The Recording Academy on Friday announced the nominees for the 2019 Grammy Awards, and Kansas City-based blues artist Danielle Nicole is up for her first Grammy.
Her second solo album, "Cry No More," was tapped for Contemporary Blues Album.
The Danielle Nicole Band has been on tour since not long after the album's release, including a show late Thursday night at The Continental Club in Austin, Texas. So, when her phone was "ringing and dinging" early Friday morning, she says, she just ignored it.
When she finally looked at her phone, her response was "total surprise and disbelief," Nicole wrote in an email to KCUR.
"I'm not usually big on formal recognition and awards, but I have always had a deep respect for the appreciation people have in my work and live music enough to include me with my idols and inspirations," she wrote.
"I'm just very thankful for the support of everyone throughout the years" and right now, especially through social media, she's "seeing and feeling everyone's love and support," she added.
Born Danielle Nicole Schnebelen, she grew up in a musical household and started performing at an early age in her parents's blues band Little Eva and the Works. In 2000, Nicole and her two brothers started their own blues-rock band, Trampled Under Foot, where she played bass and sang vocals.
Trampled Under Foot won the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in 2008, and the band's fifth album, "Badlands," reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Top Blues Album Chart.
Nicole released her first solo record, "Wolf Den," in 2015. "Cry No More" was released in February.
Other Grammy nominees also have ties to the Kansas City area:
Kansas City, Kansas, native Janelle Monáe earned an Album of the Year nomination for "Dirty Computer" and Best Music Video for "Pynk."
Related: Janelle Monáe Plans To Give More Than Music Back To Kansas City
Music producer Jermaine "JWhiteDidIt" White, a Leavenworth, Kansas, native who also lived in Kansas City, Kansas, received a nomination in Record Of The Year as a producer on rap artist Cardi B's single "I Like It."
Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, who grew up in Prairie Village, Kansas, and is featured on Jake Heggie's "Great Scott," was nominated for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.
Regina Carter was nominated for Best Improvised Jazz Solo on the title track from Karrin Allyson's "Some Of That Sunshine." Allyson, a jazz vocalist, was born in Great Bend, Kansas. From 1990 to 1998, she was based in Kansas City, Missouri, until moving to New York City.
Check here for the complete Grammys 2019 nominations list. The Grammy Awards ceremony takes place on February 10, 2019, at 7 p.m. CST.
Editor's note: The story has been updated to include Danielle Nicole's given name: Danielle Nicole Schnebelen.
Laura Spencer is an arts reporter at KCUR 89.3. You can reach her on Twitter at @lauraspencer.
