The ongoing success of Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time, which is in its second week at No. 1 on both The Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums, increases the possibility that the album could wind up with a Grammy nomination for album of the year.
It would be the first country album to be nominated in that category since Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour, which won the 2018 award.
A recent Billboard report looked at the scarcity of nominations in recent years for country in the Big Four categories (album, record and song of the year, plus best new artist).
Eddy Arnold’s My World (1965) was the first country album to be nominated for album of the year. Glen Campbell’s By the Time I Get to Phoenix (1968) was the first country album to win in that category.
The Chicks have had three album of the year nominations, more than any other country act. Taylor Swift (in her country period) had two. Linda Ronstadt also had two, counting the Trio album, on which she collaborated with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. Harris and Alison Krauss also had two, counting the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, on which they both were featured.
We define a country album as any album that made Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart. That rather low threshold for what constitutes a country album brought in Lionel Richie’s Can’t Slow Down. The album peaked at No. 55 on Top Country Albums in 1984, but a subsequent Richie album spent four weeks at No. 1 on that chart.
Here are all the country albums that have received Grammy nominations for album of the year. They are shown in reverse chronological order.
