Dailey & Vincent, a duo formed just last year, topped the nominations for the 2008 International Bluegrass Music Association awards. The announcements were made Thursday (Aug. 14) at the Country Music Hall of Fame's Ford Theater by multiple IBMA award-winner Del McCoury, two-time Country Music Association female vocalist of the year Kathy Mattea, disc jockey and historian Eddie Stubbs and IBMA executive director Dan Hays.

Together and separately, veteran performers Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent were picked to vie in 10 categories, including the all-important entertainer and album of the year slots. Cornering six nominations each were Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Blue Highway and the Dan Tyminski Band, another new musical configuration.

Dailey & Vincent were on hand to open and close the program with their music. One of the songs they performed, "By the Mark," turned out to be one of their two song of the year nominations (the other being "More Than a Name on the Wall). "By The Mark" was also cited in the best gospel performance category.

Stubbs announced that Bill Clifton and the late Dr. Charles K. Wolfe will be inducted into International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame. Clifton is a longtime performer, recording artist, folk music scholar and organizer of folk clubs and bluegrass events in the U.S. and Europe.

Wolfe, who would have been 65 on the day his nomination was announced, wrote voluminously and expertly on country and bluegrass music and performers in addition to his holding down his day job as professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University. Of his many books and countless articles, his magnum opus was A Good Natured-Riot: The Birth of the Grand Ole Opry, a study that recounted the Opry's first 15 years of operation, from 1925 to 1940.

CMT.com's in-house bluegrass aficionado, Craig Shelburne, was nominated for print media person of the year in a category that also includes freelance writers Stephanie P. Ledgin and Chris Stuart.

Among the bluegrass artists attending the announcements were Tyminski, Eddie Adcock, Ronnie Reno, Carl Jackson, Larry Stephenson, Rob Ickes and David Crow.

Noting that McCoury, a nine-time IBMA entertainer of the year, will host the organization's awards show, Hays joked, "Maybe he'll bring some of his trophies back and we can hand them out again. I think he has more than we do."

When Hays introduced McCoury and Mattea to read the performing and recording nominations, he pointed out that each has a new album that has topped Billboard's bluegrass chart and that each album -- Mattea's Coal and McCoury's Moneyland -- speaks to current social issues.

"They both reshaped how we think of music," Hays asserted.

Mattea and McCoury were in high spirits and good humor, however, as they slogged through category after category of nominees. Mattea quipped that the exquisitely coiffed McCoury had "commandeered all the hairspray in Nashville" and added, "It's pretty bad to be the only woman in the room and have the lowest voice."

McCoury marveled that he was able to read the nominations without donning his glasses. When he read the album title Everett Lilly & Everybody and Their Brother, a candidate in the recorded event division, he struck an incredulous tone, saying, "Everett's got everybody and their brother [on the album] except me and my brother."

Set for Oct. 2 at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, The IBMA Awards show is the high point of the World of Bluegrass convention that takes place Sept. 29 to Oct. 5, primarily at the Nashville Convention Center. The Bluegrass Fan Fest, which features the genre's top performers, runs Oct. 3-5.

Here's a complete list of this year's IBMA nominees:

Entertainer of the Year Dailey & Vincent The Grascals Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver The Del McCoury Band Rhonda Vincent & the Rage

Vocal Group of the Year Blue Highway Dailey & Vincent The Grascals The Isaacs Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver Danny Paisley and the Southern Grass

Instrumental Group of the Year Blue Highway Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper The Infamous Stringdusters Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder Dan Tyminski Band

Male Vocalist of the Year Jamie Dailey Russell Moore Tim O'Brien Danny Paisley Dan Tyminski

Female Vocalist of the Year Dale Ann Bradley Sonya Isaacs Alison Krauss Claire Lynch Rhonda Vincent

Album of the Year Dailey & Vincent Dailey & Vincent

Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass -- Tribute to 1946 and 1947 Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder

Lovin' Pretty Women Steep Canyon Rangers

The SteelDrivers The SteelDrivers

Through the Window of a Train Blue Highway

Song of the Year "Alison's Band" Artist: Charlie Sizemore Band Writers: Charlie Sizemore and Buddy Cannon

"By the Mark" Artist: Dailey & Vincent Writers: David Rawlings and Gillian Welch

"Drinkin' Dark Whiskey" Artist: The SteelDrivers Writers: Mike Henderson and Chris Stapleton

"More Than a Name on the Wall" Artist: Dailey & Vincent Writers: Jimmy Fortune and John Rimel

"Through the Window of a Train" Artist: Blue Highway Writers: Tim Stafford and Steve Gulley

Gospel Recorded Performance "Be Still Moses" Steep Canyon Rangers

"By the Mark" Dailey & Vincent

Help Is on the Way Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver

Salt of the Earth Ricky Skaggs & the Whites

Where No One Stands Alone Paul Williams & the Victory Trio

Instrumental Album Live at the Linda David Grier

Sound of the Slide Guitar Andy Hall

Stepping Out Jason Davis

The Past Is Present Jason Barie

When at Last Russ Barenberg

Recorded Event Christmas Grass, Vol. 3 3 Fox Drive, Sonya Isaacs, John Cowan, Sarah Jarosz, Larry Sparks, Russell Moore and Charlie Daniels

Everett Lilly & Everybody and Their Brother Everett Lilly, Bea Lilly, Charles Lilly, Daniel Lilly, Mark Lilly, Marty Stuart, Rhonda Vincent, Billy Walker, Ronnie McCoury, Rob McCoury, David Ball, Charlie Cushman, Larry Stephenson, Joe Spivey, Eddie Stubbs, Jason Carter, Dickey Lee, Freddy Weller, Mike Bub, Rad Lewis, Andy May, Darrin Vincent, Marcia Campbell, Clay Rigdon, Eric Blankenship and Bill Wolfenbarger

Salt of the Earth Ricky Skaggs & the Whites

Standard Songs for Average People John Prine and Mac Wiseman

We Are Family Jeff & Sheri Easter, the Lewis Family & the Easter Brothers

Emerging Artist Cadillac Sky Dailey & Vincent Grasstowne Danny Paisley and the Southern Grass The SteelDrivers

Instrumental Performers

Banjo Kristen Scott Benson J.D. Crowe Jim Mills Earl Scruggs Ron Stewart

Bass Barry Bales Mike Bub Missy Raines Darrin Vincent Marshall Wilborn

Fiddle Hunter Berry Jason Carter Michael Cleveland Stuart Duncan Ron Stewart

Dobro Mike Auldridge Jerry Douglas Rob Ickes Randy Kohrs Phil Leadbetter

Guitar Cody Kilby Tony Rice Tim Stafford Bryan Sutton Josh Williams

Mandolin Sam Bush Sierra Hull Doyle Lawson Ronnie McCoury Adam Steffey   Bluegrass Broadcaster Kyle Cantrell, XM Satellite Radio Katy Daley, WAMU's bluegrasscountry.org Terry Herd, Bluegrass Radio Network    

Bluegrass Event Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival (Ancramdale, N.Y.) River City Bluegrass Festival (Portland, Ore.) 29th annual Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival (Thomas Point Beach, Maine)

Bluegrass Print Media Person Stephanie P. Ledgin, freelance writer and author Craig Shelburne, CMT.com Chris Stuart, freelance writer, Bluegrass Unlimited

Best Graphic Design for Recorded Project Designer: G. Carr and S. Holman What The, Pete Wernick & Flexigrass

Designer: Smay Vision Graphic Design The Stanley Brothers: The Definitive Collection (1947-1966) , the Stanley Brothers

Designer: Loren Witcher Punch, the Punch Brothers

Best Liner Notes for Recorded Project Writers: Frank and Marty Godbey Bluegrass Holiday, J.D. Crowe

Writer: Gary Reid The Stanley Brothers: The Definitive Collection (1947-1966) , the Stanley Brothers

Writer: Ron Thomason Good News, the Charlie Sizemore Band

• Stanley Brothers
• Sierra Hull
• Sam Bush
• Bryan Sutton
• Jerry Douglas

Rhonda Vincent
Photo: Rounder Records

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky — Rhonda Vincent, a Missouri-born singer and mandolin player, and the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack emerged as top winners at the 12th annual International Bluegrass Music Awards.

Honors were handed out Thursday night at the Kentucky Center for the Arts during a ceremony hosted by country artist Steve Wariner. Vincent and her band, the Rage, were named Entertainer of the Year — the first time the group has claimed the top prize — and Vincent won her second consecutive trophy for Female Vocalist of the Year. Mike Cleveland, the Rage's popular fiddler, was named Top Fiddle Player.

Vincent picked up a third trophy for Recorded Event of the Year. She was a part of Carry Me Back to the Fold: A Tribute to Women in Bluegrass. Mark Newton coordinated the project, which enlisted 17 women.

Vincent has been in and out of bluegrass over the course of her career. She left a family band in 1985 for a brief stint with country singer and Grand Ole Opry star Jim Ed Brown, and she issued two country albums on Giant Records in the mid '90s. Vincent marked her return to bluegrass with the release last year of Back Home Again, followed this year by The Storm Still Rages.

Dan Tyminski, a member of Alison Krauss & Union Station, has been in the spotlight since recording "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" for the "O Brother" movie. He was named Male Vocalist of the Year. "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow," written by the late Dick Burnett, arranged by Carter Stanley and recorded by the Soggy Bottom Boys, featuring Tyminski, was the IBMA Song of the Year. The "O Brother" soundtrack was Album of the Year.

An accomplished guitarist, Tyminski also picked up an award for Instrumental Album of the Year. He was part of a large cast of pickers featured on the album Knee Deep in Bluegrass: The Acutab Sessions, as was Barry Bales, also a member of both Union Station and the Soggy Bottom Boys.

"I'll Fly Away," recorded for the movie by Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch, won Gospel Recorded Song of the Year. Union Station member Jerry Douglas, who appears several times on the soundtrack, was named Dobro player of the year — his 7th victory in the category — and film directors the Coen Brothers and O Brother album producer T Bone Burnett shared a Distinguished Achievement award.

Two major streaks fell. Nickel Creek's Chris Thile was named Mandolin Player of the Year, ending an eight-year run by Ronnie McCoury. And Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, known for their tight, gospel-based harmonies, were named Vocal Group of the Year; IIIrd Tyme Out had won the award seven times in a row.

Nickel Creek, last year's Emerging Artist of the Year, were named Instrumental Group of the Year. The group has had major exposure on CMT through their own videos, with Dolly Parton and as part of a long-form special on emerging artists.

The Karl Shiflett & Big Country Show, formed in 1993 by native Texan Shiflett, were named Emerging Artist of the Year. The group recorded its second album, In Full Color, live around a vintage ribbon microphone.

Jim Mills, from Ricky Skaggs' band, was named Top Banjo Player for the third year in a row. Missy Raines was honored as Top Bassist for the fourth consecutive year. Raines' performing and recording partner, Jim Hurst, captured honors as Top Guitarist for the first time.

The Carter Family — A.P., Sara and Maybelle — were inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Honor. The group's repertoire — including songs such as "Keep on the Sunny Side" and "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" — has been a rich source of bluegrass material.

Distinguished achievement awards also went to musician, songwriter and magazine publisher Alice Gerrard; the Gibson Company; the late John Hartford; and photographer Les Leverett.

A number of other special awards were presented. Eddie Stubbs of WSM-AM (650) and the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville was named Broadcast Personality of the Year. Richard Smith, author of "Can't You Hear Me Callin': The Life of Bill Monroe, Father of Bluegrass" was honored as Print Media Personality of the Year. Jon Weisberger's notes for a John Duffey anthology, Always in Style, were judged Best Liner Notes for a Recorded Project. Sue Meyer's design for a Doc Watson retrospective, The Doc Watson Guitar Instrumental Collection, 1964-1998, won Best Graphic Design for a Recorded Project. And Huck Finn's Country & Bluegrass Jubilee 2001 in Victorville, California, produced by Don Tucker, was honored as Bluegrass Event of the Year.

The World of Bluegrass 2001 continues through Sunday at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville with the annual Bluegrass Fan Fest. Vincent & the Rage, Lawson & Quicksilver, Shiflett & the Big Country Show, IIIrd Tyme Out and Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder are among the many acts lined up to play.

• Rhonda Vincent
• Dan Tyminski
• Nickel Creek

Dan Tyminski
Photo: Doobie Shea

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky — Although the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack has been the talk of the 2001 International Bluegrass Music Association convention, it won't be without competition at Thursday's 12th annual awards presentation.

Some of the competition will be coming from one of the disc's own artists. Dan Tyminski, who sings "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" in two different settings on the soundtrack, is nominated for 10 awards and could win as many as seven.

In addition to his "O Brother" contributions, Tyminski released a solo album this year titled Carry Me Across the Mountain, which competes with the "O Brother" soundtrack for Album of the Year. Two songs from his album vie with "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" for IBMA Song of the Year.

The Dan Tyminski Band, featured on his solo album, is up for Emerging Artist of the Year; Tyminski is nominated for Instrumental Performer of the Year (Guitar) and Male Vocalist of the Year; and another project featuring Tyminski, Knee Deep in Bluegrass: The AcuTab Sessions, is up for Instrumental Album of the Year and Recorded Event of the Year.

Tyminski is scheduled to give one of 11 performances during Thursday's two-hour awards show at the Kentucky Center for the Arts. Steve Wariner will join Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder on Bill Monroe's "Heavy Traffic Ahead" toward the beginning of the evening. Grammy winner and banjo specialist Alison Brown will appear with an acoustic group whose lineup includes Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, David Grier and Todd Phillips.

The Lonesome River Band, up for Entertainer of the Year, Vocal Group of the Year, Instrumental Group of the Year and Album of the Year (Talkin' to Myself), will appear third on the bill. The band's Ronnie Bowman is up for Male Vocalist of the Year, while Sammy Shelor is nominated for Instrumental Performer of the Year (Banjo) and Kenny Smith is up for Instrumental Performer of the Year (Guitar).

Also slated to perform are Sonny Osborne, Mountain Heart, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Nickel Creek, reigning Entertainer of the Year winners the Del McCoury Band, and Mark Newton, who will pay tribute to IBMA Hall of Honor inductees the Carter Family with a performance of "Back to the Fold."

Rhonda Vincent & the Rage, nominated seven times, will perform "Is the Grass Any Bluer." The song, a tribute to the late Bill Monroe, appears on Vincent's latest, The Storm Still Rages. "Lonesome Wind Blues" from Vincent's previous album, Back Home Again, is up for Song of the Year. Vincent is the IBMA's reigning Female Vocalist of the Year, while Rage fiddle player Mike Cleveland and banjo player Tom Adams are nominated as the best in their respective instrumental categories.

The 2001 International Bluegrass Music Awards will be recorded for syndicated rebroadcast to more than 300 U.S. markets and 14 international networks. The Bluegrass Fan Fest, with performances by many of the nominees, continues through Sunday at the Galt House Hotel.

• T-Bone Burnett
• Dan Tyminski

Photo: Lost Highway

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky — Although they voiced no doubt that the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? has been a shot in the arm for bluegrass music, registrants gathered for a special session Tuesday at the 2001 World of Bluegrass convention in Louisville to consider what the film's specific benefits have been. Chief among these, of course, has been the soundtrack album, which has so far spent a total of 21 weeks at the top of Billboard's country albums chart and sold 3 million copies worldwide.

"It's a great case study of what we can do when we work together," said Nashville talent manager Denise Stiff-Sheehan, who moderated the discussion panel. Her fellow panelists were John Grady, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Mercury and Lost Highway Records; Ken Irwin, a founder of Rounder Records; and Norma Morris, senior publicist for the Press Office, a Nashville entertainment publicity company.

Stiff-Sheehan, who assisted producer T Bone Burnett in finding and bringing together the artists for the album, gave a short history of how the film and soundtrack projects developed. She said Burnett recorded all the music before the movie was filmed. There were some later edits of the music, she noted, including one which required Dan Tyminski (George Clooney's musical voice in the film) to come all the way from his home in Virginia to Nashville to re-record a single word to fit Clooney's lip-synching.

From the start, Stiff-Sheehan said, Burnett predicted that Tyminski/Clooney's "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" would be a radio hit and that the album would sell a million copies. While radio generally avoided playing the song, it did become a music video hit, and album sales have long since surpassed Burnett's prediction.

Country radio's refusal to play "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow," Grady said, became the subject of many articles. "Ironically," Irwin added, "it might have sold more records because of their refusal than if they had played it."

Morris explained how his presence on the soundtrack album had helped raise awareness for her client, bluegrass patriarch Ralph Stanley. Although she was working with Stanley before the movie got under way, she noted that his involvement with it assisted in generating articles about him in such non-bluegrass outlets as Rolling Stone, Spin, Mojo and The New Yorker. She said the film and soundtrack have had a "multiplying effect," by which the activity of one artist tended to spotlight all the others. Another plus, she said, was that the movie had such a long set-up and promotional time that it gave the artists a long period of exposure.

"No one was coming at it from a financial angle," Stiff-Sheehan said of the album. "It was all for the love of the music."

Grady said that many reporters who wrote about the album knew so little about the music and the musicians that they relied heavily on those involved to guide them, clearly a publicity plus. Because Mercury Records is a major mainstream label, Grady pointed out that he felt he had to persuade the bluegrass industry early on that the album wasn't an "outsider project," in which his label would skim the money and run. One of his first moves toward credibility, he explained, was meeting with Irwin and others at Rounder to tap into their years of bluegrass expertise.

According to Grady, a main reason Burnett chose Mercury over other interested labels to handle the soundtrack album was the company's unlikely — and unexpected — success in turning Shania Twain into a superstar recording act.

All on the panel agreed that the soundtrack concert held at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium in May 2000, months before the film and soundtrack were released in the U.S., was a special and energizing event for everyone who took part — including the tough music industry audience that came out to see it. The film of that concert became the basis of the documentary (and second soundtrack album), Down From the Mountain. "There were some people who didn't want to do the Carnegie [Hall] show [in June 2001]," Grady said, "because we didn't know if we could capture lightning in a bottle twice."

Selling the record involved meeting with non-traditional outlets as well as conventional record stores. "I don't think any retailer in America knows their customers like Amazon.com," Grady said. He learned that the "big thing" for that company — in sparking album sales — is an artist's appearance on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" or "A Prairie Home Companion."

O Brother, Where Art Thou? was released in Europe six months before it debuted in the U.S. By November of last year, Grady reported, 80,000 copies of the soundtrack had been sold in France alone.

Largely on the strength of the O Brother album, Grady reported, many record store chains have added a bin specifically for bluegrass records. He likened the phenomenon to the Grammy-winning album and documentary Buena Vista Social Club, which served to revive interest in Cuban music.

From January to mid-February next year, there will be an O Brother/Down From the Mountain tour, which will feature most of the acts on the soundtrack and play 20 major-market cities. A follow-up tour on the same theme is being considered for next summer. It will include bluegrass acts not on the soundtrack and play venues of 5,000 to 10,000 seats. "Down From the Mountain" will be released on home video October 23.

The panelists concurred that the O Brother magic may soon wear thin. "My biggest fear," Grady said, "is that there are going to be some bad [O Brother-inspired] records made."

• T-Bone Burnett
• Dan Tyminski

Dan Tyminski
Photo: Doobie Shea

NASHVILLE — He sings "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" on the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack, but Dan Tyminski was all smiles Tuesday after being nominated for a pair of Country Music Association awards.

"As musicians and singers, we spend our whole lives trying to perfect our craft and get that across to other people," Tyminski said at Nashville's Adelphia Coliseum, site of the announcements. "Nominations validate our efforts. They put big smiles on our faces."

Most nominees were elsewhere when Brooks & Dunn and Jo Dee Messina read their names during the news conference. Keith Urban, in his native Australia to sing at the Goodwill Games, had to be roused from a deep sleep at 1 a.m. to hear news of his Horizon Award nomination. Lee Ann Womack was changing planes in Detroit. Phil Vassar was on a tour bus headed for New York. Toby Keith was promoting his new album at a record store in Chicago.

Country Music Hall of Fame member George Jones, nominated for his participation on Brad Paisley's "Too Country," got the good news straight from Paisley, who drove to Jones' house to tell him.

"He was mowing his lawn and stopped to hear the news," Paisley said. "He said to me, 'Son, that's great! I just bought four brand new suits — I can wear one to the show.' "

Awards-show veterans Brooks & Dunn said they feel industry recognition never becomes old hat. Montgomery Gentry edged them out in the Vocal Duo of the Year category in 2000, ending an unprecedented eight-year CMA victory streak. The loss was a wakeup call.

"We were in a lull, for a combination of reasons," Ronnie Dunn said. "We were at a point to where we either had to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps or call it a day. We didn't feel we were ready to call it a day. So, [the loss] was the last little bell that rang before we took off running."

The duo refocused and came back strong this year with a successful album, Steers & Stripes, hit singles and an extravagant headlining tour, the Neon Circus & Wild West Show.

Their peers noticed. Brooks & Dunn received four nominations including Entertainer of the Year, Album of the Year and Single of the Year. They vie again with Montgomery Gentry for Vocal Duo of the Year.

Tyminski, a member of Alison Krauss & Union Station, attended the press conference with the group's manager, Denise Stiff. Tyminski walked away with nods for Single of the Year and Album of the Year for his work on the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack. As one of the Soggy Bottom Boys, he supplies the vocals when George Clooney sings "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" in the movie.

"I came off the road yesterday and was getting ready to go back [home] to Virginia," Tyminski said. "Denise said, 'We haven't heard one way or the other about the nominations. Don't get your hopes up, but it'll be fun to go.' That's the mindset I took, and I ended up very pleased."

The "O Brother" album drew two more nominations. "Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby," by Krauss, Emmylou Harris and Gillian Welch, and "I'll Fly Away," by Krauss and Welch, compete against each other for Vocal Event of the Year.

Tyminski also was happy that fellow acoustic act Nickel Creek made the final ballot for Horizon Award and Vocal Group of the Year. "The most exciting part of the day for me was hearing their nominations," he said. "I could spend the rest of the day trying to explain the talent Nickel Creek holds within their band. To see them recognized is fantastic."

CMA Executive Director Ed Benson said he believes the nominations for Nickel Creek and "O Brother" are positive signs for country music.

"The recognition is indicative that the cyclical trend in American music tastes is starting to swing back toward the more genuine, real rootsy, traditional music," Benson said. "It never goes away, and it has periods where it gets more attention. Right now it's definitely on the uptick. That's always a good sign for our industry, because in the past that has tended to be one of the indicators of resurgent growth in our format."

Jamie O'Neal also attended the ceremony, where she learned she had a pair of nominations: Horizon Award and Music Video of the Year, for her breakthrough hit "There Is No Arizona."

"When I went to the [CMA awards] show last year, nobody knew who I was," O'Neal said. "I feel this year I've got a reason to be there."

The Horizon Award was introduced in 1981 to recognize newcomers whose careers have shown great growth. Past winners include the Judds, Randy Travis, Garth Brooks and Dixie Chicks, among others. O'Neal hopes to follow in their footsteps.

"It really lets you know that you're on your way," the singer said. "A lot of the Horizon winners and nominees I've watched in the past have really gone on to be major talents. They were able to keep doing what they love to do — making albums, headlining their own tours. That's what I hope to do myself. I'm just having a good time and trying to enjoy every minute. I'm holding the reins and want to keep going."

CBS will telecast the 35th CMA Awards on November 7 at 8 p.m. ET from the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. For the 10th year, Vince Gill will host.

• Dan Tyminski
• Jamie O'Neal
• George Jones