Country Music Awards Nominees Are Out

Let's get the obvious out of the way: Taylor Swift's BFF Miranda Lambert usurped her in the amount of Country Music Awards nominations (View the full list here). Lambert has nine; Swift has one.

Moving on, or as Lambert says in her single "The House That Built Me": "You move on and do the best you can." And the best we can do at Tonic is highlight the best do-gooders of the bunch. Taking the nominees for Best Entertainer of the Year to the mat, we've got our own CMA's — the Charitable Music Awards — and here are the finalists (winner announced below):

Miranda Lambert

In May, Tonic told you about Lambert's (and hubby-to-be Blake Shelton's) animal admiration. Lambert started the MuttNation Foundation along with a concert series called Cause for Paws to raise money for her organization, which rescues animals from kill-shelters. Also this year, the couple raised $70,000 for veterans and an animal shelter at a benefit concert in Oklahoma.

Lady Antebellum

This trio of two guys and one gal has made a huge difference in the lives of those in Cape Town, South Africa. They've teamed up with the Mocha Club, an organization that gives the money you'd normally spend on coffee ($7 a month), to educate the unemployed, so they can obtain jobs and in turn, support their families. "It's like the saying 'Give a man a fish, he can eat for a day; teach a man to fish, he can eat for a lifetime,'" they write on their website. "We as Lady Antebellum want to give hope to these people, by equipping them to go out and support their families and their communities."

Zac Brown Band

Fairly new to the country music scene, this scruffy-faced band has made a huge impact on soldiers — and one particular Georgia theater — in a short amount of time. In 2009, the Zac Brown Band held a benefit concert for the The Georgia Theatre Rehabilitation Fund with Kid Rock, Little Big Town (nominee for Vocal Group of the Year), Joey and Rory (nominee for Vocal Duo of the Year), Shawn Mullins, Oliver Wood, Angie Aparo and Aslyn. The performance space had burned down but is being rebuilt thanks to the band's help. In 2010, the group partnered with the Ram Truck Band to launch Letters for Lyrics, a program whose goal is to send a million letters to US soldiers stationed worldwide. If that weren't enough, Zac Brown is obsessed with vintage guitars, which are often expensive. But he doesn't keep the pricey instruments to himself. He auctions them off for charity.

Brad Paisley

The man who stole the heart of the daughter in Father of the Bride is currently touring North America and advocating water's scarcity. It's all part of his H2O Tour, which exists in partnership with the Water=Hope campaign, in an effort to educate fans that only one in seven people have access to clean drinking water worldwide. But this year's concert series isn't the first time Paisley's lent a philanthropic hand. In 2004, the Country Radio Broadcasters named the country singer the Artist Humanitarian of the Year for his work with not only his own foundation but also the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Disease Research, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the T.J. Martell Foundation, among others.

Keith Urban

Keith Urban doesn't have a charity section on his website, he has a Keith's Friends page. That's how important First Steps Inc., Land Trust for Tennessee and St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital are to the Australian native. Throughout his career, he's donated autographed photos and concert tickets to raise money for these causes. Urban isn't a stranger to the benefit concert, either. Earlier this year, the Grammy Foundation tapped him to headline their Starry Night benefit, which gathered money to support high school music programs.

And the first Tonic CMA goes to ... The Zac Brown Band for their sheer amount of philanthropic work in a limited amount of time! Tune in to ABC on Nov. 10 to find out who wins Entertainer of the Year at the actual CMA's.

Photos by PR Photos.