Lainey Wilson’s Bell Bottom Blues has been an awards magnet in the past year. The collection won album of the year at the Academy of Country Music Awards on May 11 and at the Country Music Awards on Nov. 8. On Feb. 4, we’ll find out if it becomes the eighth album to complete country music’s “triple crown” by also winning a Grammy.
Bell Bottom Blues is competing for the best country album Grammy with Kelsea Ballerini’s Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, Tyler Childers’ Rustin’ in the Rain and eponymous albums from Brothers Osborne and Zach Bryan.
Jay Joyce produced Bell Bottom Blues, which was released on Oct. 28, 2022. The album has spawned the singles “Heart Like a Truck,” “Watermelon Moonshine” and “Wildflowers and Wild Horses.”
The Grammys presented an award for best country & western album in 1965 and 1966. Roger Miller won both years. The Grammys didn’t present such an award again until 1995, when it went (under the more modern term best country album) to Mary Chapin Carpenter’s Stones in the Road.
The CMA Awards first presented album of the year (to Jack Greene’s There Goes My Everything) at their first awards presentation in the fall of 1967. The ACM Awards first presented the award (to Glen Campbell’s Gentle on My Mind) at their third ceremony, in March 1968.
Before the Grammys finally reinstated a best country album category, six albums won album of the year at both the ACM and CMA Awards – Merle Haggard’s Okie From Muskogee, Charlie Rich’s Behind Closed Doors (a Grammy nominee in the all-genre album of the year category), Willie Nelson’s Always on My Mind, Alabama’s The Closer You Get…, George Strait’s Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind and Garth Brooks’ No Fences. At least some of these albums probably would have won a Grammy for best country album if the category had existed at the time. Unfortunately, we’ll never know for sure.
Here are the eight albums that have won album awards at all three shows.
