As country music continues to grow day by day, both in terms of popularity and diversity between subgenres, the Grammys have made a major change to their selection process heading into 2026. Next year, the award show will add a brand new category: Best Traditional Country Album.
In turn, the Recording Academy will rename the currently existing Best Country Album category to ‘Best Contemporary Country Album’ at next year’s show.
With this change, the Grammys will now contain five seperate country music categories at the 68th annual show: Best Solo Country Performance, Best Country Duo/Group Performance, Best Country Song, Best Traditional Country Album and Best Contemporary Country Album.
As noted by Billboard, new categories are first sent in as proposals to the Recording Academy’s Awards & Nominations commitee before being voted on by the Academy’s board of trustees. In the case of Best Traditional Country Album, it had been submitted numerous times before passing this year.
Harvey Mason Jr., the Recording Academy CEO, noted that many prominent members in the alternative country community initially proposed the new category, “The community of people that are making country music in all different subgenres came to us with a proposal and said we would like to have more variety in how our music is honored. They said, we think we need more space for our music to be celebrated and honored.”
Mason noted that, with this change, he wanted to level the playing field for country artists, “It makes country parallel with what’s happening in other genres, but it is also creating space for where this genre is going.”
Finally, he pointed to the common placement of certain country artists into the Americana category and vice versa simply due to the lack of spots avaliable for nominations, “The issues have been, traditionally, a lot of people that weren’t sure whether [an album] was Americana or roots or folk or country were just jamming everything into one category. There are obviously nuances between the different genres. Those experts in those genres understand those nuances, and I’m quite certain now you’re going to see the right people going into Americana versus folk versus traditional country. [The change] gives us an opportunity to put things in more specific categories.”
An excerpt from the official definition of the Best Tradtional Country Album category reads as follows: “This category recognizes excellence in albums of traditional country music, both vocal and instrumental. Traditional country includes country recordings that adhere to the more traditional sound structures of the country genre, including rhythm and singing style, lyrical content, as well as traditional country instrumentation such as acoustic guitar, steel guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, piano, electric guitar, and live drums. It also includes sub-genres such as Western, Western Swing, and Outlaw country.”
So what does this all mean exactly?
If nothing else, it’s yet another confirmation of just how strong the alternative country scene and the push towards a more traditional sound has become over the last decade. With a laundry list of artists including but not limited to Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers, Colter Wall, Charley Crockett, Sierra Ferrell, Turnpike Troubadours, Flatland Cavalry, Jason Isbell, Wyatt Flores, Colby Acuff and more existing in this seemingly difficult-to-describe bubble that exists outside of the mainstream.
There is undoubtedly an entirely different world of country music that is bursting at the seams with talent and influence that simultaneously doesn’t exist in the minds of country radio executives and mainstream country award shows. And with this brand new category, it opens up an opportunity for these artists to be discovered on a larger scale such as the Grammys.
With this change, quality work from the likes of mainstream staples such as Chris Stapleton, Cody Johnson, Eric Church and others can simultaneously exist and be celebrated alongside the work created by the aformentioned artists such as Childers, Flatland and even names such as Zach Top.
Though only time will tell just how well the category does and is further evaluated and selected, fans of traditional, independent and alternative country should see this as an absolute win. Minimally, this category opens up opportunities for underapprecated artists to receive recognition for producing traditional work without getting passed over by more popular, contemporary artists and albums.