A handful of Mississippians are up for golden gramophones with the 2026 Grammy Award nominations being announced Friday.
Legendary bluesman Bobby Rush was nominated for Best Traditional Blues Album. Rush’s latest album, “Young Fashioned Ways,” is named after the Muddy Waters song of the same name, but is a fitting title for the 92-year-old Rush’s longevity. Joined by Louisiana’s Kenny Wayne Shepherd, the album mixes traditional blues with rock-influenced guitar work and features new songs as well as reimagined versions of four classic Rush tracks.
“[Shepherd] told me that he had nothing in mind, but I did,” Rush said when asked how the 10-song album came about. “I said I got four or five songs, but I lied about that. I had about 130. I came up with my guitar, he sat down with his guitar…and it went so well.”
Rush, who has spent most of his adult life living in Jackson, has won three Grammys, with his latest coming in 2024 for “All My Love For You” in the category of Best Traditional Blues Album.
With Mississippi being the birthplace of the blues, it’s no surprise that one of Rush’s competitors in the 2026 category of Best Traditional Blues Album is Kosciusko native Charlie Musselwhite. Musselwhite was nominated for his latest, “Look Out Highway.”
Other Mississippians to be nominated for the 2026 Grammys include Jamal Roberts, Hayley Williams, and Audri Johnson.
Roberts, who hails from Meridian and won the most recent season of “American Idol,” is up for Best Gospel Performance/Song for his live performance of “Still” alongside Jonathan McReynolds. In July, McReynolds brought Roberts on stage during a concert in Chicago, and the two performed McReynolds’ soul-stirring song together.
Williams, another Meridian native, is a founding member and lead vocalist of Paramore. While Paramore is still very much active, Williams has used some solo ventures to make more music, resulting in her song, “Mirtazapine,” being nominated for Best Rock Performance.
Johnson, a Grenada native who attended Delta State University’s Delta Music Institute, is an acclaimed audio engineer and singer-songwriter. She won a Grammy for Best Roots Gospel Album in 2023 for engineering Tennessee State University’s “Urban Hymnal” and is now up for Best Gospel Album for her work behind the scenes on Yolanda Adams’ album, “Sunny Days.”
“I’m grateful and I thank God for the opportunity,” Johnson said after her latest nomination. “I’m going to continue to live and work in my purpose. I’m looking forward to what the future holds.”
Mississippi, which is home to the only official Grammy museum apart from the original in Los Angeles, has the most Grammy wins per capita of all U.S. states. The 68th annual Grammy Awards ceremony will take place Feb. 1, 2026, at 7 p.m. CT in L.A. and be broadcast live on CBS and stream on Paramount+.
