Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the top winners in the 51st Annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 8. The duo’s Rounder release, Raising Sand, produced by T Bone Burnett, was named Album of the Year and Best Contemporary Folk/Americana album. Plant and Krauss also captured awards for Record of the Year (“Please Read the Letter”), Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals (“Rich Woman”) and Best Country Collaboration with Vocals (“Killing The Blues”).
Plant, best known from his days with the hard-rockin’ Led Zeppelin, and Krauss, a contemporary bluegrass star, also won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Collaboration last year. With 26 Grammys to her credit, Krauss has won more than any other woman in Grammy Awards history.
Pete Seeger’s At 89 was named Best Traditional Folk Album. The folk music icon could not be at the Staples Center in Los Angeles to accept his award in person. In a prepared statement, he thanked David Bernz, who co-produced the album with him for Appleseed Recordings. Seeger also urged folks to “Keep singing songs of hope and social justice,” noting his belief that music and non-violence can help change the world. Among the other nominees for Best Traditional Folk Album was American folk troubadour Tom Paxton, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Other Grammy Award winners of note to fans of acoustic music include:
Best Bluegrass Album: Honoring the Father of Bluegrass Music: Tribute to 1946 and 1947, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder (Skaggs Family)
Best Country Instrumental: Cluster Pluck, Brad Paisley, James Burton, Vince Gill, John Jorgenson, Albert Lee, Brent Mason, Redd Volkaert and Steve Wariner (Arista Nashville)
Best Historical Album: Art of Field Recording Volume 1: Fifty Years of Traditional American Music Documented by Art Rosenbaum (Dust-To-Digital)
Best Native American Music Album: Come to Me Great Mystery – Native American Healing Songs, Various Artists (SilverWave)
Best Pop Instrumental Album: Jingle All The Way, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones (Rounder)
Best Traditional Gospel Album: Down in New Orleans, The Blind Boys of Alabama (Time Life). The gospel greats also received a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Best Traditional World Music Album: Ilembe: Honoring Shaka Zulu, Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album: Live at the 2008 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Beausoleil & Michael Doucet (MunckMix)
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