( l - r ) Julian Marley, Stephen Marley
The ubiquitous Marley nominations head the Best Reggae Album category of the 52nd Grammy Awards, which is scheduled for January 31 in Los Angeles, California.
Given the success of the Marleys in this category, it should come as no surprise that Awake by Julian Marley and his brother Stephen Marley's Mind Control (acoustic version) have got nods from judges of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
Sean Paul's Imperial Blaze, Buju Banton's Rasta Got Soul and Gregory Isaacs' little-known Brand New Me complete the Best Reggae Album category.
Stephen Marley and Sean Paul are previous winners. Marley won in 2008 for Mind Control, while Dutty Rock did the trick for Sean Paul five years ago.
None of the nominees were strong sellers overseas. Imperial Blaze, distributed by Atlantic Records, was the most touted but sold under 100,000 units, according to sales tracker Nielsen-SoundScan.
Awake was released in May by Ghetto Youths/Tuff Gong International, but also had poor returns. At the end of October, when Nielsen-SoundScan pub-lished its latest statistics, it had sold just over 30,000 units.
This is Banton's fourth nomination. He made more news this year for his clashes with gay, rights groups in the United States than for Rasta Got Soul, which was released by his Gargamel company in April.
The Marley name has figured strongly since the Best Reggae Album category was esta-blished in 1985. Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers won it three times, in 1989 (Con-scious Party), 1990 (One Bright Day) and 1998 (Fallen Is Babylon).
Ziggy Marley has won once for Love Is My Religion, in 2007, while his brother Damian won twice with Welcome To Jamrock (2006) and Half-Way Tree (2002).
Bunny Wailer, who was a founding member of the legendary Wailers, along with the Marley brothers' father, Bob Marley, has won the Grammy three times. Two of his albums were tributes to Bob Marley.
Black Uhuru won the first Best Reggae Album award with Anthem. Burning Spear won this year with Jah Is Real.