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Allison Russell’s Outside Child Earns Three Grammy Nominations

Marc Baptiste

Nashville-based breakout solo artist Allison Russell finds herself in a good place going into the 2022 Grammy Awards with three nominations, including Americana Album of the Year. Outside Child was released in late May on Fantasy Records and received immediate acclaim for its insightful and healing reflections on horrible abuse she suffered in her youth. Its song “Nightflyer” has been tagged for two possible Grammys, as American Roots Song and American Roots Performance.

Yola, another dominant voice in the recent surge of Black women in roots music, is also an Americana Album nominee for her July 30 Easy Eye release Stand For Myself. Its track “Diamond Studded Shoes” was tapped for Best American Roots Song. Yola wrote it with Dan Auerbach, Natalie Hemby and Aaron Lee Tasjan. Also with two nominations in the American Roots field is Rhiannon Giddens, working with her partner Francesco Turrisi. They’re up for Best Folk Album (for They’re Calling Me Home) and American Roots Song for “Avalon,” which they wrote with Justin Robinson, Giddens’s former partner in the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

Other nominees for Americana Album of the Year are Jackson Browne, John Hiatt with the Jerry Douglas Band, and Los Angeles legends Los Lobos. In bluegrass, album of the year hopefuls are Rhonda Vincent, The Infamous Stringdusters, Béla Fleck, Sturgill Simpson and Billy Strings, who recently won IBMA Entertainer of the Year.

Roots music didn’t fare well this year in the general categories with no nominees in the coveted Album of the Year or New Artist categories. Americana Artist of the Year for 2021 Brandi Carlile snuck in among the ten nominees for Record of the Year for “Right On Time,” the opening track on her recent album In These Silent Days. It is also up for Song of the Year for its writers Carlile, Dave Cobb, and brothers Phil and Tim Hanseroth. Carlile shares two other nominations for duo projects, one with Alicia Keys in 2020 for the song “A Beautiful Noise” and another for appearing on Brandy Clark’s “Same Devil,” which is nominated for Best American Roots Performance.

The 2022 Grammy Awards will air on Monday, Jan. 31 on CBS and stream live and on demand on Paramount+ from 7 to 10:30 pm CT. Prior to the telecast, the Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony will be held at the Microsoft Theater at 2:30 pm CT and will be streamed live on GRAMMY.com and the Recording Academy's YouTube channel.

The full American Roots field of nominees follows.
A complete list of Grammy nominees is here.

Best Americana Album:

Downhill from Everywhere — Jackson Browne
Leftover Feelings — John Hiatt with The Jerry Douglas Band
Native Sons — Los Lobos
Outside Child — Allison Russell
Stand for Myself — Yola

Best American Roots Performance:

"Cry" — Jon Batiste
"Love and Regret" — Billy Strings
"I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free" — The Blind Boys Of Alabama & Béla Fleck
"Same Devil" — Brandy Clark Featuring Brandi Carlile
"Nightflyer" — Allison Russell

Best American Roots Song:
(Artist names appear in parentheses.)

"Avalon" — Rhiannon Giddens, Justin Robinson & Francesco Turrisi, songwriters (Rhiannon Giddens With Francesco Turrisi)
“Call Me A Fool" — Valerie June, songwriter (Valerie June Featuring Carla Thomas)
“Cry" — Jon Batiste & Steve McEwan, songwriters (Jon Batiste)
"Diamond Studded Shoes" — Dan Auerbach, Natalie Hemby, Aaron Lee Tasjan & Yola, songwriters (Yola)
"Nightflyer" — Jeremy Lindsay & Allison Russell, songwriters (Allison Russell)

Best Bluegrass Album:

Renewal — Billy Strings
My Bluegrass Heart — Béla FleckA Tribute to Bill Monroe — The Infamous StringdustersCuttin' Grass - Vol. 1 (Butcher Shoppe Sessions) — Sturgill SimpsonMusic Is What I See — Rhonda Vincent

Best Traditional Blues Album:

100 Years Of Blues — Elvin Bishop & Charlie Musselwhite
Traveler's Blues — Blues Traveler
I Be Trying — Cedric Burnside
Be Ready When I Call You — Guy Davis
Take Me Back — Kim Wilson

Best Contemporary Blues Album:

Delta Kream — The Black Keys Featuring Eric Deaton & Kenny Brown
Royal Tea — Joe Bonamassa
Uncivil War — Shemekia Copeland
Fire It Up — Steve Cropper
662 — Christone "Kingfish" Ingram

Best Folk Album:

One Night Lonely [Live] — Mary Chapin CarpenterLong Violent History — Tyler ChildersWednesday (Extended Edition) — Madison Cunningham
They're Calling Me Home — Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi
Blue Heron Suite — Sarah Jarosz

Best Regional Roots Music Album:

Live In New Orleans! — Sean Ardoin And Kreole Rock And SoulBloodstains & Teardrops — Big Chief Monk Boudreaux
My People — Cha Wa
Corey Ledet Zydeco — Corey Ledet ZydecoKau Ka Pe'a — Kalani Pe'a

Craig Havighurst is WMOT's editorial director and host of The String, a weekly interview show airing Mondays at 8 pm, repeating Sundays at 7 am. He also co-hosts The Old Fashioned on Saturdays at 9 am and Tuesdays at 8 pm. Threads and Instagram: @chavighurst. Email: craig@wmot.org