CMAs Get Soggy

Nominations were announced Tuesday for Nashville's top honor, with Sara Evans leading the way with seven nods and the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack album collecting four.

Brooks & Dunn, who announced the nominations along with singer Jo Dee Messina, also will be competing for four awards at the 35th annual CMAs. Alan Jackson also picked up four nods. Winners, selected by the group's 6,000-odd members, will be announced November 7 at a ceremony from the Grand Ole Opry broadcast live on CBS.

With some of country's top acts on hiatus this year (Garth is semi-retired, the Dixie Chicks are getting married and/or pregnant and Shania was laying low in Switzerland awaiting the birth of her first child), there were some surprise nominees for the CMAs, which tend to keep honoring the same tired slate of performers year after year.

On the strength of her third album, Born To Fly, Evans, 30, scored nods for Best Female Vocalist, Best Album, Best Single, Best Song and Best Video (the latter three for her album's title track). She could conceivably walk off with seven "Hats," because as a producer, she would get two trophies in both the Best Album and Best Single races if she wins. Not bad for someone who has been nominated for three previous CMAs over the course of her career but never taken home the hardware.

The O Brother disc, a collection of bluegrass, country blues and folk tunes pegged to the Coen brothers' flick, is up for Best Album, Best Single (the Soggy Bottom Boys' "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow") and has two entries in the Vocal Event of the Year race ("Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby" by Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch and "I'll Fly Away" by Krauss and Welch). No, George Clooney isn't eligible for a trophy--he merely lip-synched "Man of Constant Sorrow." Country vet Dan Tyminski handled the vocal duties on the cut.

Brooks & Dunn picked up their perennial nomination in the Vocal Duo category, along with nods for Entertainer of the Year, Best Single ("Ain't Nothing 'Bout You") and Album (Steers & Stripes).

Jackson is also up in the Entertainer of the Year race, in addition to Album (When Somebody Loves You), Male Vocalist and Video ("www.memory").

The other nominees for the coveted Entertainer of the Year prize were the Dixie Chicks, Tim McGraw and George Strait.

Here's a complete rundown of nominations:

Entertainer of the Year: Brooks & Dunn Dixie Chicks Alan Jackson Tim McGraw George Strait

Female Vocalist: Sara Evans Faith Hill Martina McBride Lee Ann Womack Trisha Yearwood

Male Vocalist: Alan Jackson Toby Keith Tim McGraw Brad Paisley George Strait

Single: "Ain't Nothing 'Bout You," Brooks & Dunn "Born To Fly," Sara Evans "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow," the Soggy Bottom Boys featuring Dan Tyminski "I'm Already There," Lonestar, producer Dann Huff "One More Day," Diamond Rio, producer Michael D. Clute and Diamond Rio

Album: Born to Fly, Sara Evans O Brother, Where Art Thou?, various Set This Circus Down, Tim McGraw Steers & Stripes, Brooks & Dunn When Somebody Loves You, Alan Jackson

Horizon Award (for career progress): Jessica Andrews Nickel Creek Jamie O'Neal Keith Urban Phil Vassar

Vocal Group: Alabama Diamond Rio Dixie Chicks Lonestar Nickel Creek

Vocal Duo: Bellamy Brothers Brooks & Dunn Montgomery Gentry The Kinleys The Warren Brothers

Music Video: "Ashes by Now," Lee Ann Womack "Born to Fly," Sara Evans "I Would've Loved You Anyway," Trisha Yearwood "There Is No Arizona," Jamie O'Neal "www.memory," Alan Jackson

Song (for songwriter): "Born To Fly," Sara Evans, Marcus Hummond and Darryl Scott "How Do You Like Me Now?!" Chuck Cannon and Toby Keith "I'm Already There," Richie McDonald, Gary Baker and Frank Myers "Murder on Music Row," by Larry Cordle and Larry Shell "One More Day," Steven Dale Jones and Bobby Tomberlin

Vocal Event: "Alright, I'm Wrong," Dwight Yoakam and Buck Owens "Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby," Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch "Hard To Be a Husband, Hard To Be a Wife," Brad Paisley and Chely Wright "I'll Fly Away," Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch "Too Country," Brad Paisley, George Jones, Bill Anderson and Buck Owens

Musician: Stuart Duncan Paul Franklin John Hobbs Dann Huff Brent Mason