2008 Grammy Awards Pre-Show Live Blog
Sunday February 10, 2008
Some genius over at the Grammy Awards who clearly loves us decided to run a live stream of the Grammy pre-awards ceremony (you can watch it at Grammy.com) - the one where they announce all of the award winners in the good music non-mainstream categories. So here I am, hunched over ye olde laptop, ready to give you up-to-the-minute coverage of thrilling developments. Get ready!
4:16 pm EST Apparently, the webstream was not that advanced - they couldn't get it up and running in time to show us the live performance from zydeco musician Terrance Simien. Whatevah - at least Jimmy Jam made a special mention that there's a new category for Cajun and Zydeco music.
4:27 pm Cathy Fink just led the crowd in a call-and-response style Cajun yell - Aieeeeeeeee! - to celebrate the new Cajun and Zydeco category. Seems like folk and world musicians across the board are pretty excited about this one.
4:41 pm Barack Obama just won the "Best Spoken Word Album" Grammy. This has nothing to do with world music, but it is kind of funny - Hillary Clinton won the same award several years ago. This is actually Senator Obama's second Grammy, in the same category. Not sure if it adds to a candidate's street cred or not, but it provides some amusement in the middle of the looooonnng list of engineering and production categories.
5:11 pm Los Tigres del Norte just won the Best Conjunto album - they were the first band who made me really dig conjunto and norteno music, a sort of Latinized polka.
5:14 pm Best Native American Album Grammy goes to: Johnny Whitehorse! How embarrassing - I didn't actually hear this album. Best Hawaiian Music Grammy goes to: Treasures of Hawaiian Slack-Key Guitar. No surprise - Grammy voters love compilations; they're very democratic. Judging from the sheer number of people on stage right now, there were a LOT of people on this compilation. Aloha!
5:19 pm Cajun and Zydeco: the Grammy went to Terrance Simien. Well-deserved - Terrance and his wife really pushed to establish this category, and the Grammy voters are clearly showing their appreciation for their hard work, both onstage and off. Way to go, y'all!
5:21 pm Reggae: Stephen Marley. No complaints - this year's reggae category was stacked - every single album was outstanding. Traditional World Music: Soweto Gospel Choir. Yay! Contemporary World Music: Angelique Kidjo. She's there, live, giving an acceptance speech. Angelique is always beautiful and gracious, and she's finally (after several nominations) won a Grammy, so way to go! Bonus points to her for giving such a great acceptance speech, making such a strong statement for world music.
5:30 pm Pinetop Perkins, Honeyboy Edwards and Koko Taylor performing "Let the Good Times Roll". Apparently, this isn't good or important enough to make it onto the primetime broadcast. It's only three of America's most important musical treasures performing one of the coolest songs ever written. Mmm hmm. If you're not tuned into the webcast yet, now would be a good time.
5:36 pm Best Polka Album: Jimmy Sturr wins in an upset!!! Just kidding. It's about as far from an upset as anything could possibly be. Jimmy Sturr always wins. The man has about 7 zillion Grammys - well, maybe not quite, but he's one of the Top 10 winningest people in the history of the awards - he always wins. Of course, he always deserves it - he's an outstanding musician and (from what I've heard) a heckuva nice guy.
6:12 pm Best Traditional Blues Album: The Last of the Great Delta Bluesman. I love the Delta blues - the roots of the genre run so deep, all the way back to Africa, and I was happy to see this album win. Also, I met Pinetop Perkins backstage at the Blind Willie McTell Blues Festival a few years ago, and though the ensuing conversation between he and I is not fit to print on a family-friendly website, I still can't help but giggle every time I see him.
6:27 pm Best Bluegrass Album: Jim Lauderdale. Have to give a tip o' the hat to Jim, an old friend and a great guy, who has actually done some really interesting collaborative work outside of the country and bluegrass realms, working with folks like zyde-reggae-rock band Donna the Buffalo and former Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.
6:34 pm Best Comedy Album: Flight of the Conchords. Had to mention it - I think those guys are the funniest thing since sliced bread. They do, in fact, dabble in world music, though - She's So Hot - Boom! is distinctly Jamaican, and Foux da Fa Fa is a hilarious nod to 1960s French music.
6:45 pm C'est tout! That's it! The pre-televised portion is over and done with. Who else watched? What did you think? I'll be back later with some more in-depth commentary of the world music winners and anything exciting that might happen during the main broadcast.
Final Update: Here's a concise list of the 2008 World Music Grammy Winners. Enjoy!
4:16 pm EST Apparently, the webstream was not that advanced - they couldn't get it up and running in time to show us the live performance from zydeco musician Terrance Simien. Whatevah - at least Jimmy Jam made a special mention that there's a new category for Cajun and Zydeco music.
4:27 pm Cathy Fink just led the crowd in a call-and-response style Cajun yell - Aieeeeeeeee! - to celebrate the new Cajun and Zydeco category. Seems like folk and world musicians across the board are pretty excited about this one.
4:41 pm Barack Obama just won the "Best Spoken Word Album" Grammy. This has nothing to do with world music, but it is kind of funny - Hillary Clinton won the same award several years ago. This is actually Senator Obama's second Grammy, in the same category. Not sure if it adds to a candidate's street cred or not, but it provides some amusement in the middle of the looooonnng list of engineering and production categories.
5:11 pm Los Tigres del Norte just won the Best Conjunto album - they were the first band who made me really dig conjunto and norteno music, a sort of Latinized polka.
5:14 pm Best Native American Album Grammy goes to: Johnny Whitehorse! How embarrassing - I didn't actually hear this album. Best Hawaiian Music Grammy goes to: Treasures of Hawaiian Slack-Key Guitar. No surprise - Grammy voters love compilations; they're very democratic. Judging from the sheer number of people on stage right now, there were a LOT of people on this compilation. Aloha!
5:19 pm Cajun and Zydeco: the Grammy went to Terrance Simien. Well-deserved - Terrance and his wife really pushed to establish this category, and the Grammy voters are clearly showing their appreciation for their hard work, both onstage and off. Way to go, y'all!
5:21 pm Reggae: Stephen Marley. No complaints - this year's reggae category was stacked - every single album was outstanding. Traditional World Music: Soweto Gospel Choir. Yay! Contemporary World Music: Angelique Kidjo. She's there, live, giving an acceptance speech. Angelique is always beautiful and gracious, and she's finally (after several nominations) won a Grammy, so way to go! Bonus points to her for giving such a great acceptance speech, making such a strong statement for world music.
5:30 pm Pinetop Perkins, Honeyboy Edwards and Koko Taylor performing "Let the Good Times Roll". Apparently, this isn't good or important enough to make it onto the primetime broadcast. It's only three of America's most important musical treasures performing one of the coolest songs ever written. Mmm hmm. If you're not tuned into the webcast yet, now would be a good time.
5:36 pm Best Polka Album: Jimmy Sturr wins in an upset!!! Just kidding. It's about as far from an upset as anything could possibly be. Jimmy Sturr always wins. The man has about 7 zillion Grammys - well, maybe not quite, but he's one of the Top 10 winningest people in the history of the awards - he always wins. Of course, he always deserves it - he's an outstanding musician and (from what I've heard) a heckuva nice guy.
6:12 pm Best Traditional Blues Album: The Last of the Great Delta Bluesman. I love the Delta blues - the roots of the genre run so deep, all the way back to Africa, and I was happy to see this album win. Also, I met Pinetop Perkins backstage at the Blind Willie McTell Blues Festival a few years ago, and though the ensuing conversation between he and I is not fit to print on a family-friendly website, I still can't help but giggle every time I see him.
6:27 pm Best Bluegrass Album: Jim Lauderdale. Have to give a tip o' the hat to Jim, an old friend and a great guy, who has actually done some really interesting collaborative work outside of the country and bluegrass realms, working with folks like zyde-reggae-rock band Donna the Buffalo and former Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.
6:34 pm Best Comedy Album: Flight of the Conchords. Had to mention it - I think those guys are the funniest thing since sliced bread. They do, in fact, dabble in world music, though - She's So Hot - Boom! is distinctly Jamaican, and Foux da Fa Fa is a hilarious nod to 1960s French music.
6:45 pm C'est tout! That's it! The pre-televised portion is over and done with. Who else watched? What did you think? I'll be back later with some more in-depth commentary of the world music winners and anything exciting that might happen during the main broadcast.
Final Update: Here's a concise list of the 2008 World Music Grammy Winners. Enjoy!
Comments
who won for best producer, non-classical?
Sorry, Brian – I’m not taking notes on every category; just trying to keep up with the world and ethnic folk categories is keeping me wicked busy!
How can I watvh the live webxast too?
Any latin category winners yet
Deb, if you just go to grammy.com and click around you should see a button that says “watch pre-tel ceremony” This blog is great btw!
whoops one more thing, did anyone happen to see if they announced best box set yet? and i think only a few latin winners were announced so far.
You can go to http://www.grammy.com to watch the webcast – there’s a little box on the right-hand side of the page that says “50th Annual Pre-Tel Awards” or something to that effect – click on it and it’ll take you there (unless you need the plug-in player, but it only takes a sec to install).
Most of the Latin winners have been announced, but here at About.com, Latin Music has its own website: LatinMusic.About.com – I’m sure Tijana Ilich, our Latin Music guide, will have a list of the winners up soon.
Hi Megan! Did Levon win?
Hi Peter!
Levon Helm did win for best Traditional Folk Album, with “Dirt Farmer”, the title track of which was written (and, correct me if I’m wrong, uncredited to) Tracy Schwarz, who is both an outstanding old-time fiddle/banjo/guitar player and a great Cajun fiddle and accordion player. And he writes great songs and has been a mentor to more young musicians than I have time to list.
please post winner of best pop instrumental when it is announced. thank you so much for doing this blog!!
My son just texted me to say an album he played on won but I can’t get signed on at the site to see which one it was (there are two). Anyway, it’s Steve Earl’s album and it was for duet of the year and album of the year (Americana). Any idea which was the won to win?
Thanks (and I’ll keep trying to sign on but so far no luck)
Sorry I obviously have “winning” on my mind. One not won…
Fritz, I was only half-paying attention for that one, but I believe that Joni Mitchell won – I’m 90% sure, but I could have it wrong – don’t base any bet settlements on it or anything.
Steve Earle won “Best Americana Album”, he did NOT win the “Best Country Duet” album (Willie Nelson and Ray Price won that one). Congrats to your son!
thank you so much. i was hoping for ben harper!!!
Wait – Fritz – were you asking about Pop Instrumental Performance, or Pop Instrumental Album? Because I’m pretty sure that Joni won “performance” and the Beastie Boys won “album”. Sorry I didn’t take better notes on everything – apparently I’m one of the only people who live-blogged this thing – I thought more would.
Thanks for the response WM…I appreciate it. Yes, I’m proud of him–he played bass on that album.
Thanks again.
Ed
Did anyone catch who won
best box set/special edition package? it would be great if someone could tell me thanks soo much!
“What it Is! Funky Soul and Rare Grooves…” won that category, Nina. I hope it’s the one you were wishing for!!
nobody cares about the grammy any more why they run them in to the ground ever time you turn their somebody winning something for what doing there job they make gooooooooooood money why should you give them any thing else when was the last time some one gave you a grammy or any thing eles for doing your job joe
Josh Groban sang a beautiful song around 10:00 CDT with another male singer. Who was the other singer and is that song availble to buy. It was absolutely beautiful. What was the name of the song?
Groban performed a duet with his fellow Popera star Andrea Bocelli. I believe they sang “The Prayer”, and it was a tribute to Luciano Pavarotti.
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.