Brandy Clark Says She’s Most Excited By Best Country Album Grammy Nomination

Brandy Clark is nominated for two Grammy Awards this year, Best New Artist and Best Country Album, and while she's thrilled with both nods, the singer-songwriter says the latter acknowledgement, for her '12 Stories' record, means the most to her.

"I really am proud of '12 Stories' and what [producer] Dave [Brainard] and I accomplished," Clark tells Rolling Stone Country. "To me, it's where it should be. It should be in the same breath as Eric Church and Miranda Lambert and Dierks [Bentley] and Lee Ann Womack. I feel like it's getting the light shone on it that I always dreamed it would."

For Clark, the industry recognition is proof that her tenacity finally paid off.

"When those Grammy nominations came in, and I got to my hotel in Albuquerque, I sat down and started thinking about it and got really emotional," she recalls. "I almost had another deal [prior to her deal to release the disc with Slate Creek Records], and it fell through. I was in my kitchen, and I had a little breakdown. I was like, 'Damn, what do we need to do?' That was the time I most wanted to give up."

After years of hard work and writing hit songs for other artists, including Lambert's 'Mama's Broken Heart' and Kacey Musgraves' 'Follow Your Arrow,' Clark is still getting used to being acknowledged for her own work.

“I am almost speechless. This just doesn’t seem real,” she says of the nominations. “I could never have imagined the journey my team and I have been on since ’12 Stories’ was released [in 2013]. I have received such support from the fans, the critics, the industry and my fellow artists and songwriters. I am beyond thankful to be included in this category with my fellow nominees.”

The 2015 Grammy Awards will air live on Feb. 8 at 8 PM ET on CBS.