The Grammy Awards are so frigging frustrating. It used to be a pageant of the sublime and the ridiculous. This year it seemed like a bunch of forced duets between the sublime and the ridiculous. Jonas Brothers and Stevie Wonder? What did either one ever do to deserve that? The commentary I'm reading lines up with my impressions: that Radiohead was hands down the best performance of the night and Sugarland actually reclaimed some dignity for country music after Carrie Underwood's performance, which sounded like four jets idling with a beat. Coldplay is driving fast to Neil Diamond territory (yawn). Katy Perry had a cute, naughty summer single, but how did that justify a performance, let alone arrival on stage in a giant banana? Usually they reserve a little token time for classical music and/or jazz. Did I miss it? Was it per usual right before or after that Portnow guy's sanctimonious blather? And am I supposed to feel good about a mere cameo by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Nicholas Payton? Wasn't that Nicholas Payton?
Anyway, after all that, it just doesn't make sense that they'd give album of the year to the actual album of the year. I guess I have to remember that the producers have their own agenda and the Grammy voters, usually, seem to have at least some semblance of sense. And sometimes great albums just assert themselves so decisively that there's no choice. Yes, America, Krauss and Plant reign supreme. What an album. What a call. It was a victory for independent music (yay Rounder Records!) and for the Americana format, which if I hear anyone else run it down, malign it, sneer at it or ghettoize it, I'm gonna uncork on em. Backstage our intrepid Peter Cooper recorded Plant's immortal endorsement:
"To me, it's great to be considered to be part of the movement that is
healthy and has some discrimination. My exposure that was begun by
these two (gesturing to Krauss and Burnett) continued through the
Americana Association in Nashville. There's some great stuff there, and
I'm so pleased to be associated with it."
Ah discrimination. The good kind. The kind the music industry has warped to mean 'anything that sells really well.' The Americana Music Association sent out a press release noting that the Plant/Krauss album Raising Sand is the first ever album in the NARAS "Contemporary Folk/Americana" category to be nominated for or win album of the year. But that's just semantics, and the category is only a few years old. In this decade, the top album Grammy has gone to O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Norah Jones, the Dixie Chicks and now RPAK. All four fall easily under the Americana tent. Original, exceptional music deeply informed by American roots traditions. Everybody always seems to want a definition of Americana. Well there it is.
One last thing. We can't resist observing that String Theory Media co-produced the video bio or EPK about RAising Sand, which gave it its first push into the marketplace. Here it is, for old time's sake, the Grammy winner for EPK of the Year!
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