Winners in major categories at the 49th AnnualGrammy Awards:
Album of the Year: “Taking the Long Way,” Dixie Chicks.
Record of the Year: “Not Ready to Make Nice,” Dixie Chicks.
Song of the Year: “Not Ready to Make Nice,” Martie Maguire, Natalie Maines, Emily Robison and Dan Wilson (Dixie Chicks).
New Artist: Carrie Underwood.
Pop Vocal Album: “Continuum,”John Mayer.
Rock Album: […]
Gnarls Barkley’s unlikely but unstoppable crossover continued at the Grammys Sunday night, where the duo won two awards.
The collaboration between Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse won best alternative music album for their “St. Elsewhere” and best urban/alternative performance for the sensational single “Crazy.” Their mature, show-stopping performance of their hit song was also one of […]
The Dixie Chicks completed a defiant comeback, winning five Grammy awards after being shunned by the American country music establishment over the group’s anti-Bush commentsleading up to the Iraq invasion.
The Texas trio won record and song of the year Sunday for the no-regrets anthem “Not Ready to Make Nice.” They also won best country album […]
One of the must-own soul albums, Greatest Hits is fattened with extra tracks in this reissue for a total of 21 songs. Al Green brought the Memphis Sound into the ’70s by slightly softening it, melding smooth funkiness with his miraculous voice and innate sensitivity: his love songs, while perfect for the bedroom, are […]
Fifteen-year-old Jordan Pruitt has the power to reverse charges of fogyism in households across America: The songs on No Ordinary Girl skew heavily teen-ward (check song titles like “Miss Popularity” and “Who Likes Who”), but whether you wear bifocals or a retainer, she’ll reel you in–before you know it you, too, could be singing […]
What began life as an informal street mix-tape project to help launch fledgling Shady Records artists (Stat Quo, Ca$his, Bobby Creekwater, Obie Trice, and producer The Alchemist) has now become an official release. Flowing fairly randomly from track to track, the project, perhaps surprisingly for such a high profile outing, retains its original mixtape […]
If there ever was a farewell album could make one long for a reunion, this is it. Crowed House had their own personal hegemony of the airwaves in the ’80s and ’90s, and their final show on the steps of Sydney’s Opera Plaza in 1996 shows you exactly why. This two-CD package overachieves as […]
Although the music of Norah Jones continues to blend pop, soul, folk, and country with a seasoning of jazz, her third album for Blue Note is the first where she’s written (or collaborated on) all the material. Beneath the smooth surface lie darker strains on the album-opening “Wish I Could” (about a boyfriend lost […]
Johnny Mathis’s 2006 return to the spotlight was richly deserved, not because his career needed resurrecting–he’s continued touring and recording for breathless fans well into his seventh decade–but because post-boomer generations shouldn’t be allowed to roam the world asking “Johnny Who?” when his name gets mentioned. Mathis is that important an artist, and this […]
From 1938, until his death in 1967, composer/arranger/pianist Billy Strayhorn was so entwined with Duke Ellington that musicologists are still trying to figure out where the former ends and the latter begins. On this companion soundtrack to the PBS documentary, pianists Bill Charlap and Hank Jones display their solo chops on the stridish “Fantastic […]
Mary J. fans are about as likely to put up with chain-pulling as the queen of hip-hop soul herself–which is why a good many of them have been quick to point out that this disc, exceptional as it is, doesn’t quite equal a greatest hits package. Where among these favorites are biggies such as […]
It wasn’t long ago that people were bemoaning a paucity of visible male jazz singers. Now, with the emergence of slick young vocalists like Michael Buble and Jamie Cullum and the continued success of more mature artists like Kurt Elling, Kevin Mahogany, and Harry Connick, Jr., the field is getting a bit crowded. But […]
In My Songs is soul man Gerald LeVert’s final farewell, a collection of vintage-sounding R&B equal to any of the discs he put out in his 20-year career. Only, of course, sadder: Prior to track one, Gerald’s legendary father, the O’Jay’s Eddie LeVert, reminisces momentarily about the months leading up to this album and […]
Concept discs tend to go one of two ways–they dance around a theme, causing listeners to draw their own conclusions about how well the album hangs together, or they come on strong. Sax man Dave Koz’s At the Movies floats mellifluously into the second category. From the moment Judy Garland’s voice comes keening through […]
