AceShowbiz - Carly Pearce is thrilled with her first CMA Female Vocalist of the Year and Album of the Year nods, because they come from a project she put together at the lowest point of her life.

The singer landed the only female nod in the Album of the Year category on Thursday morning, September 9 - for "29" - and she cannot believe something from such a dark time in her life is getting so much recognition.

"When we started working on '29', I was trying to write my way through some of the greatest sadness and biggest disappointments of my life," Pearce explains. "I was writing to save my heart without even knowing it. My champion and longtime producer busbee had died; my marriage was over; my world was completely upended."

"When I started writing, it was both to understand what was happening, and to go to the one thing that has never let me down: music. But in that, I found not only a kind of salvation, but a very clear sense of the woman and the artist I truly am."

"From the pain, the scraping away everything... '29' emerged. To see it recognized like this, it blows me away. To be the only woman in the category, well, that speaks to the hunger people have for real life... even when it's the tough stuff."

Pearce's "29" is up against albums by Morgan Wallen, Brothers Osborne, and five-time nominees Eric Church and Chris Stapleton for the big prize.

The 2021 CMA Awards will take place in Nashville, Tennessee on November 10.