With the 2011 CMT Music Awards taking place this Wednesday, June 8th, we’re taking a look at some of this year’s nominees with this audio round-up! Catch the show at 8pm, ET, on CMT and CMT.com!

• In conjunction with the awards, the fan-voted Nationwide Insurance On Your Side Award recognizes the Best New Live Act, and Josh Thompson is among the nominees. Josh has been a true road warrior, playing some 240 shows last year with Brad Paisley, Hank Williams, Jr., and Eric Church, as well as his own headlining dates. And while he may be a new face on the national scene, Josh tells us that he’s been earning his stripes for years. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

  Josh Thompson may still be a new face on the national scene, but he’s been paying his dues in Nashville for years. (:27)
“To everybody else out there, I’m a brand new act. But I mean, I’ve been here, playin’, writin’, for six years, so, I mean, obviously I wasn’t playin’ in stadiums, but I mean, if you can play to six, you can play to 60,000. And so, I mean, I’ve been doin’ that for a while, and, you know, writin’, of course, so, I’ve got some experience. I’ve put my 10,000 hours in.” (laughs)

“The Boys of Fall” – Kenny Chesney – A CMT Music Awards nominee for Video of the Year and Male Video of the Year

  After he recorded “The Boys of Fall,” Kenny Chesney shared that when he changed his way of thinking about music was when he started creating more personal songs like “The Boys of Fall.” (:26)
“I have always tried to put as much of my life into my music and how I grew up and how I live it. Early on in my career I didn’t do that much, but when my life changed as an artist is when I started really letting a lot my life in there. And I think with ‘Boys of Fall,’ I think people are gonna see that I’ve had nothing touch my life like playin’ high school football did.” 

  Kenny Chesney loved the reactions when he played his song, “The Boys of Fall,” to the football greats he interviewed. (:29)
“I would play ’em the song before I interviewed ’em. And you could just tell that they would stare out the window and kind of go to that place in their mind of what that song meant to them, or what memory it brought back to them, you know, and it was really cool ’cause John Madden listened to that song, and he goes, ‘You know what? That takes me to high school football. That takes me to some friends of mine that I haven’t seen in years.’ You know? And that’s the response I wanted.”

“Coal Miner’s Daughter” – Loretta Lynn, Sheryl Crow, and Miranda Lambert – A CMT Music Awards nominee for Collaborative Video of the Year

  Loretta Lynn was thrilled with Sheryl Crow and Miranda Lambert singing with her on “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” and she loved the album it came from: the star-studded Coal Miner’s Daughter: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn. (:32)
“I bet Sheryl said to herself, ‘Am I gonna be able to sing this country?’ But Sheryl sings folk stuff, and I thought she done a great job. And Miranda, she, you know (mimicking) ‘my daddy worked all night in…’ you know how she’s got her little curly-Qs? She…I thought she done great. I just loved it. The whole doggone album is great. The only I didn’t like was me on it. (laughs) But, well to get the album, you’ll have to take me, too, I guess.”

  Miranda Lambert couldn’t believe that Loretta Lynn asked her to sing on “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” (:31)
“It’s ridiculous. I mean, when I got the…I actually got a note from Loretta, a little card, and it said ‘Miranda honey’ is how it started, and she just went on to talk about me and my career and her…you know, she writes just like she talks, and she asked me to do ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter,’ and I just…of all songs, and it’s not just me cutting ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter,’ it’s me singing it with Loretta. That’s the utmost compliment to me as an artist that she would ask me to do it.”

  Miranda Lambert was proud to be involved with the Loretta tribute album. (:15)
“I mean, it means the world to me that she asked me to do this. She paved the way for women like me, you know? She paved the way to be edgy and be who you are and just sing about what your life is, and she’s a living legend, and I’m just…it’s a huge deal to me. It’s bigger than any…I can’t even say.”

  Miranda Lambert talks about what she admires about Loretta Lynn. (:40)
“What I admire the most about Loretta is that she’s so real. There’s no frills, there’s no hiding anything, there’s no dressing her up and making her something she’s not. She is exactly who she is in her music, in her interviews, on television. There is no secrets. I talked to her on the phone when I was in the studio, and she just seemed exactly like you would think she would be, you know, and she’s just down-to-earth, and, like, that’s what I want my career to be. That’s what I want to be as a woman, not professionally only, but also personally. Just very honest and very real, and for people…for me to have nothing to hide because I love myself. And I think that’s how Loretta is, and, you know, we all should strive to be like Loretta Lynn.”

“The House That Built Me” – Miranda Lambert – A CMT Music Awards nominee for Video of the Year and Female Video of the Year

  Miranda Lambert’s video for “The House That Built Me” is very true to her. (:19)
“It’s almost all me. The only thing is, the little girl in it looks so much like me, so it is hard to tell, but you can really if you…it’s probably, almost all of it is my real home footage. That was real important to me to do ’cause I really wanted it to be true to who I was and show people about the house that built me.”

  Miranda Lambert says that her mom had to do some sleuthing to find the home videos that were featured in “The House That Built Me.” (:15)
“Mom and Dad were private investigators, so, literally, our home movies were mixed in with surveillance tapes and random people, you know? It’s very interesting, so Mom had to dig through all that stuff and, like, sort it out, and you know, it sure was a lot of work on her, but I think it’s a great reward ’cause the video’s awesome.”

  Miranda Lambert is grateful that her parents made the childhood home movies that, for sentimental reasons, will always be priceless. (:09)
“We had, like, this not-very-good video camera ’cause we didn’t have a lot of money. But thank God they videoed some of that stuff, like when I got my first guitar and stuff, because now it’s priceless.”

“Lover, Lover” – Jerrod Niemann – A CMT Music Awards nominee for USA Weekend Breakthrough Video of the Year

  Jerrod Niemann captured the spirit of an old favorite with his video and recording of “Lover, Lover.” (:38)
“Well, ‘Lover, Lover’ is a song that I heard when I was a kid, and man, just from the first moment I heard it, it always made me feel good. I don’t know, I found myself singin’ it over the years, and my sister brought up the song a couple years ago. And once again, it was stuck in my head. So whenever we went in to record this album, I loved how it was so acoustic driven, and also relied a lot on harmonies. And so we went in, recorded it, and although the subject matter is about a guy leavin’ a girl, it still feels good. And so I guess if you’re gonna be sad, you might as well be tappin’ your foot while you’re cryin’.”

“Undo It” – Carrie Underwood – A CMT Music Awards nominee for Video of the Year and Female Video of the Year

  Carrie Underwood says that the message behind “Undo It” doesn’t pull any punches. (:39)
“‘Undo It’ is about…it’s kind of mean in the fact that you’re telling this person that you wish you’d never met them. Like, that’s mean. I wish I had never met you. My life was so much better before you. And I wish that I could take all of that back. And ‘Undo It’ is just kind of…it’s one of those…we’ve all had stupid relationships, and you’re like, ‘I wasted my time,’ you know, ‘they wasted their time.’ This was not worth it, and I’d give anything to just go back and have that back, and you know, my life would have been easier if you hadn’t been in it. (laughs) That’s horrible…it’s so mean.”