CL ASS NOTES
Ceylon Wise and Ashley Brooks Wise, Grammy nominees for best children's music album
The work of MTSU graduates once again shone at the annual Grammy Awards, with nine alumni nominated in genres ranging from pop to roots to gospel to traditional blues and Latin music at the April 2022 event in Las Vegas. Maria Elisa Ayerbe (’15), fresh off a 2021 Latin Grammys quadruple nomination for her producing, engineering, and songwriting on fellow Colombian Paula Arenas’ Mis Amores album, was included in this year’s best Latin pop album Grammy category for engineering Arenas’ project. Multi-Grammy winner Tony Castle (’95) was back among the best traditional pop vocal album nominees with That’s Life, Willie Nelson’s second tribute collection of Frank Sinatra’s music, and was also a nominee for the top traditional blues album for engineering Blues Traveler’s latest release, Traveler’s Blues. Billy Hickey (’06), the go-to guy for studio tracking for stars like Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, and Usher, among others, made the list of best pop vocal album Grammy nominees for his work on Ariana Grande's Positions. F. Reid Shippen (’94) was back among
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the Grammy nominees with country standout Mickey Guyton, whose 2021 release, Remember Her Name, was nominated for best country album. Jason A. Hall (’00) and Jimmy Mansfield (’14), last year’s best country album Grammy winners, were nominated in the same category in 2022 for engineering the Brothers Osborne’s Skeletons. Wayne Haun (’00), a multi-Grammy award winner, was included in this year’s best roots gospel album category with his longtime collaborators Ernie Haase and Signature Sound and their newest album, Keeping On. And Ceylon Wise (’03) and Ashley Brooks Wise (’03), pictured here at an MTSU reception held in honor of the nominees in Las Vegas the night before the Grammys show, were nominated in the best children’s music album category for their work on All One Tribe, a compilation album featuring 24 family music artists, known collectively as 1 Tribe Collective, who aim to educate, encourage, and inspire Black children.
