Kenny Chesney leads country nominations

Kenny Chesney roped a field-leading 11 nominations for the 43rd Academy of Country Music Awards on Tuesday, scoring in every major category in which he was eligible and landing nearly double the total for any other performer.

Rodney Atkins, whose single “If You’re Going Through Hell” was one of country’s biggest hits of 2007, came in behind Chesney with six nominations, and Brad Paisley, Big & Rich and Sugarland each received four nods.

In the ACM’s flagship entertainer of the year category, Chesney is vying with Paisley, Rascal Flatts, George Strait and Keith Urban. In a first for the organization, this year fans will choose the winner. Voting begins May 5, and details on how the voting will take place will be announced later.

Album of the year nominees are Chesney’s “Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates,” Paisley’s “5th Gear,” Miranda Lambert’s “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” Atkins’ “If You’re Going Through Hell” and Taylor Swift’s “Taylor Swift.”

Chesney got multiple nods in three categories -- album, single and vocal event -- because he is the performer and producer of those entries. He collected three nominations in the vocal event category: two for his double entendre-laced duet with George Strait on “Shiftwork,” and a third because he joined Tim McGraw as a guest on Tracy Lawrence’s single “Find Out Who Your Friends Are.”

As usual, the ACM’s nominations, which were announced at Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, heavily favor mainstream country recordings. There are no nods to the most critically acclaimed country album of 2007, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ “Raising Sand,” which came in at No. 8 on Village Voice’s annual critics’ poll. The ACM also was slow to recognize Johnny Cash’s outside-the-box recordings with producer Rick Rubin, which revitalized Cash’s career in the final decade of his life but, like the Plant-Krauss collaboration, garnered little country radio airplay.

The ACM’s awards, determined by the organization’s country music industry membership, will be announced May 18 in a ceremony to be telecast live on CBS from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

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