Trace Adkins (center) with Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and his wife, Anne, at the Nashville Chapter of the Recording Academy® Grammy Nominee party. Photo courtesy of The Recording Academy® 2009. Photograph by Rick Diamond/WireImage.com.

“I was very happy,” Trace said of his Best Country Male Vocal tab for “All I Ask For Anymore,” “because I really believed in this song. Last year I was nominated for a song that I had my doubts about (“You’re Gonna Miss This”). I didn’t think it was gonna be a hit, and it was a big hit. But this year I had this song that I really felt strongly about. I thought it was gonna be a big hit, and it wasn’t. So I’m glad it got nominated for a Grammy. At least I had that.”

It’s one of the things that sets the Grammys apart. Some other awards ceremonies have nominations guidelines that restrict potential entries to songs and artists that made the biggest commercial impact. The Grammy process covers a wider range of genres than any other music awards and allows a wider array of nominees. Voters are also required to have been involved in the creative process in some way, and all those factors work together to allows songs that might not fit typically into the mainstream to earn recognition.

Such was the case for Jamey Johnson’s “High Cost Of Living,” up for Best Male Country Vocal and for Best Country Song. References to three-day booze fests, smoking pot in the church parking lot, cocaine and prostitutes pretty much guaranteed it wouldn’t make too many radio playlists, even though it works as a sort of modern-day morality play in which the main character eventually sees the error in his ways. It still made No. 2 on the Nashville Scene’s Country Music Critics Poll of the top singles of 2009. And clearly Grammy voters loved it.

“We weren’t trying to make it commercial or anything,” Jamey’s co-writer, James Slater, observed. “We were just trying to write a song that maybe touched a lot of people. And when you write with him, it’s gotta be real or it ain’t gonna happen. So this [nomination] is just a super treat. I’m just so proud that people recognize it along with some of the other more commercial songs.”

Dierks Bentley fields questions from reporters at the Nashville Chapter of the Recording Academy® Grammy Nominee party on Thursday, January 21, 2010. Photo courtesy of The Recording Academy® 2009. Photograph by Rick Diamond/WireImage.com.

Dierks Bentley, whose duet with Patty Griffin on “Beautiful World” is up for Best Country Collaboration, was likewise pleased to have their track recognized off his Feel That Fire album.

“I’ve been nominated six times before this, but this one really is special,” he said. “Just to see her name on my album means a lot to me, to look back there and see ‘featuring Patty Griffin.’ That’s really cool. It wasn’t even a single, and the fact that people picked it out of the album and it got nominated, and now we’ll be in L.A., it’s a huge honor for me. I don’t take it lightly at all.”

Plenty of artists and behind-the-scenes hitmakers took part in Thursday’s event. Pop singer Colbie Caillat, who shares a nomination with Taylor Swift, showed up in a glittery dress alongside the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Jeff Hanna, “Strawberry Wine” songwriter Matraca Berg, bluegrass nominees Rhonda Vincent and Jim Lauderdale, Christian band Jars Of Clay, piano balladeer Jim Brickman and banjo stud Bela Fleck. Several notable producers were on hand, too, including Victoria Shaw, who co-produced Lady Antebellum’s first album; Mark Bright, who oversaw Carrie Underwood’s “Cowboy Casanova”; and Garth Fundis, producer of Trisha Yearwood’s earliest hits.

Harold Bradley — a session guitarist, former studio owner, head of the Musicians Union and inaugural president of the Nashville Recording Academy chapter — also walked the red carpet. He’s set to receive a Trustee’s Award in Los Angeles on a night when Loretta Lynn and the late Roy Orbison — both of whom employed him as a musician — will be recognized with lifetime achievement honors.

Before the Jan. 31 Grammys, there are plans to make: hotels and cars to be rented, bags to be packed, formal wardrobes to be purchased and/or steamed.

Christian singer Ashley Cleveland (you’ve heard her in the backing choruses on Martina McBride’s “Wild Angels” and Reba McEntire’s “Why Haven’t I Heard From You”) has preparations to make for her mother, sisters and daughters, all of whom are accompanying her on the trip.

“It’s a real girl party!” Ashley laughed. “There are seven of us. I was kind of surprised [I could get them all in]. I’ve never asked for extra tickets before.”

For others, the night’s significance wasn’t particularly real until Thursday’s party, where they found themselves surrounded by camera crews and well-wishers.

“I’m freaking out,” exclaimed songwriter Liz Rose, who has two nominations as a co-writer of Taylor Swift’s “You Belong To Me” and “White Horse.” “This is [just] kinda sinkin’ in now.”

In one other instance, the big moment might have already arrived. Michael Martin Murphey earned a nomination for his album Buckaroo Blue Grass. Son Ryan Murphey, a teacher at Maplewood High School in Nashville, is also nominated as the album’s producer, and he made an instant impression when the nominations were revealed in December.

“I called his wife,” Michael said. “He was workin’ in school, and I can’t ever reach him when he’s teaching. She called the principal, and by the time the class was about to be out, the principal announced over the school p.a. system, ‘Mr. Murphey has a Grammy [nomination],’ and he was totally swamped by every student in the school. And he broke down cryin’ because he had no idea.”

The TV show glamorizes the whole Grammy process. But the party with the peers and the potential to use it as a mentoring tool — those things mean just as much, if not more.