Zac Brown Band, Taylor Swift Collect Their Grammys

 Four-time winner Taylor Swift might have been country music’s most-honored figure at Sunday’s Grammy Awards, but she was hardly the only person in the genre to have a big time. The Zac Brown Band took the Recording Academy’s Best New Artist trophy during the three-and-a-half hour show, and Steve Wariner, Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, Carrie Underwood and Randy Travis were among the acts singled out during a streamed pre-telecast ceremony, where the bulk of the 109 victors were announced.

 
“It’s such a honor to be on stage and to be sharin’ in this big amalgam of music,” Zac told the star-studded Staples Center crowd. “We’re so honored and blessed to be here. We’re looking forward to playing for y’all.”
Play they did. The band whipped through a medley of songs with guest keyboard player Leon Russell, on stage less than three weeks after undergoing surgery to repair the leakage of brain fluid. The set ended with a wicked-paced instrumental after the last verse and chorus of “Chicken Fried.”
Zac and crew join only a handful of country acts who’ve taken Best New Artist. The most recent, Carrie Underwood, was also on hand for her own performance with Celine Dion, Usher, Smokey Robinson and Jennifer Hudson on Michael Jackson’s “Earth Song,” featuring a 3-D video. The production had an eerie quality to it; just seven months ago, Michael was celebrated at the same venue in a globally telecast memorial that included his two children. The kids, Prince and Paris, were back at the Grammys, with Prince pledging to “help the world.”
Carrie was not on hand at the lengthy pre-telecast, though she did get honored during that event with Best Country Collaboration, honoring her duet with Randy Travis on “I Told You So.” Keith Urban likewise was not around to claim his award: Best Male Country Vocal, for “Kiss A Girl.” Lady Antebellum also won in absentia as “I Run To You” took Best Country Duo or Group. The band did pop up during the telecast to play its recent No. 1 single, “Need You Now.”
Steve Wariner picked up Best Country Instrumental with “Producer’s Medley,” a guitar weave of several former hits that were produced by Chet Atkins: Perry Como’s “And I Love You So,” Jim Reeves’ “Welcome to My World,” the Browns’ “The Three Bells,” Don Gibson’s “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” Al Hirt’s “Java,” the Everly Brothers’ “Let It Be Me,” Skeeter Davis’ “End of the World” and Jerry Reed’s “When You’re Hot You’re Hot.”
“I wouldn’t be here today if it was not for the great Chet Atkins,” Steve said. “He gave me my career, gave me my start.”
Steve Martin’s The Crow: New Songs For The Five-String Banjo took Best Bluegrass Album. The comedian was a no-show, though producer John McEuen, of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, made it to the venue.
“He really wanted me to tell you people he really wanted to be here, but he had a massage appointment,” John joked. “This is a very wonderful thing. I’d like to thank my wife for putting up with more banjo than any one person should.”
There were other awards and moments from the pre-telecast in which country and its sister genres played a part:
• Former New Grass Revival banjo player Bela Fleck collected two trophies: Best World Music Album, for Throw Down Your Heart; and Best Pop Instrumental, for the album’s title track.
• Asleep At The Wheel’s Ray Benson, Jim Lauderdale, Michael Martin Murphey, banjo player Alison Brown and guitarist Bryan Sutton turned in a version of the bluegrass standard “Sittin’ On Top Of The World.”
• Levon Helm’s Electric Dirt took the inaugural award for Best Americana Album.
• Loudon Wainwright III earned Best Traditional Folk Album for High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project. The CD celebrates the music of a North Carolina-born country pioneer who made records for a scant five years in the late 1920s before dying at age 39. Loudon referred to Charlie as “a banjo player and a wonderful singer and a drunk and a… just great.” Loudon also paid homage to ex-wife Kate McGarrigle who, he said, “taught me how to frail the banjo 40 years ago.” Kate died Jan. 18.
• Steve Earle took Best Contemporary Folk Album with Townes, a tribute to late singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt.
• Folk artist Ramblin’ Jack Elliott won Best Traditional Blues Album for A Stranger Here.
• Ken Levitan, who manages Trace Adkins and Dierks Bentley, was one of the producers honored with Best Traditional Gospel Album for the multi-act compilation O Happy Day, featuring such acts as Jon Bon Jovi, Patty Griffin, Michael McDonald and Al Green. Ken also manages Kings Of Leon, the Nashville-based rock act which won two trophies — including Record of the Year — for “Use Somebody.”

- GAC News

*Zac Brown Band also performed at 2008 IEBA Conference