This morning the County Music Association unveiled the nominations for the 44th Annual CMA Awards, and Kenny Chesney earned one nod… for Musical Event of the Year. With Kenny taking the year off from major touring, it’s not a surprise that he’s absent in many of the categories that he’s been nominated in and won the past few years, like entertainer of the year.

Here’s the other nominees in the Musical Event of the Year category:

• “Bad Angel” – Dierks Bentley with Miranda Lambert & Jamey Johnson
• “Can’t You See” – Zac Brown Band featuring Kid Rock
• “Hillbilly Bone” – Blake Shelton featuring Trace Adkins
• “I’m Alive” – Kenny Chesney with Dave Matthews
• “Till The End” – Alan Jackson with Lee Ann Womack

When the final nominations were tallied, Miranda Lambert led the list of finalists with nine nominations – the most for any female artist in the history of the CMA Awards. Alan Jackson received 10 nominations in 2002. Prior to that, Merle Haggard held the record with nine in 1970. Lady Antebellum garnered the second most nominations with five.

Here’s who’s up for Entertainer of the Year this year:

• Lady Antebellum
• Miranda Lambert
• Brad Paisley
• Keith Urban
• Zac Brown Band

See the full list of nominees here.

The 44th Annual CMA Awards” will be hosted for the third time by Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood and broadcast live from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Wednesday, Nov. 10 (8:00-11:00 PM/ET) on the ABC Television Network.

Kenny Chesney presented the final award award of the night on Wednesday at the ESPYs. It was very fitting, as the Best Team award went to Kenny’s friends: the New Orleans Saints.

A huge sports fan, here’s what Kenny said in presenting the award:

Favorite players come and go
But our favorite team is forever
Passed down from generation to generation
Like a family heirloom
Our teams represent our home town
Our father’s home town
We don’t just root for them
We live for them
We don’t just wear their colors
We bleed their colors
And win or lose we believe that our team is the best

Kenny Chesney announced today that his new album, “Hemingway’s Whiskey,” will be out in September:

When Kenny Chesney made the decision to not mount one of his high impact, NFL stadium-driven summer tours last August, it was in large part so that he could take the time he wanted to really enjoy the process of making a new studio record. While he has released the ocean-driven Lucky Old Sun, which yielded the multiple week #1s “Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven” and “Down The Road” with Mac McAnally, and his Greatest Hits II, which had the chart- topping “Out Last Night,” as well as “Ain’t Back Yet,” the theme from his nationally-released Sony Motion Pictures “Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3D,” it has been almost three years since Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates, his last true studio release.

“I knew when I came back, I wanted the record to be something special something that took what I do in my special projects and weaved it into what I do for the mainstream,” Chesney says. “It takes a lot of energy and mental space to be on the road, and I kind of felt like especially coming off of this second Greatest Hits, this next record should be something that set the stage for the next phase of my music, the same way No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems opened up the music I’ve made for the past 8 years.”

“I came to town to write songs, to make records, to create something that spoke about how I lived, and the people who I knew who were just like me and my friends lived. I’d like to think we’ve captured that, just like I’d like to think that we’ve all come to realize that life is a little more complicated than maybe we thought. Its still fun. It’s still intense. It’s still about friends and dreams and al kinds of things, but there’s something more, too.”

That something more is probably the best way to describe Hemingway’s Whiskey which will arrive in record stores Sept. 28.

The final round of nominations for the 2010 CMT Music Awards were announced this morning and Kenny Chesney is up for two awards: Video of the Year and Collaborative Video of the Year. Chesney was originally nominated for three awards but did not make the final round cut for Male Video of the Year.

Here are the nominations:

Video of the Year

• Jason Aldean – “The Truth”
• Kenny Chesney – “Out Last Night”
• Toby Keith – “American Ride”
• Lady Antebellum – “Need You Now”
• Miranda Lambert – “White Liar”
• Brad Paisley – “Welcome to the Future”
• Taylor Swift – “You Belong With Me”
• Carrie Underwood – “Cowboy Casanova”
• Keith Urban – ” ‘Til Summer Comes Around”
• Zac Brown Band – “Toes”

Collaborative Video of the Year

• Jason Aldean and Bryan Adams – “Heaven”
• Kenny Chesney with Dave Matthews – “I’m Alive”
• Kellie Pickler featuring Taylor Swift – “Best Days of Your Life”
• Blake Shelton featuring Trace Adkins – “Hillbilly Bone”

See the full list of nominees here.

The CMT Music Awards are fan voted so go vote for Kenny now!

For the Video of the Year category, final nominees will be announced during the live telecast, with final voting held online at CMT.com during the show.

The 2010 CMT Music Awards will air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on June 9 on CMT and CMT.com.

Kenny Chesney was up for four ACM awards on Sunday night but went home empty handed. Carrie Underwood took home the big prize, winning the fan-voted Entertainer of the Year for the second straight year.

Kenny’s ’09 opening acts had a good night. Lady Antebellum won five awards, including song and single record of the year for “Need You Now,” plus Vocal Group of the Year (snapping a 7 year run by Rascal Flatts). Miranda Lambert won Record of the Year and Top Female Vocalist.

Here’s what Chesney was nominated for and who came away the winner:

Entertainer of the Year

• Kenny Chesney
• Toby Keith
• Brad Paisley
• George Strait
• Taylor Swift
• Carrie Underwood
• Keith Urban
• Zac Brown Band

Top Male Vocalist of the Year

• Kenny Chesney
• Brad Paisley
• Darius Rucker
• George Strait
• Keith Urban

Vocal Event of the Year

• Hillbilly Bone – Blake Shelton with Trace Adkins
• Honky Tonk Stomp – Brooks & Dunn with Billy Gibbons
• I Told You So – Carrie Underwood featuring Randy Travis
• I’m Alive – Kenny Chesney with Dave Matthews
• Seeing Stars – Jack Ingram with Patty Griffin

(Chesney’s 4th nomination was as a producer for Vocal Event of the Year)

View the complete list of winners here.

The 45th annual Academy of Country Music Awards show will be held tonight and Kenny Chesney is up for four awards:

• Entertainer of the Year
• Male Vocalist of the Year
• Vocal Event of the Year (artist) for “I’m Alive” with Dave Matthews
• Vocal Event of the Year (producer) for “I’m Alive” with Dave Matthews

Entertainer of the Year is fan-voted again this year, so be sure to head over to VoteACM.com to cast your ballot for Kenny. There will also be text voting during the show, where you can vote a second time. So show Kenny your support that way too!

The ACM Awards will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 18th at 8:00 PM live ET/delayed PT on CBS.

The first round of CMT Music Awards nominations were announced this morning and Kenny Chesney nabbed three nods:

• Video of the Year – “Out Last Night”
• Male Video of the Year – “Out Last Night”
• Collaboration Video of the Year – “I’m Alive” w/ Dave Matthews

Voting is now underway! Vote at CMT.com

Leading the pack with four nominations each are Jason Aldean, Lady Antebellum and Sugarland. Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and the Zac Brown Band all have three nominations each.

The first round of voting runs through May 3rd for fans to select the top nominees in each category. On May 11th, CMT will announce the four finalists in each of the categories, except video of the year. Fans can then vote online through June 8th to determine the winners in all but the video of the year category. The final nominees for video of the year will be announced at the beginning of the live show, and fans can vote at CMT.com and via text message throughout the live broadcast (ET/CT only) to determine the night’s big winner.

The 2010 CMT Music Awards will air June 9th at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena and will be telecast live on CMT and CMT.com.

Kenny Chesney is up for ACM Entertainer of the Year again this year, and like the last two years the award is decided by fan voting, which begins today.

VOTE NOW!

Chesney won the award the first year they did fan voting (in 2008), but lost last year. Let’s push him over the top this year.

Here are the other nominees in the category:

• Toby Keith
• Brad Paisley
• George Strait
• Taylor Swift
• Carrie Underwood
• Keith Urban
• Zac Brown Band

As one of the biggest stars in country music, it’s usually assumed that Kenny Chesney will perform at the big awards shows each year and this year’s ACM Awards will be no different. The Academy of Country Music on Tuesday announced the first round of performers:

• Jason Aldean
• Brooks & Dunn
• Kenny Chesney
• Lady Antebellum
• Reba McEntire
• Tim McGraw
• Blake Shelton
• Trace Adkins
• Carrie Underwood

Kenny is up for four awards:

• Entertainer of the Year
• Male Vocalist of the Year
• Vocal Event of the Year (artist) for “I’m Alive” with Dave Matthews
• Vocal Event of the Year (producer) for “I’m Alive” with Dave Matthews

The ACM Awards will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 18th at 8:00 PM live ET/delayed PT on CBS.