The Boot News Roundup: 2019 Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Nominees Revealed + More

Welcome to The Boot's News Roundup, a morning rundown of the news country music fans need to know. Read on to learn more about the latest goings-on in the country, Americana, bluegrass and folk genres.

Toby Keith, Brad Paisley, Marcus Hummon and more are nominees for the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame's Class of 2019. A total of 12 songwriters -- eight in the Songwriter category and four in the Songwriter/Artist category -- are up for the honor, and three (two songwriters, one songwriter/artist) will be elected to the Hall of Fame later this year, along with a veteran songwriter and songwriter/artist whose names have yet to be announced. In addition to Keith and Paisley, potential Songwriter/Artist category inductees for 2019 also include Eddy Raven and Dwight Yoakam, while Shawn Camp, Rivers Rutherford, Jerry Salley and more are also nominated in the Songwriter category. The final list of five Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Class of 2019 inductees will be announced later this summer.

Buzzed-about singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Billy Strings has signed with Rounder Records. The artist's sophomore studio album, Home, is due out via the label on Sept. 27; Strings recorded the project in January. "Billy is not only an instrumentalist to rival the finest talents on Rounder's historic roster, but he's also a phenomenal singer, writer, collaborator and live performer," says Rounder Records President John Strohm. "It is our great honor and privilege to have the opportunity to work with such a brilliant, innovative young artist to complement Rounder's outstanding musical tradition.

Jerry Carrigan, an acclaimed Nashville session musician and an early member of the famous Muscle Shoals, Ala., studio musicians collective known as the Swampers, has died. The Times Daily out of Florence, Ala., reports that Carrigan died in mid-June, at the age of 75, due to an unknown illness. After playing on early FAME Studios sessions in Muscle Shoals as a teenager, Carrigan moved to Music City; the 2010 Alabama Music Hall of Fame inductee played on Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler," George Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today" and many, many more.