Country Music Hall Includes Contemporary Artists; Carrie Underwood Variety Show Tonight; Do Grammys Get Bluegrass?

That article about the bluegrass nominations by the Grammy folks is very interesting. In the past I always figured Alison Krauss won so many Grammy’s because she was the only name in her category that most of the voters had ever heard of! (I am not dismissing Alison’s abundant talent here, I’m just saying it may not have been the primary factor in the voters choosing her. Alison became the de-facto “easy” vote in a category most Grammy voters knew nothing about.) Although Rhonda Vincent deserves to win this award, I predict it will go to Steve Martin because of his broad appeal to Grammy voters and the fact this will likely be his only nominaton ever in this category. We shall see….

Wow, a Carrie Underwood musical special on TV tonight! Thank goodness for all those shows I have stored on my DVR that I need to watch before the hard disk craps out….

Speaking of Christmas music specials, a week ago on Sunday one of the major networks re-aired the 2008 “Randy Travis: Christmas On The Pecos” show taped in Carlsbad, NM. Some songs presented were even recorded down inside the Carlsbad Cavern! The show is a mix of Christmas and gospel songs with some of Randy’s hit singles mixed in and it was a delight. I still have that on the DVR, so maybe it will get another spin tonight. Hmm…

Jerry Douglas, Richie McDonald, and Charlie Daniels each landed albums on The Tennessean’s list of stocking-worthy Christmas releases.

Um, so did John Cowan. Did he wind up on The9513’s s**t list somehow, or did someone not recognize his name? He performed a bunch of stuff from the album at the Hall of Fame Saturday and sounded great.

Bob Cherry’s screed has the right recommendation at the end – the Academy needs more voters with a deeper familiarity with bluegrass – but his notion of what constitutes a “true bluegrass artist” is more than a little fuzzy (on the one hand, Rhonda Vincent’s always got some stuff that “ain’t bluegrass” on her albums, while on the other, he seems to think that you have to be a full-time, southeastern festival-centric act to qualify), and his lack of familiarity with the history of the Best Bluegrass Album award weakens his case quite a bit; past winners include Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder (who’ve actually won more times than Alison’n'em), Del McCoury, the Nashville Bluegrass Band (twice), Ralph Stanley (with Jim Lauderdale and the Clinch Mountain Boys), and some guy named Bill Monroe.

Grammy awards aren’t for artists in general, they’re for recordings, so the real question is, are the nominees bluegrass recordings? Not even Bob is arguing that they aren’t, so why focus on whether the artists who made them are playing bluegrass full-time and playing nothing else? Especially when the one who’s singled out as a “true bluegrass artist” doesn’t completely qualify by that criterion either?

Interestingly, it was hypothesized that removing the bluegrass award from the country field and putting it with Americana, blues and more in a new “American Roots Music” field would result in a higher proportion of knowledgeable voters weighing in (Academy members can vote in only 9 self-selected fields out of 30-something), because, y’know, the evil Nashvegas types and major label block voters wouldn’t be wasting one of their choices on rootsy, indie-oriented stuff; it’s too early to say for sure, but I’d say there’s not much reason to think that’s so.

Luke Bryan, like so many young acts, is suffering from a situation where he thinks he is far bigger than he is. Comments like the million album figure and being one of the three most country guys just make him seem like a self involved ass. As for the musical growth he talked about, after listening to his new album, I noticed a number of songs that sound exactly like stuff off his first.

Hey Northy, thanks for the Carrie pics link. I may not care much for her singing, but Carrie in a skimpy bikini is another matter entirely! (lol)

So the big mystery is whether “Band Perry” will do better at Top 40 country radio than Jypsi? The suspense is killing me! (lol)

Don’t get me started, Brody!

We still hope that Carrie will save her hometown movie theater
http://newsok.com/checotah-familys-theater-hopes-turn-sour-with-economy/article/3413557

Bobbi – I don’t think its realistic to ask people not to judge someone “by his comments.”

I didnt mean not to judge him, I just meant to actually look at the purpopse of his comment. He is just talking about staying true to himself, dont chastise him for the ’surface’ level of his words, try to actually understand their meangin