In 2011, Linda Chorney re-
leased Emotional Jukebox, an
album featuring great musi-
cians, strong songwriting, and
a trio of wonderful covers of
tunes by The Beatles, Led Zep-
pelin, and The Rolling Stones.
It was an album she was ex-
tremely proud of and one she
believed in. She thought the
music spoke for itself — all she
needed was others to hear it.
Thanks to a mix of ingenuity,
hard work, and networking,
she was able to connect with
Grammy voters and get them
to listen. They not only liked
what they heard, they voted for
her. In doing so. Linda Chorney
became the first independent
artist to earn a nomination for
Best Americana Album. Mil-
lions wondered how she did it,
but Chorney’s album competed
alongside releases by Ry Cood-
er, Emmylou Harris, Lucinda
Williams, and Levon Helm who
NJ STAGE - ISSUE 47
took home the award. The film
asks the question, “Will being
nominated for a Grammy be her
big break or will it break her?”
To her dismay, the gatekeepers
of the industry were not pleased
with her nomination and went to
great lengths attempting to dis-
credit her. They manufactured
headlines insinuating she cheat-
ed to get nominated, which was
not true. Chorney used a legiti-
mate Grammy website (gram-
my365.com) to contact Grammy
members directly. Neil Portnow,
The President of National Acad-
emy of Recording Arts & Sci-
ences, Inc. (NARAS) went on the
record saying Chorney did noth-
ing wrong, yet The Recording
Academy changed the rules to
ensure a similar situation would
never happen again. Not only
did they implement committees
to decide the final five nominees
in all American Roots categories,
but they eventually shut down
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