Yep, the oft-proclaimed “Music’s Biggest Night” returns amid quite the watershed year for music, between Chappell Roan’s meteoric rise and Katy Perry’s meteoric fall and renewed discourse on race relations in country music. We also witnessed a cultural shift in the way artists perceive the honor, with Zach Bryan, The Weeknd and Drake infamously declining to submit themselves for consideration. The former artist’s omission was lauded by music industry analyst Bob Lefsetz, who wrote in an October letter, “If your obituary says how many Grammys you won, either you missed the point or the writer did.” (Sorry. about. that. Bob.)
For as long as we’re confined to the past and committed to missing the point, we join others in regarding the Grammys as the prestigious honor it has traditionally been considered. So with that, we are pleased to report that the 67th Grammy Award nominees have been announced, and North Texans are once again in contention for the prizes.
As usual, this year's announcements were full of surprises — such as Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department getting a nom for Album of the Year despite underwhelming the critics, and the excellent Houston band Khruangbin getting a Best New Artist nomination despite being fairly successful for several years. (According to Wikipedia, "In 2010, The New York Times wrote that Khruangbin's sound was so distinct and popular that 'there now exists an entire subgenre of music broadly known as 'Khruangbin vibes.'")
Here are some of the local highlights (and, yes, a lot of them include the usual suspects: Kacey Musgraves, Post Malone, St. Vincent, etc. But you’ll also see some fresh new faces, such as Charley Crockett, with his first nomination.)
Post Malone
Record of the Year, “Fortnight” (feat. Taylor Swift)Song of the Year, “Fortnight” (feat. Taylor Swift)
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, “Levii’s Jeans” (feat. Beyoncé)
Best Country Duo/Group Performance, “I Had Some Help” (feat. Morgan Wallen)
Best Country Song, “I Had Some Help" (feat. Morgan Wallen)
Best Country Album, F-1 Trillion
Best Music Video, “Fortnight” (feat. Taylor Swift)
Best Recording Package, F-1 Trillion
Kacey Musgraves
Best Country Solo Performance, “The Architect”Best Country Song, “The Arcitect”
Best Country Album, Deeper Well
Best Americana Performance, “Don’t Do Me Good” (feat. Madi Diaz)
Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, Deeper Well
St. Vincent
Best Rock Performance, “Broken Man”Best Rock Song, “Broken Man”
Best Alternative Music Performance, “Flea”
Best Alternative Music Album, All Born Screaming
Brandon Lake
Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song, “Praise” (feat. Elevation Worship, Chris Brown & Chandler Moore)Best Contemporary Christian Music Album, Coat of Many Colors
John Beasley
Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album, Returning to Forever (feat. Frankfurt Radio Big Band)Best Latin Jazz Album, El Trio: Live in Italy (feat. Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez and Jose Gola)
