Country Universe – A Country Music Blog

Grammy Pre-Telecast Winners

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

Here are the winners in the country and country-related categories from the pre-telecast:

Best Country Song: Liz Rose & Taylor Swift, “White Horse”

Best Country Instrumental Performance: Steve Wariner, “Producer’s Medley”

Best Country Collaboration with Vocals: Carrie Underwood & Randy Travis, “I Told You So”

Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals: Lady Antebellum, “I Run to You”

Best Female Country Vocal Performance: Taylor Swift, “White Horse”

Best Male Country Vocal Performance: Keith Urban, “Sweet Thing”

Best Contemporary Folk Album: Steve Earle, Townes

Best Bluegrass Album: Steve Martin, The Crow/New Songs for the Five-String Banjo

Best Americana Album: Levon Helm, Electric Dirt

Best Southern/Country/Bluegrass Gospel Album: Jason Crabb, Jason Crabb

Grammy 2010 Staff Picks & Predictions

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

Even in Grammy’s darkest hours, CU brings its picking powers!

- Superhero television show about our blog from the 50′s.

We won’t be live-blogging this time around, but will be reacting to the show in a full post tomorrow, and welcome your reactions in comments on this post. The awards telecast starts at 8 pm Eastern, and I imagine there will be some red carpet action in the hour prior.

Record of the Year

Picks

• Beyonce, “Halo” – Kevin
• Black Eyed Peas, “I Gotta Feeling”
• Kings of Leon, “Use Somebody” - Tara
• Lady GaGa, “Poker Face” - Dan
• Taylor Swift, “You Belong with Me”

Predictions

• Beyonce, “Halo”
• Black Eyed Peas, “I Gotta Feeling”
• Kings of Leon, “Use Somebody” – Kevin, Dan, Tara
• Lady GaGa, “Poker Face”
• Taylor Swift, “You Belong with Me”

Kevin: Am I wrong for preferring Eric Cartman’s rendition of “Poker Face” over the original? This is a pretty lightweight slate of contenders. I really like “Halo”, but I suspect Kings of Leon will win, simply because it’s the only rock song in a lineup of pop hits.

Dan: “Poker Face” just feels very representative of popular music in 2009. I wouldn’t whine if it got passed over so that “Bad Romance” could take this award next year, though.

Tara: I would’ve pulled for “Single Ladies” in a heartbeat had it been submitted, but “Use Somebody” is just as deserving of this award. It’s a fantastic song even outside the context of its moment in pop culture, and it’s the kind of larger-than-life song that the voters have picked to win in the past.

Album of the Year

Picks

• Beyonce, I Am…Sasha Fierce
• Black Eyed Peas, The E.N.D.
• Lady GaGa, The Fame – Kevin, Tara
• Dave Matthews Band, Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King
• Taylor Swift, Fearless - Dan

Predictions

• Beyonce, I Am…Sasha Fierce
• Black Eyed Peas, The E.N.D.
• Lady GaGa, The Fame
• Dave Matthews Band, Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King - Kevin
• Taylor Swift, Fearless - Dan, Tara

Kevin: I’d like to see dance music get some respect in the big category, even if there are a half-dozen Madonna albums at this point that would’ve been worthier winners than The Fame. Again, I think the Top 40 votes are going to be split, leaving Dave Matthews Band the winners.

Dan: In little over a year, Fearless has grown from success story to cultural artifact. It’s that rare pop album that seems to have a personality all its own, like Jagged Little Pill in a yellow sundress (and sung about as well). I could see anyone but the Peas taking this, but I think Swift’s support in both Nashville and the Top 40 crowd will take her to the top.

Tara: I have to say I was fairly shocked to see Swift’s truckload of Grammy nominations, so I’m having a little trouble wrapping my mind around the Academy’s thought process – but, I suppose a Swift win in this category is inevitable. However, I fully back Lady GaGa, who is the perfect storm of creativity, vision, swagger and raw vocal talent (remember that, pop world?). (more…)

The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be

Friday, May 15th, 2009

As I was scouring the neighborhood around 9pm last night after work looking for an open pet store, I flipped through the local radio stations looking for something new and interesting.  I really didn’t expect to find much, but after awhile, I finally hit something with a cool beat and lyrics. Something that I hadn’t heard before and sounded different. I kinda liked it, but couldn’t place it.

It turns out that the station was previewing the new Green Day album, 21st Century Breakdown, (due out in stores and online today).  I consider myself somewhat of a Green Day fan, despite the fact I only own Dookie and American Idiot. (And there’s a good, somewhat funny concert story related to the band mixed in there as well.) As such, I’ve been cautiously optimistic about their new album.

Fortunately, from what I heard in between futile stops at closed pet stores, it sounded pretty good, and I decided to buy it today.  But as I made that decision, I realized that there are very few albums coming out soon that I’m genuinely looking forward to with anticipation and excitement. And I was truly surprised by how ambivalent I really felt about this release by a band that I know I like. Maybe that’s because as we get older, we become more picky and more frugal. Or perhaps we just haven’t heard anything awesome in such a long time, we figure it might be best to wait and see if we hear some buzz before we cautiously download a song, much less an entire album.

Who knows.

What I do know, is that the only albums I can currently recall that I am looking forward to are the upcoming Patty Griffin, Charlie Robison and Levon Helm albums.  Griffin is always fantastic. Robison’s album has good advance buzz and is bound to be interesting given the time period in his life in which he wrote it. And I’m a recent Helm fan. But, help me out…there’s gotta be more!

Which albums coming out soon are you most looking forward to?