Click to see photos from the Grammy party (this image of Jim Lauderdale: Jeanne Reasonover/The Tennessean).
A broad mix of Nashville's Grammy-nominated musicians attended Thursday’s Grammy Award Nominee Party at Loews Vanderbilt Hotel. Here’s some of what we heard and saw there:
Jim Lauderdale
Lauderdale’s music veers in many directions, but his Grammy successes have come in the bluegrass category. Lauderdale has won bluegrass Grammys for his Bluegrass Diaries album and for Lost In The Lonesome Pines, a collaboration with the legendary Ralph Stanley. He’s up for a best bluegrass album Grammy this year for his Could We Get Any Closer? album. His first Grammy came after he’d spent decades as a music pro.
“Sometimes you have to be patient,” said Lauderdale, who has written songs recorded by George Strait, Patty Loveless, the Dixie Chicks and others. “The first time I was able to get a Grammy, I was really shocked, and really happy to win one that also had Ralph Stanley’s name on it.”
Dierks Bentley
Bentley’s albums tend to include performances from people who aren’t necessarily well-known to contemporary country fans. The Grascals, Del McCoury and Patty Griffin come to mind. But Bentley, whose performance with Griffin on “Beautiful World” is Grammy-nominated, isn’t thinking about expanding audiences for his collaborators when he goes in to record.
“At the end of the day, it’s about, ‘Who do I want to sing with on this song?’ ” he said. “And on ‘Beautiful World,’ I was like, ‘Dude, I got Patty Griffin to sing with me.’ It was incredible.”
Jeff Hanna
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s single “Mr. Bojangles” will be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame this year. Jerry Jeff Walker wrote the song, and Jeff Hanna, who sang the song on record, said that after the Dirt Band recorded the now-classic, they learned that another recording artist was also thinking of releasing it.
“We were friends with John Denver, and he cut it as well,” said Hanna, who also co-wrote the Rascal Flatts smash “Bless The Broken Road.” “We were hanging out in Aspen, Colo., and he told us he was about to put it out. We said, ‘As a single? We’ve got it coming out in just a few weeks.’ That night, he played us another song he was recording, that went, ‘Country roads, take me home.’ We told him, ‘You’ll probably be fine with that one.’ ”
Béla Fleck
Banjo maestro Béla Fleck has been nominated in more categories than anyone in Grammy history. This year, the man who first came to attention as part of Newgrass Revival is nominated in the world music, pop and classical categories.
“I happened to fall in love with the banjo,” Fleck said. “And everyone who has ever accomplished something on banjo has done something different, from Earl Scruggs to Don Reno to Bill Keith to Bobby Thompson. They all came up with something new.”
Fleck’s Throw Down Your Heart album found him exploring the banjo’s African roots. That album’s music is nominated in the world music album and pop instrumental categories.
James Slater
James Slater wasn’t thinking “radio hit” or “Grammy nomination” when he co-wrote “High Cost of Living” with Jamey Johnson.
“I had that idea for the title, and I knew Jamey was the guy to write it with,” Slater said. “We wrote some things, and then he came back with a verse about ‘cocaine and a whore.’ I said to him, ‘Well, there goes our radio hit.’
“But this song wasn’t about having a hit. It was about trying to tell the truth.”
