Country music is getting a new Grammy category: best traditional country album. It is the only new music category being added for the 68th annual Grammy Awards in 2026.
To reflect the change, the existing best country album category has been renamed best contemporary country album. The new category will join the 13 other categories in Field 5, four of which are specifically dedicated to country, while the others cover American roots, Americana, bluegrass, blues, folk and regional roots music.
New categories are considered from proposals submitted to the Recording Academy’s Awards & Nominations committee, which are then voted on by the Academy’s board of trustees. “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,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. tells Billboard. “They said, we think we need more space for our music to be celebrated and honored.” Mason said the proposal had been submitted a number of times previously before passing this year.
The move helps bring the country categories more in line with other genres which separate contemporary and traditional albums or performances, including R&B, pop and blues.
“It makes country parallel with what’s happening in other genres,” Mason says, “But it is also creating space for where this genre is going.”
The definition for the new category reads, in part, “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.”
The hope is that the new category benefits artists who fall outside of mainstream, commercial country music, such as Charley Crockett, Sierra Ferrell, Colter Wall and Noeline Hoffman, who have previously been nominated into the Americana and American roots categories. (Both Crockett and Ferrell were nominated for best Americana album for the 2025 Grammy Awards, with Ferrell’s Trail of Flowers taking home the Grammy.)
“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,” Mason says. “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.”
As all subgenres of country grow in popularity, Mason says the addition of a new category gives more chances to share the wealth. “People from that community are making more music, it’s more varied, there’s different styles of writing and performing,” he says. “I’m hopeful that that community understands that the academy is doing what it always does, which is stay in tune with what’s happening in their genre.”
