get their own opportunity for nominations and awards. This also could play a big role in not just the Grammys, but in all of these bigger organizations finally recognizing the difference between contemporary and traditional country.
However, securing this new Grammy category was just the very beginning of this process. Now what needs to happen is traditional country music performers need to submit their albums to the Grammy Awards for consideration. The Grammys don’t just choose out of thin air who gets to be considered. You have to submit your work.
Wednesday, July 16th is the day that the Grammy submission process opens, and it will stay open until August 29th. The eligibility period for the 2026 Grammy Awards is August 31st, 2024, to August 30th, 2025. That means if you or your favorite artist released a country album within that period (or will in the next six weeks), they are eligible. And the Grammys state, “We encourage everyone to submit their entries as early as possible so that the Recording Academy’s Awards team can assist with any questions in a timely manner.”
Also, the submission fees go up the deeper into the submission window we go, so it pays off to submit early.
If you want to know the complete ins and outs of the Grammy submission process, you can read the Grammy’s How To Submit Music Guide. I’d love to tell you that it’s quick and painless, but unless the album was released on a label that is set up as a media company with the Grammys, or you’re a Grammy member, it might take some effort. But it’s an effort worth taking.
Long story short, Grammy members can submit their work, along with the works of others, and so can “media companies,” i.e. labels, management groups, or as the Grammys define, “a legitimate business entity whose core business function is to create, aggregate and promote audio and/or video content for commercial purposes.”
Unfortunately, the period to become a Grammy member has closed for this particular cycle. But media companies can still register from July 7, 2025 up to August 22, 2025.
If you’re an artist on a label, make sure your label is submitting your album to the Grammys. And if you think it belongs in the Best Traditional Country Album category, insist that is where it gets submitted. If you’re an individual artist but have made your own “label,” then register as a media company. And yes, there are fees to do this. But then you can submit up to five entries for free, along with paying additional fees for additional entries beyond that.
If you’re simply a fan of traditional country music and your eyes are starting to roll into the back of your head from all of this, understand you could play an important role here too. Awareness is going to be a big part of this submission process. Unfortunately, a lot of traditional country artists have tuned out of the Grammy process, feeling disenfranchised from it. You can help by telling them to tune back in since they finally have their own category.
Let’s say you’re a more local-oriented or up-and-coming traditional country artist, would love to be considered by the Grammy Awards, but are not a Grammy member, do not think you constitute a “media company.” In this case, try to find someone who is a Grammy member or a media company, and see if they can submit on your behalf. Smaller artists do win big Grammys since it’s a peer-voted, more critically-acclaimed award.
Also, Saving Country Music is here to help you as well. If you’ve released a traditional country album and want to submit it to the Grammys, reach out to Saving Country Music, and the effort will be made to match you up with someone who can submit your album on your behalf. If you’re a Grammy member or registered media company and might have available submission slots, also reach out to be matched up with deserving artists. And again, the sooner all this happens, the better since the fees are lower, and the runway is longer if there ends up being any problems.
But what if you feel like an album might not quite fit into the traditional album category, or that it sits on the bubble between traditional or contemporary country? That’s okay, make sure to submit it to the Grammy Awards anyway. Not only might it get nominated or win, the more entries the Grammys get, the healthier all country’s categories are, and the more likely the Best Traditional Country Album category will stick around indefinitely, and who knows, maybe we can also get a “Best Traditional Country Song” category in the future too.
And yes, you don’t just have to submit your album. If you think you have a Grammy-winning song, submit it to the existing “Best Country Song,” “Best Country Performance,” or “Best Country Duo or Group Performance” categories for consideration too.
This new Grammy Best Traditional Country Album category could be a very big moment for artists and performers who believe in preserving the roots of country music, but only if we follow through with it. For too long, traditional country artists have been treated like “others.” Now it’s time to step up and help give them a home.
And if you have any questions about any of this, feel free to reach out to Saving Country Music.
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July 16, 2025 @ 9:30 am
Do you have any personal opinions on who we should get behind for some of these? I mean I don’t know if it’s helpful with multiple people submit on behalf of the same artist or not but you know this space better than most people
July 16, 2025 @ 9:41 am
Good question.
It doesn’t matter if multiple people submit the same album or song to the Grammy Awards. That doesn’t help their chances. If they’re submitted and eligible, then they will be on the ballot and considered for nominations. In fact, instead of being submitted multiple times, it would be better to find an artist who has not been submitted, and submit them instead. At this point in the process, I don’t think anyone should be trying to advocate for any specific artist to win or get nominated. I think we should all be advocating for ALL traditional country artists to be considered in the Grammy process, and make sure their albums are being submitted so that we show the strength and breadth of the traditional country music community,and nobody feels locked out of the process.
Once all the entries are in and voting starts (early October, I believe), then it will be the time to root for individual albums, songs, artists, etc. I’m not a Grammy member and don’t get a vote, and don’t really like to advocate for one artist or another in the process. But I usually do post an article talking about the artists I don’t want to get overlooked by Grammy members, meaning albums/songs that have had a massive impact, but might fly under-the-radar for some.
July 17, 2025 @ 9:41 am
So soome of the best traditional country (Ameripolitan or neotraditional, which isn’t the same thing to my ear) gets a TINY amount of attention generally, or at least did up til the recent neotraditional boom in mainstream country.
Do the Grammys ever reward stuff based just on quality or does an album have to have made a serious buzz? How do they take stuff like TikTok into account these days?
also FYI our commenting site here is acting up when it comes to the website field. I’m getting an error if I put in a full URL for a subreddit but randomly snuck in just reddit.com while I was struggling with it in another comment.
July 17, 2025 @ 10:44 am
I think that traditional country is in a HUGE resurgence, and I think that’s one of the reasons the Grammy Awards have decided to add this category, especially since there are similar categories already in blues, R&B, and pop.
The Grammys are unique because they are a peer voted award, meaning the industry or fans don’t vote on them. They are voted on by fellow musicians, singers, songwriters, producers, and engineers. The are also non profit. Generally speaking, this has made the Grammys more a more critically-acclaimed award as opposed to awarding commercial performance. Of course, there are exceptions.
We often think of these awards like monoliths when they’re made up of voters who vote. How Tik-Tok is taken into account is up to each individual voter.
July 16, 2025 @ 9:32 am
Someone go submit the Price of Admission please
July 16, 2025 @ 9:47 am
I’m sure since the Turnpike Troubadours are on a label (Thirty Tigers), they’ll get submitted no problem. I also think “The Price of Admission” is a great example of an album that in previous years would have been either relegated to Americana (and buried underneath the Jason Isbells of the world), or overlooked in country, but now has the perfect place to live in the Grammy process.
I’m more worried about those self-released traditional country albums that are killer and should be considered, but don’t have a big label behind them.
July 17, 2025 @ 11:53 am
Hopefully they give the Turnpike Troubadours the stage to show the world how great they are live.
July 17, 2025 @ 1:56 pm
My thought exactly.
July 16, 2025 @ 10:40 am
About time they start separating Traditional artisan country music from the Non-Country pop m88 style of music. Getting it submitted takes 2 Grammy members . I work with a few . I might ask a favor for a submission, but my new record is mostly honky tonk with some crossover rock . I wonder if it would make sense to submit it. Maybe just one song. I like the Grammys because Grammy members vote. Judged by your colleagues in music is the way. Pay to win is garbage. Thanks for looking out Trigger
July 16, 2025 @ 10:55 am
I don’t know of any rule that states you need to have two Grammy members submit your work. If someone is a Grammy member, they can submit their work, and the work of others if they wish. I believe they have five pro bono entries, and then after that, there is a fee. Same goes for a media company (label, etc.)
I would also encourage everyone to submit their albums if they can. If you think it qualifies for Traditional Country, submit it to that category. If you think it might qualify for traditional Country, but it also might be considered Contemporary Country, or Americana, or even Folk or Bluegrass, go ahead and submit it anyway, and the Grammys will move it to a different category if their screening process determines it was not submitted in the right place. They won’t reject it from Traditional Country and disqualify the entry. They’ll move it where it should be. If you think the album is 51% traditional country, then it should qualify there.
July 16, 2025 @ 11:36 am
Trig, can a record compete in “Traditional Country” and other categories at the same time? Are you at all worried that Trad Country will become a ghetto, freeing every other “country” category to be whatever?
July 16, 2025 @ 12:28 pm
An album can only be submitted into one genre specific album category. It can’t compete in multiple categories. Songs from that same album can compete in different genre song categories, but only one at a time for each song.
I do worry how all of this is going to unfold once we see the actual nominations. But I think that’s one of the reasons we need to engage in this process and try to affect a positive outcome. The first is to get a lot of submissions to this category so that there’s actual traditional country artists competing, and the category is considered “healthy” by the Grammys, and sustainable.
Right now, (or at least in 2025), the country Grammy categories did sort of become “whatever,” with lots of artists who originated outside the genre like Post Malone, Beyonce, Jelly Roll, Miley Cyrus, and others getting nominations. Hopefully, a country category where you insist that the music must actually include strong elements of country roots, you insulate it from being dive bombed by artists from outside of the genre. That is why the definition is so important. I keep seeing people say, “Jelly Roll will win this anyway.” I honestly don’t see that happening. At the same time, I think we also need to remain engaged with what’s going on it “Contemporary Country,” and advocate for quality artists to be considered over there too.
July 16, 2025 @ 4:30 pm
Agreed, the existence of “Traditional Country” as a category means it can, like a currency, be debauched.
I would have liked to see the Pop category expanded to include “Pop Country” as an option and nix “Contemporary Country” from the Country categories.
Contemporary Country is pop music, and most of it is pop rock.
July 16, 2025 @ 6:10 pm
Worst of all, it’s not even good pop/pop-rock.
July 16, 2025 @ 11:57 am
Sad the category is necessary but it is much welcomed this day and age.🤠🪕
July 16, 2025 @ 1:28 pm
Very interested to see the field for this inaugural year.
I predict a lot of “WTF! THATS NOT TRADITIONAL!!” in the near future.
Based on that criteria, I’d be all in on “JP Harris is a Trash Fire”. Just no idea if Turnpike fits in that box or not. Because if Turnpike does, does a band like 49? We just have no clue where they’ll arbitrarily snap the line.
July 16, 2025 @ 2:04 pm
Historically, the Turnpike Troubadours have been more of a Red Dirt band that mixes traditional country with rock and folk elements. But as I remarked in my review of their last album “The Price of Admission,” it’s by far their most traditional country album, and if I were them, that’s where I would submit it to the Grammys. You can’t think about these things specific to an artist. You have to regard the specific project.
49 Winchester might be a harder call since they mix a lot of soul and Southern rock elements into their music that might push them more towards Americana. An album is supposed to be 51% of whatever genre it’s submitted in, and then the Grammys screen them.
You’re right that some will say “That’s not Traditional!” no matter what gets nominated because we still have people who say country should have no electric instruments, and no drums. But I think we all know what constitutes a traditional country album, and what doesn’t. It’s ‘Americana” that is nebulous, and hard to define.
July 17, 2025 @ 1:17 pm
Of course there’s going to be some bad nominations for it, but will it be as bad as Jethro Tull BEATING Metallica, Iggy Pop, AC/DC, and Jane’s Addiction for the Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal album? I’d love to see a JP Harris grammy win (or Jesse Daniel, or Zach Top, or Joshua Ray Walker, etc etc etc)
July 16, 2025 @ 1:45 pm
An honest question; how can we define traditional country?
Hank Williams was too bluesy compared to Red Foley, Don Gibson wasn’t country at all compared to Ernest Tubb, Merle Haggard didn’t sound like Mel Tillis or George Jones – who went pop compared to, say early Johnny Horton. And the list goes on forever.
Truth is; the greatest “country” artists isn’t uniformly country at all. Waylon, Strait, Buck, Jim Reeves, Hank Thompson, Don Williams… solid country gold, yet not necessarily traditional country at all. But they had one thing in common; they could communicate, and they sounded sincere, something that is long gone from any modern music, with all the tech fixes. It sounds perfect, and thus hollow and fake.
This will be a very controversial Grammy, at least in the comment sections.
To quote the Hag; when you’ve heard the best, the rest can’t hardly play.
July 16, 2025 @ 2:12 pm
That’s why the Grammy Awards provided a specific definition of what that particular organization is defining as “Traditional Country”:
“Traditional country includes country recordings that adhere to the more traditional sound structures of the country genre, including rhythm and singing style, lyrical content, as well as traditional country instrumentation such as acoustic guitar, steel guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, piano, electric guitar, and live drums. It also includes sub-genres such as Western, Western Swing, and Outlaw country.”
Of course you can be an ultra purist and disqualify everything that’s not Roy Acuff as not being traditional country, and I’m sure many will do this when the nominations come out, because some people live to be cynical and criticize everything. But I think the questions we will have to ask once the nominees come out is 1) Would those artists received nominations otherwise? 2) Are they more traditional than the Contemporary nominees?
I am extremely curious who the nominees will end up being. But what I do know is that if traditional country artists don’t even submit their albums because online people say, “Jelly Roll and Morgan Wallen will win anyway, so who cares ?!” then NO traditional country artists will win. The first step is to actually get traditional country albums up for consideration. The next would be advocating for these albums, and holding the Grammy voters’ feet to the fire to actually vote for actual traditional country artists for this category.
July 16, 2025 @ 3:30 pm
I think it’s a safe bet that the new category will NOT nominate Jelly Roll, Morgan Wallen et al. Sounds like it will be for older, mostly accoustic music that’s more country than folk and that’s not bluegrass (because isn’t there already a Bluegrass category?) I’d guess Willie and Dolly and Strait and Marty Stuart could get nominations if they put out albums during the period. And Dale Watson and Jamie Johnson. And newer retro artists like Melissa Carper. And not Whitey Morgan who are heavily electric and maybe sourthern rock.
July 16, 2025 @ 6:08 pm
If Wylie & the Wild West wins a (well deserved) Grammy, I will quit smoking the L&M’s.
July 17, 2025 @ 1:55 am
It’s been a bit since the last album unfortunately. But he’d be a good one for the lifetime achievement kinda thing at the Ameripolitans whenever/if they happen again, in my opinion
July 16, 2025 @ 7:49 pm
I’d love to see Nick Shoulders nominated.
July 17, 2025 @ 4:22 am
A SUBURBAN STREET: DAYTIME
A hopeful Charlie Crockett yanks open a mailbox door and excitedly withdraws a package. Retiring to a room with some privacy Charlie eagerly begins decoding the message inside, using his patented Grammy Decoder Ring. Writing down the last letter a triumphant Charlie reads the message:
The nominees for the Grammy for Best Traditional Country Album are:
Miranda Lambert – Postcards from Texas
Luke Combs – Fathers & Sons
Chris Stapleton – Higher
Jon Pardi – Honkytonk Hollywood
Jelly Roll – Beautifully Broken
Cut to a scene at a car beside a road. As we see five Grammys fly through the air we hear Charlie exclaim,
Fuuuuuuuuuuudge!!!
SCENE
July 17, 2025 @ 7:39 am
There are multiple issues with your hypothetical here.
First, the latest Jelly Roll, Jon Pardi, and Chris Stapleton albums just don’t get nominated in this category. I have no idea how this new category will shake out in regards to nominees. But the whole point of the category is to make an award that Jelly Roll’s last album would NOT be qualified for. And yet he’s the name people keep bringing up. The Grammys might screw this up. But they won’t screw it up by putting Jelly Roll here. Otherwise, they would have never made a new category.
Second, Charley Crockett was nominated for a Grammy last year, and Sierra Ferrell won four of them. Everyone’s hypotheticals take the perspective that “Best Traditional Country Album” is cleaving off from the previous “Best Country Album.” In reality, the majority of contenders for it won’t be coming from the previous country category. They will be coming from Americana where actual country artists have been relegated for the last decade or so. It’s a very good chance if this category existed last year, Charley Crockett or Sierra Ferrell would have won it.
Most importantly though, if all traditional country artists say, “Well Jelly Roll will win this, so I’m not even going to submit my album,” then we run the possibility of mainstream, major label names dominating this category, because they are the only ones submitting their work. That was the entire point of this article. If Miranda Lambert and Luke Combs release more traditional-sounding albums, hey, they should be allowed to compete as well. But if the independent side of country just don’t participate, they will be locked out of this award, and it won’t be the Grammy’s fault.
July 17, 2025 @ 1:34 pm
You say that, and yet there is the 1989 Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental Grammy. I have zero faith that this can’t somehow be screwed up.
July 17, 2025 @ 3:48 pm
It’s not that every single time the Grammys are brought up folks cite the Jethro Tull win. It’s that EVERY SINGLE TIME the Grammys are brought up, people cite the Jethro Tull win. That was 36 years ago. If you want to criticize the Grammys, all you have to do is go to last year and the nominees in the country categories. That’s likely what led to them creating a new category, because even they can see this has gotten out of hand.
Do I have confidence that the Grammys won’t screw up this new Traditional Country category up too? No, I don’t. That’s why I think we need to be engaged with the process, and make sure the albums we want to see nominated and win are at least submitted so they can be considered. Otherwise, we lose before the game even starts.
July 18, 2025 @ 6:01 am
…just a little reminder: the new category is called “best traditional country album”. its definition says nothing about the artists – they do not have to fulfill the criteria stipulated for this new album category. whoever makes a country album that ticks pretty much all the boxes required must be allowed into the race. of course, traditional country artists should find it easier to come up with something country but that doesn’t automatically mean that outsiders must not be considered when entering with a legitimate product. this well-meant new category will throw up more questions than answering them properly, i’m afraid.
July 19, 2025 @ 2:11 pm
That’s very kind of Trigger to try to connect deserving independent artists and albums with a party who might be able to help them get nominated.