Taylor Swift

Credit: Big Machine

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Eric Church garnered the most nods this morning as nominations for the 46th annual Country Music Association Awards were announced by Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan (who subbed for Lady Antebellum, who could not get there because of weather delays). The gruff, rowdy singer received 5 nominations, including single and song of the year for “Springsteen.”

Married couple Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton have four nominations each, including a shared one for co-writing Song of the Year nominee “Over You.”  Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Kenny Chesney, Taylor Swift and Little Big Town collected three nominations apiece.

The CMAs will air Nov. 1 on ABC live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood will host for the fifth time.

As always, there were some surprises among the nominations. Below are six things we learned from the nominations. 

For a complete list of nominees, go here.

Boys Club: Taylor Swift, who has won the award the past two years, is the lone female in the group of solo male artists. Where’s Lady Antebellum, who served as country goodwill ambassadors this past year with a sold-out worldwide tour? Or Miranda Lambert, who, no offense to Blake Shelton, deserves the award more than her husband this year.

Odd Bedfellows: Snoop Dogg (or Snoop Lion as he’s referred to as now), is nominated for a CMA Award. It’s in the Musical Event of the Year category, which is usually where you’ll find interlopers (both Robert Plant and Jimmy Buffett are past winners), but it would be a blast to see Snoop on the show performing his nominated song, Willie Nelson’s “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die.” In addition to Snoop Dogg, the song also features Kris Kristofferson and Jamey Johnson.

Duo shortage: Country music has a shortage of strong pairs. For years, Brooks and Dunn dominated the Vocal Duo of the year category, and then Sugarland, after they kicked out Kristen Hall, took over the mantle. This year’s slate is stronger than it has been in the past, when acts whose singles had bombed were nominated just to pad out the category, but it remains one of the weakest categories.

Female Troubles: If we’re going to come down on the Academy for a poor slate for Vocal Duo of the year, then we can’t let the fact that Kelly Clarkson is nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year slide. Yes, she dabbles in country music and has even won a CMA Award for “Don’t You Wanna Stay” with Jason Aldean and duetted with Reba McEntire, but come on. It’s too bad Faith Hill’s single flopped and that left her pretty much ineligible, but fellow “American Idol” finalist Lauren Alaina should have gotten the nod before Clarkson.

Turn a Blind Eye: Lionel Richie’s “Tuskegee” is the highest selling country album released in 2012 (or will be until Taylor Swift’s “Red” comes out). However, the CMAs totally ignored the collection, which featured Richie performing his classic hits with country stars, other than in the Musical Event of the Year category, where “Stuck On You,” his duet with Darius Rucker, received a nod. The CMAs helped Richie debut the album last year with a long performance segment so voters must have figured they’d done their part in supporting the blockbuster set. Speaking of, the CMA voters really did not like Carrie Underwood’s “Blown Away.” Neither the album nor any singles received nods, although Underwood was nominated for Female Vocalist.