Ray LaMontagne’s song “Beg Steal or Borrow”, from the album God Willin’ and the Creek Don’t Rise, has been nominated for Song of the Year in the prestigious Grammy awards, a category that sees him competing against Eminem and Rihanna, among others.

Song of the Year is one of the four top awards handed out annually by the Recording Academy in a total of 109 categories.

LaMontagne’s album is also nominated in the category of Best Contemporary Folk Album, along with Guy Clark’s Somedays the Song Writes You, and Mary Chapin Carpenter’s The Age of Miracles.

The awards will be announced on February 13, less than a week before LaMontagne arrives in the UK for dates.

Robert Plant is nominated for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for the song “Silver Rider” from the Band of Joy album, and Los Lobos get a nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for “Do The Murray” from their album Tin Can Trust.

Los Lobos and Plant are also both up for the award for Best Americana Album, along with Rosanne Cash’s The List, Willie Nelson for his album Country Music, and Mavis Staples for You Are Not Alone.

Best Country Instrumental Peformance includes nominations for Darrell Scott, Marty Stuart and family bluegrass band Cherryholmes. The Best Bluegrass Album nominations features Sam Bush, Patty Loveless, the Del McCoury Band, the Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band and the SteelDrivers.

Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett have already won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for their song "The Weary Kind" from the movie “Crazy Heart”, so they must be a good bet to win the category of Best Song Written for Motion Picture or Television. Also nominated in that category is Steve Earle, whose song "This City" was written for the post-Katrina television series Tremé, in which Earle also appears.

Anais Mitchell’s post-apocalyptic folk opera Hadestown gets a nomination in Best Recording Package.