Grammy Glam: See Brandy Clark, Lee Ann Womack and More Nashville Nominees Primp for Big Night

Clark holds up the dress she'll wear on the Grammy red carpet. "My reality has exceeded my dreams," says the double nominee, who made her debut album 12 Stories independently and struggled to get radio airplay.

Clark was at the Nashville airport, headed to a gig in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when she found out that she was nominated for Best Country Album. The Best New Artist nominations were announced while she was in-flight. "I had 90 text messages," she tells Rolling Stone Country of turning on her phone as soon as the plane landed, "and I noticed one was in all caps: 'YOU'VE BEEN NOMINATED FOR BEST NEW ARTIST.'"

Clark holds up the jacket she'll wear performing with one of her favorite artists, Dwight Yoakam, at the Grammys. "Am I cool enough to stand onstage with this guy?" she joked at rehearsals.

Ashley Donovan applies Clark's makeup before the "Hold My Hand" singer represents country music in one of the Grammys' most coveted categories. "My mom doesn't really know a lot outside of country, and she's like, 'Your brother told me that those other people in the Best New Artist category are really big deals,'" Clark recalls.

A first-time nominee at the Grammys, Natalie Hemby was up for Best Country Song with Miranda Lambert and Nicolle Galyon, for the poignant, nostalgic tune the three penned together, "Automatic."

At the Number One party for "Automatic" last year in Nashville, Hemby thanked co-writer Lambert "for listening to my cockamamie ideas" and for being a trailblazer for female country stars. Hemby also co-wrote Lambert's "White Liar," "Only Prettier," "Priscilla" and "Baggage Claim." Other songs on her long list of country chart successes are Little Big Town's "Pontoon," Lady Antebellum's "Downtown" and Toby Keith's "Drinks After Work."

"Now that I'm older, that is not me at all, really, to be famous," Hemby tells Rolling Stone Country of shifting her priorities early on in her career from being a recording artist to being a songwriter. "That is a sacrifice of your time, of your life, of your family. I like staying connected to people."

"You miss those things, but it's more how you grew up," Hemby says of all the dated items they list in "Automatic," like handwritten notes and cassette tapes. "I loved Miranda's three-on-a-tree truck [image], because I've never even driven a stick shift, and I had no idea what she was talking about. I really do love that we threw in there, 'Staying married was the only way to work your problems out.' Everybody wants a quick fix, and sometimes that's not the best thing for you. I will say, though, I would never take away GPS."

"This sure makes me feel like real music still matters… that all these wonderful players and songwriters who write to tell stories, to show life all splintered and rough… and honestly, the kind of country music I love have a place in this world," Womack said upon hearing she'd been nominated for Best Country Album for The Way I'm Livin'.

Womack is no stranger to the Grammys. She won in 2002 for Best Country Collaboration with vocals, for her "Mendocino County Line" duet with Willie Nelson. Her megahit song "I Hope You Dance" won a Grammy for its writers, Mark D. Sanders and Tia Sillers, in 2001.

Womack's nominated The Way I'm Livin' album was her first new set of tunes in seven years. "I had not really wanted to make any music for so long, and when I heard 'The Way I'm Livin',' I said, 'I want to cut that!'" the singer tells Rolling Stone Country of the title track, written by Adam Wright. "We always find one song to start with, and then everything falls into place after that. I loved that song so much, because I like songs about losers."

Womack credits husband Frank Liddell for the beauty of her nominated album's production… or lack thereof. "Nowadays everybody's making everything so big and bombastic, with tons of players," she says. "Frank put me in a lounge, and the musicians sat around to hear me sing acoustic, just really raw. And then instead of listening to the demo, they'd just listen to me sing it and build from there." (Liddell, by the way, also produced Miranda Lambert's Platinum, which won Best Country Album.)

After more than a decade of pop stardom, Branch became a Nashville fixture in 2006 with her critically-acclaimed country duo, the Wreckers. Though she's ventured back to pop, she still does a lot of her songwriting (and socializing) in Music City.

Branch has been nominated for a Grammy four times, winning once in 2003 for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals, for her spirited "Game of Love" with Carlos Santana.

"Please send help. It's 5:25 a.m & I just got home & there's no one to undo the buttons of my blouse," Branch tweeted after the Grammys, followed by the hashtags #grammys #winner #honestlymoreofaloser.