Grammy Winner -- Alison Krause with Paper Airplane.....Yawn

[sgarrity]

There was such great music in this category. Del with Old Memories, Jim Lauderdale, Steve Martin with SCR, Ralph Stanley, Thile and Daves. I like Alison and that recording but c'mon.......

[Mike Bunting]

Yeah, c'mon!

[Charlieshafer]

It's just hard to take awards seriously anymore; all the awarding organizations are in a rut regarding not only who wins, but who gets nominated. There's never a surprise, just the same old stuff.

[Uncle Bob]

Congrads to Alison and her great band.

Now that said, awards shows, like the Grammy's are pure crap!!!

What about real bluegrass like Blue Highway, III Tyme Out, LRB, Balsam Range, to name just a few of the great groups and artists that should be nominated but never seem to be.

I really hate this #&%?!^$ hollow music award stuff!!!

Sorry for my rant - it just makes me nuts! (maybe too much coffee and not enough beer).

[allenhopkins]

That's what happens when a lot of people who never listen to a genre of music, vote on the best recording in that genre. They vote for someone whose name they recognize. Everyone knows Ms. Krauss, the closest thing to a bluegrass "crossover star" that we have these days. So they vote for her; what's she got now, nearly 30 Grammies? I love her and her music, but that kind of dominance is pretty ridiculous.

[Spencer]

Krauss

[blauserk]

I confess I don't know that album, but I sure enjoyed Thile and Daves.

The Grammies are the worst of the award shows. The Oscars at least usually pick some timeless movies for awards. If you look back at past Grammies it's astonishing how often they seem to usually pick ephemeral crap over classics. (E.g., 1981, Christopher Cross as "album of the year, Toto IV in 1983, Lionel Richie's "Can't slow down" over Springsteen's "Born in the USA" in 1985, etc. etc. ; "The Shadow of your smile" beating "Yesterday" for song of the year in 1966; "Little Green Apples" beating both "Hey Jude" and "Mrs. Robinson" for best song in 1969)

[Willie]

I never watch any of those award shows anymore, like Allen stated, the judges don`t have a clue as to what real bluegrass is...too many old good shows on TV for me to watch and I don`t need any of those award shows myself....

[pjlama]

Well there was a lot of mandolin on Taylor Swift's song, so there you go.

[Mike Bunting]

Well there was a lot of mandolin on Taylor Swift's song, so there you go.

I'll bet that mandolin was embarrassed.

[journeybear]

Not a bit. In fact that mandolin was proud, and did the mandolin community proud, ringing clear and mighty above the crowd, carrying the lead duties strong and loud. And it was nice to hear mandolin in the Glen Campbell tribute by The Band Perry, on "Gentle On My Mind." Both of these were among the high points of the show, as far as I am concerned. Hard to top the opener by Bruce Springsteen and the closing medley by Sir Paul and a wall of guitars, but these two had the quieter moments solid.

And you guys dissing Alison Krauss - Man! When are you going to get with it? Don't you understand that she has more talent than everyone else in bluegrass combined? High time you realized that and stopped begrudging her success. No one else deserves anything close to what she has. It's obvious to the Grammy voters, when are you going to get on the program? Man!

[Mandomusic]

Wasn't my pick (I'm a voting member) but what about Levon Helm and The Civil Wars? As an interesting aside, Alison has won the second most Grammys of anyone in any category (30 versus 31 for Sir George Solti). She is a true talent.

[Mike Bunting]

Whatever.

[Ivan Kelsall]

From JB - "....she has more talent than everyone else in bluegrass combined ?". I know you're joking - you are aren't you ???.
That Alison Krauss is very talented is not an argument - she is !. Whether we like the product of that talent is a matter of personal taste as is everything else. If you don't like it,do as i do & don't buy it. I buy CD's in order to learn,they're not just for the enjoyment of listening but for learning as well.We can only assume that in awards such as the 'Grammies',there are more of the 'others' who like that stuff,that of us who don't - so what !,
Ivan

[almeriastrings]

I thought "The Queen of Bluegrass" is supposed to be Rhonda Vincent... but maybe it is AK? How do they decide? Add up all the awards and the one who has most gets the crown?

I think I tend to prefer bluegrass from the Third Uncle (or Auntie) twice removed by a Second Cousin. The ones who never get a mention, much less a houseful of awards.

[journeybear]

From JB - "....she has more talent than everyone else in bluegrass combined ?". I know you're joking - you are aren't you ???

No sir, not by a long shot. If you can sing like an angel, play like the devil, and look like a goddess, you deserve to be honored and revered in every way possible at each and every opportunity.

OK, of course I am (was) using sarcasm and hyperbole to emphasize a point (thought it best to add a smiley just in case), that being the continued honoring of the admittedly talented and deserving Ms Krauss to the exclusion of others perhaps more deserving, at least disproportionately so. I find it hard to believe, just by what my intuition tells me concerning logic and probability, that one person can be so consistently good, that much better every time, that no one else can win a Grammy in this category. Is she really the John Wooden's UCLA Bruins of bluegrass? They had to go out and beat everyone else, so it was clear they were the best; Grammy winners are decided by secret ballot. I hope I don't go and spend a lot of time finding out what the voting process is for Grammys. If it's similar to the Oscars, then I can see where a problem can arise. With the Oscars, the nominees in each category are determined by the members of the Academy in that category, then the winners are decided by votes from the general membership (I believe that's how it works, and this is how best picture and best director nods get split). If the Grammys operate this way, and Alison's name comes up, and the general membership recognizes her name much more than the other nominees, she is going to win much more often than anyone/everyone else. This does not mean she is better, just more recognizable. Again, I stress this is conjecture on my part, and I am indeed going to stop doing whatever truly important tasks I have to do today to research the Grammys voting procedure. If someone knows how this works please chime in. You will be doing us all a favor, and me a kindness. Mondays are a bit busy for me, but settling burning issues like this are so fascinating I tend to drop everything else so I can devote all my time and concentration to this pressing matter. OK, again with the sarcasm and hyperbole. Gotta watch that.

[Kirk Albrecht]

Yea, I was glad for Alison and the band, but seriously - she hasn't played much bluegrass for a while, and there were some great contenders in that category who were worthy of the honor and attention. It was the easy way out for the Academy to pick someone who made a good record that is well known. I was hoping Thile / Daves for doing something squarely in the bluegrass genre but with a decidedly unique angle - still one of my favorite records of any genre in 2011.

[Cheryl Watson]

It's getting harder and harder to know what is considered to be bluegrass by the powers that be these days, same as country. Didn't Paper Airplane win for best engineering? That album does sound awesome. It is not traditional bluegrass, that is for certain.

Maybe there should be two categories: Traditional Bluegrass and Contemporary Bluegrass and the same for country, and...oh, but never mind, then the Grammys would NEVER end! What is "best" is so subjective anyway. I did agree with Adele receiving her awards.

In general, all the "music" at the start scared me off (save Bonnie Raitt) and then I missed the good stuff at the end. I'm going Youtubing today.

[journeybear]

That's a good idea - split the category into traditional and contemporary. It won't affect the show at all - they don't air this anyway. There will still be some goofiness - for instance, I recall when Lucinda Williams' Car Wheels won in the Contemporary Folk category, hardly a folk album. Maybe they didn't have an Americana category yet (however that can be defined), or when Jethro Tull a Grammy in the Metal category. But it would be a step in the right direction, give other musicians a chance, and if not end then at least diminish this kind of dysfunction.

[journeybear]

And yes, you were right - "Paper Airplane" won for best engineering - non-classical. It's all at the Grammys website - http://www.grammy.com/ - along with a list of this year's winners and nominees, and a search function to find previous winners - thus confirming my assertions in the previous post. One nice thing to see is all the winners in all the categories that didn't get mentioned on the air (they usually run lists going to or coming from commercials) - so I saw that Tedeschi Trucks Band won for best blues album. Sweet!

I hope you caught at least The Boss and company with the opening song - fine, fine way to start. Bruno Mars did a nice spot too early on, snappy costumes and choreography, reminiscent of James Brown. But yeah, things get a bit over the top later ... though if you managed to struggle through Nikki Minaj's weirdness, you would have been treated to a great closing number by Sir Paul: essentially the last half of Side B of "Abbey Road," from "Golden Slumbers" on, to "The End," on which he was joined by a bunch of guitarists trading licks - Bruce Springsteen, Joe Walsh, Dave Grohl, members of Paul's band, Sir Paul himself. Fun stuff.

[Ivan Kelsall]

From JB -"Grammy winners are decided by secret ballot...". How do you know that if it's a secret ??. It's a bit like saying "watch out for the secret Police". "Hyperbole" ? - is that like an OTT 'Superbole' - you Americans !!!!!,
Ivan

[f5loar]

After being on the bus with Robert Plant she is more of a geniune "rock" star now and that's why she got the votes. You got to be tough to hang out with the Zep boys. Sir Paul was near perfection on that last song. It was a fitting song to end with even if Joe Walsh, the FooFoo guy and Bruce didn't really know the song.

[MikeEdgerton]

I really have no problem with Alison winning any grammys. if you've ever experienced a performance by her in person there is no doubting the talent there. If you're looking for what could have been a strange twist of fate, look at Americana Albums or American Roots depending on where you search. There's one nomination there out of the 5 that you've never heard of. Linda Chorney. She happens to be from my home state and I had never heard of her even though she lives in the same county as I do. I wouldn't have known a thing about it except the local paper did a story about how she got her album nominated. She was up against Levon Helm (who won), Emmy Lou Harris, Lucinda Williams, and one other. Basically she engineered the nomination herself. I'll give her credit for that. People pay a lot of money to get their albums promoted. Honestly, how they even classified her music as American roots I don't know, it isn't my cup of tea but there she was. As much as I like to see independent musicians make a splash I don't think she belonged there. She's on Youtube, YMMV.

Asbury Park Press article

[journeybear]

WOW! But kind of cool. The Grammys will change their procedures so this won't happen again, you betcha.

She does seem more folk than Americana, but, well, whatever. Some MC here in the second song:

[MikeEdgerton]

Here's another one from the nominated album, I just don't see it.