The 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards will take place in LA on January 31st, 2010, and the nominees were announced last night. This year represents a paradigm shift in that a new field has been created to honor roots music, called American Roots. Under it, there are several categories: Bluegrass, Folk, Blues, Zydeco, Hawaiian, Native American, and the brand new Americana Album of the Year! The nod for that goes to Dylan for Together Through Life, Levon for Electric Dirt, Willie and The Wheel, Wilco, and Lucinda for Little Honey. But to be honest, that barely scratches the surface of the nominees we know and love.

• For Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, we have "Sea of Heartbreak" from Rosanne Cash with Bruce Springsteen and "Baby It's Cold Outside" from Willie Nelson and Norah Jones. 


• Bela Fleck is acknowledged for his Best Pop Instrumental Performance for the song "Throw Down Your Heart."


• Willie Nelson also gets the nod for American Classic in the Best Traditional Vocal Pop Album category. 


• Best Solo Rock Performance is another Americana friendly offering with the exception of Prince. The nominees are Dylan, Fogerty, Springsteen and Neil Young.


• We salute Alison Brown, The Greencards, and Sarah Jarosz for Best Country Instrumental Performance.


• Ashley Cleveland gets tapped for God Don't Never Change in the Best Traditional Gospel Album category.


• Congrats to Jim Lauderdale for Best Bluegrass Album consideration.


• Kudos to Neko Case, Elvis Costello and Steve Earle for grabbing nominations in the Contemporary Folk Category. (Which should also be called Americana...but that's a long story of sonics and philosophy that NARAS is going to have to define more acutely in the future.)


• T Bone Burnett is up for Producer of the Year Non Classical.


• Johnny Cash's "America" is named as a contender for Best Long Form Video.

Whew! Can't wait to hear the winners! Congrats to all for doing such amazing work, and for constantly BRINGING IT! We love you all! For a complete list of GRAMMY nominees, click here.

-Jessie