You could say this year's crop of Grammy contenders has a sixth sense.
The 55th annual Grammy awards revealed its nominees for the golden gramophones Wednesday night, and Frank Ocean, Jay-Z, Mumford & Sons, fun., Kanye West and the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach lead the pack with six nominations each. Miguel, Chick Corea and the Black Keys got five nods.
Closer to home, the Fort Worth-born pop superstar Kelly Clarkson earned four nominations for her most recent LP, Stronger, including recognition in the record and song of the year categories, and Fort Worth-reared producer T Bone Burnett was nominated for two of his contributions to The Hunger Games soundtrack. The Denton-based Eli Young Band picked up two Grammy nominations, and Lindale native Miranda Lambert will contend for best country album.
A handful of categories, including best new artist, best pop vocal performance and record of the year, were announced during The Grammy Nominations Concert Live!! -- Countdown to Music's Biggest Night broadcast from Nashville's Bridgestone Arena.
Hosts Taylor Swift and LL Cool J presided over a performance-heavy hour, which featured appearances from Maroon 5, Dierks Bentley and Ne-Yo.
Apart from the six-for-six race, the abundance of first-time nominees was striking, particularly R&B singer-songwriter Frank Ocean, who is competing in all four major Grammy categories -- record, song and album of the year, and best new artist. He's the first first-time Grammy nominee to do that since Amy Winehouse in 2008.
Other fresh-faced hopefuls include Alabama Shakes, the Lumineers, John Fullbright and Ed Sheeran.
The Grammys will be handed out at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 10. For a full list of nominees in all 81 categories, visit grammy.com.
Preston Jones, 817-390-7713
Twitter: @prestonjones
