The finalists for Australia's country music awards, the Golden Guitars, have been announced, with Travis Collins and Sara Storer leading the way with six and five nominations respectively.
While Storer has 18 of the awards already to her name, Collins has yet to win one of the coveted gongs, but has been nominated several times before and was the recipient of the Toyota Star Maker Quest at the beginning of his career in 2004.
Both artists are up for the big Album of the Year gong, with Collins' record Hard Light and Storer's Silos facing stiff competition from Luke O'Shea, The Wolfe Brothers and last year's big winner at the ceremony, Troy Cassar-Daley.
Since 1973, the awards have been taking place in Tamworth in NSW, making it the country's longest-running music awards shows.
Familiar faces, such as Cassar-Daley who has won 33 Golden Guitar awards, are joined this year by a batch of new nominees with Americana duo The Weeping Willows up for four awards including Alternative Country Album of the Year and New Talent Of The Year.
Tamworth darling, Kasey Chambers, won't be releasing her full album Dragonfly until next year but is up for three awards based on her recent EP release Ain't No Little Girl, including APRA AMCOS Song Of The Year, CMC Video Clip Of The Year and Single Of The Year for the title track.
The nominees were announced at a ceremony in Sydney on Tuesday which was co-hosted by Amber Lawrence and local Tamworth talent Aleyce Simmonds. The Golden Guitar Awards ceremony will take place in Tamworth on January 28.
Main Golden Guitar nominees:
Album of the year: Caught Up In The Dreaming - Luke O'Shea; Silos - Sara Storer; This Crazy Life - The Wolfe Brothers; Hard Light - Travis Collins; Things I Carry Around - Troy Cassar-Daley
Male artist of the year: Allan Caswell - 50 Years In Oz; Doug Bruce - Unsung -A tribute to the songs of Buddy Bruce; Luke O' Shea - Caught Up In The Dreaming; Travis Collins - Hard Light; Troy Cassar-Daley - Things I Carry Around
Female artist of the year: Amber Lawrence - Happy Ever After; Kirsty Lee Akers - Burn Baby Burn; Kristy Cox - Part Of Me; Sara Storer - Silos; Seleen McAlister - Follow The Journey
Song of the year: Goulburn Valley Woman - Bennett, Bowtell & Urquhart; Land of Gold - Fanny Lumsden; 60 Summers - Graeme Connors; Ain't No Little Girl - Kasey Chambers; Call Me Crazy -Travis Collins
