Country at The Grammys
The 60th annual Grammy Awards, Jan. 28,
meant good news for country hitmaker Chris
Stapleton (above), who won big: Best Country
Solo Performance for Either Way; Best Song
for Broken Halos, which he co-wrote with Mike
Henderson; and Best Album, for From A Room:
Volume One, co-produced by Chris and Dave
Cobb. (Incidentally, Stapleton’s 2015 debut
album Traveller also earned them Grammys.)
Little Big Town scored this year for best
group performance, thanks to their single
Better Man, penned by Taylor Swift and
produced by Jay Joyce. Country diva Reba
McEntire nabbed a Grammy for her album
Sing It Now: Songs of Faith & Hope in the
Gospel Roots category. Bluegrass queen
Rhonda Vincent added another win to her
collection, for All the Rage: In Concert, Vol. 1
(Live), in a tie for Best Bluegrass album; the
other winner being Infamous Stringdusters’
Laws Of Gravity. Jason Isbell & The 400
Unit scored multiple wins in the Americana
division: best Americana album for The
Nashville Sound, produced by Dave Cobb,
and best roots song for If We Were Vampires,”
both for the act and Jason as songwriter.
Jackson and Anderson
honoured
The national Songwriters Hall of Fame
committee has announced its newest inductees
into its Hall of Fame, among them country
composers Bill Anderson and Alan Jackson,
already members of the Nashville Songwriters
Hall of Fame, and all-genre writer Steve Dorff.
A truly diverse writer, Dorff numbers include
such songs as Easy Love for Dionne Warwick,
and Miracle for Celine Dion; however, he has
supplied songs for country artists like Kenny
Rogers, Through the Years; Eddie Rabbitt,
Every Which Way But Loose; Anne Murray, I
Just Fall In Love Again; Mel Tillis’ Coca Cola
Cowboy; and George Strait’s I Cross My Heart.
Anderson’s hits began in 1958, during his
college years when he furnished Ray Price’s
monster hit City Lights, and in the 1960s
Whispering Bill sang many of his own hits,
including Tips Of My Fingers and Still, while also
through the years supplying others such as Lefty
Frizzell’s Saginaw, Michigan, Conway Twitty’s I
May Never Get To Heaven, Kenny Chesney’s
A Lot of Things Different, Brad Paisley-Alison
Krauss’ Whiskey Lullaby, and George Strait’s
Give It Away.
Jackson, of course, penned his own, ranging
from his 1990 breakthrough song Here In The
Real World, onward to #1’s such as Don’t
Rock The Jukebox and Chattahoochee, The
inductees will be enshrined officially at the 49th
annual Songwriters Hall of Fame banquet, in
New York City’s Marriott Hotel, June 14.
AMERIPOLITAN AWARDS
The Guest House at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee was the venue for the 5th Ameripolitan Awards on Feb 13.
It marked the firs time the ceremony was held outside Austin and featured performers on the night such as James
Hand, Reverend Horton Heat, Unknown Hinson, Nikki Lane, and Jason D. Williams. There will be a full report in
next month’s CMP but a notable winner from a UK perspective was our own Sophia Johnson in the Western Swing
Female category.(see Page 11).
Luke Bell - Honky Tonk Male
Winners on the night were:
Honky Tonk Female – Brennen Leigh
Honky Tonk Male – Luke Bell
Honky Tonk Group – The Reeves Brothers
Outlaw Female – Nikki Lane
Outlaw Male – Cody Jinks
Outlaw Group – Whitey Morgan and the 78’s
Chris Scruggs – Musician on the Year
Venue of the Year – Sportsmen’s Tavern, Buffalo NY
Festival of the Year – New England Shake Up, Sturbridge MA
DJ of the Year – W.B. Walker, Old Soul Radio Show Podcast
Western Swing Female – Sophia Johnson
Western Swing Male – Billy Mata
Western Swing Group – The Carolyn Sills Combo
Brian Setzer: Honoured with the with
the Ameripolitan Master Award
MARCH 2018 - cmp 5