James Taylor Received One CMA Award Nomination, and It Was for This Stunning Duet From 2004

James Taylor has received numerous nominations for trophies, winning several of them, including taking home six Grammy Awards over the years.

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Included in Taylor’s multiple nominations is one for a CMA Award, uncommon for rock stars like Taylor. But in 2004, he was nominated for Musical Event of the Year for “How’s The World Treating You”, a duet with Alison Krauss.

“How’s The World Treating You” is on Livin’, Lovin’, Losin’: Songs Of The Louvin Brothers. Written by Chet Atkins and Boudleaux Bryant, the song was first released by The Louvin Brothers in 1961. Other artists appearing together on Livin’, Lovin’, Losin’: Songs Of The Louvin Brothers include Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, Merle Haggard and Carl Jackson, and Marty Stuart and Del McCoury.

Ironically, Krauss won Musical Event of the Year in 2004, but not with Taylor. She and Brad Paisley took home the trophy for “Whiskey Lullaby“.

What James Taylor Says About His Duet With Alison Krauss

“How’s The World Treating You” says, “Got no plans for next Sunday / Got no plans for today / Every day is blue Monday / Every day you’re away / Though our pathways have parted / To your memory, I’m true / Guess I’ll stay brokenhearted / How’s the world treating you?“

Taylor became a fan of not only the song but also Krauss’s delivery.

“It’s a very sentimental, very emotional sort of love lost kind of song,” Taylor says. “Just completely given over to sadness of losing somebody. The material is so over-the-top emotional. And her delivery of it is so cool, so detached, so technical, that it’s like hot chocolate sauce on vanilla ice cream, the kind of contradiction that that sets up. It does something for the emotions. Alison is the perfect person to execute that.”

Krauss, a frequent collaborator, is especially appreciative that she was chosen to sing with Taylor.

“When you look at, on this record, who I got to sing with, it’s really remarkable,” Krauss boasts. “Getting to work with James Taylor was really amazing. … It was pretty surreal. I can’t tell you, like everybody else, how much I sang along with [his] records.”

“How’s The World Treating You” might be Taylor’s sole CMA Awards nomination, but he isn’t a stranger to country music. In 1985, Taylor had a Top 30 hit at country radio, with “Everyday”. The song, first released by Buddy Holly, is on Taylor’s That’s Why I’m Here album.

Also, in 1978, Taylor joined George Jones on “Bartender’s Blues”. The song became a Top 10 hit.

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