Lee Kernaghan scores seven Golden Guitar nominations

Lee Kernaghan proved his firepower in the Australian country music sector when he nabbed no less than seven nominations for the 42nd CMAA Country Music Awards of Australia, better known as The Golden Guitars.

Kernaghan is up for male artist of the year, with Beautiful Noise up for album of the year. and top selling album. Flying With The King is up for song, single, heritage song and video clip of the year. The song, recollecting a flight that he had with country music giant Slim Dusty where they swapped stories, was written to mark the tenth anniversary of Dusty’s death.

With six nominations each were Sara Storer and the Troy Cassar-Daley and Adam Harvey team-up. O’Shea and The Wolfe Bros took four each, while Jasmine Rae had three.

Also vying for album of the year are Keith Urban’s Fuse, Jasmine Rae’s If I Want To, Sara Storer’s Lovegrass and Cassar-Daley & Harvey’s The Great Country Songbook.

The winner of the alternative country album will be a toss up between Karl Broadie’s A Side B Side Seaside, The Bushwackers’ Australian Songbook Three, Lachlan Bryan and The Wildes’ Black Coffee, Shaun Ryan and Rod McCormack’s Mat Duniam, Mustered Courage’s Powerlines and The Greencards’ Sweetheart Of The Sun.

In the APRA song of the year list are Sara Storer’s Come On Rain (written by Sara Storer & Greg Storer); Kernaghan’s Flying With The King (written by Kernaghan, Colin Buchanan, Garth Porter), Luke O’Shea’s Lady of the Land (written by O’Shea & Drew McAlister), O’Shea’s Thank You Angels (written by Mark & Jay O’Shea & Matt Scullion) and The Wolfe Brothers’ The Girl, The Bottle, The Memory (written by Nick Wolfe).

Kernaghan is up against Urban, Luke Austen, Pete Denahy and Russell Morris in the male artist category.

Nominated for female artist are Storer, Rae, Aleyce Simmonds, Ashleigh Dallas and Dianna Corcoran.

In the group/duo category are O’Shea, The Wolfe Brothers, The Greencards, The Sunny Cowgirls and Kaylens Rain.

The nominations were announced at the Sydney Hard Rock Café. They were hosted by Pete Denahay and Colin Buchanan, Sara Storer and Kaylens Rain performed. Full list of nominees and categories are here.

The Golden Guitars are held on January 25 at the Tamworth Regional Entertainment & Conference Centre. Cassar-Daley & Harvey, Storer and John Williamson are the first four acts announced to play.  “It’s great to already have four of Australian country music’s biggest stars confirmed,” said CMAA chairman Jeff Chandler. “The night will be representative of the outstanding talent that the industry proudly boasts.”