There’s a reason Middle Tennessee State University has been endeared as a “Grammy-winning factory.”
The university aids in putting artists on the fast track to accolades and stardom. MTSU alumni, former or current students, and faculty from across the university have been a part of more than 170 Grammy Award nominations in the last two decades. The number of MTSU-connected Grammy winners since 2001 currently stands at more than 20 people, with nearly 50 Grammys, including nine repeat recipients, in categories from classical to pop to rock to country to gospel and rap.
“I’m so proud of our Department of Recording Industry, which constantly makes Billboard Magazine and Hollywood Reporters’ lists of top Music Business programs in the world,” says College of Media and Entertainment Dean Beverly Keel. “It’s extra special that we have a program because of our proximity to Nashville. Music gives Middle Tennessee an identity around the world, so it’s significant that MTSU plays an important part of creating leaders who run that industry in every facet from label and publishing executives and artist managers, entertainment attorneys to producers and engineers and, of course, artists and songwriters. I like to say there’s always a little True Blue in the room wherever you are on Music Row.”
This year, six alumni and former students all received a total of eight nominations for the 67th annual Grammy Awards set for Sunday, Feb. 2 in Los Angeles, California. Receiving nominations in multiple genres, the MTSU-trained professionals, including some previous winners and nominees, consist of singer-songwriter Jessi Alexander (two nominations), audio production engineers Brandon Bell, Jason Hall (two nominations), Bobby Holland, and Jimmy Mansfield, and singer-songwriter Jaelee Roberts. Read on for more details about their outstanding work.
Bobby Holland, a 2006 Department of Recording Industry graduate, is nominated for his mixing work on singer-songwriter Maggie Rose's album No One Gets Out Alive, which is nominated for Best Americana Album.
"Bobby provides great inspiration for our audio production students. I am thrilled that his talent in the studio has been recognized by the Recording Academy," Keel says. "Maggie Rose is one of my favorite artists, so it is wonderful to have an alumni working in such an important creative capacity on her Grammy- nominated album."
Multiple Grammy-winner and nominee Brandon Bell, a 2004 Department of Recording Industry alum, is nominated for Best Bluegrass Album for his mixing work on Billy Strings Live Vol. 1 by artist Billy Strings, who captured the same award in 2021.
"Brandon has been doing important work for years... and is building a body of work that is shaping popular music and will stand the test of time," Keel noted. This marks Bell’s sixth nomination, previously winning two awards.
First-time Grammy nominee Jaelee Roberts, a 2023 Commercial Songwriting alum, is nominated as part of the group Sister Sadie for Best Bluegrass Album.
"I screamed when I saw Sister Sadie's nomination because this is Jaelee's first nomination," Keel says. "She is so special to me, so I was moved to tears to see her receive this international recognition, especially so early in her career. She had tremendous success while she was a student and announced her solo Opry debut at her graduation party."
Roberts was also named the International Bluegrass Music Awards Female Vocalist of the Year award in 2024. Speaking with Nashville Lifestyles last January before opening for Chris Young at Nashville Lifestyles’s Music in the City event, Roberts said that graduating from MTSU will always be one of her “life’s greatest accomplishments.”
“The education that I received at MTSU was stellar and the classes that I took absolutely helped me to be a better, more prepared artist, with an understanding of all aspects of the music business,” she said.
Multi-Grammy winner Jason Hall, a 2000 Recording Industry graduate, is again among nominees, this year with two nominations for his mixing work on The Black Crowes' Happiness Bastards, which is nominated for Best Rock Album, and for his work on Lainey Wilson's Whirlwind, which is nominated for Best Country Album.
Hall has previously won three Grammys and has worked with artists such as Little Big Town, Lainey Wilson, Miranda Lambert, Brothers Osborne, and Eric Church. Another former Grammy winner and nominee, Jimmy Mansfield, a 2014 audio production alum, is nominated this year for his engineering work on country singer Lainey Wilson's Whirlwind album, which is nominated for Best Country Album. He has a previous award for his work on Wilson's Bell Bottom Country album.
Singer-songwriter Jessi Alexander, a former College of Media and Entertainment student, earned two nominations, one for Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical, which is based on a selection of songs written and co-written, and another for Best Song Written for Visual Media for her work on "Ain't No Love in Oklahoma" by country artist Luke Combs.
Alexander has written songs that have been recorded by country music artists like Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert, Ashley McBryde, Eric Paslay, Blake Shelton, Jelly Roll, and Miley Cyrus, including "The Climb," which was featured in Hannah Montana: The Movie.
She is a four-time Grammy nominee and has previously won a Country Music Association Award for Song of the Year and an Academy of Country Music Award for Song of the Year for co-writing Lee Brice's song "I Drive Your Truck." Just last year, alumni Julien Baker, Lecrae, Connor Back, Hall, and Mansfield brought home Grammys.
“We are very diverse in our student body and in the genres of music that we teach with faculty expertise. Unlike other schools, we are proud to celebrate mainstream popular music. We are very much about the making of the music of Taylor Swift and Drake, building those kinds of careers. That’s what we focus on, and it’s not an afterthought,” Keel says.