Tim O'Brien and John Prine - Grammy Award-winners

February 9, 2006

In a Grammy Award ceremony that seemed to be obsessed with Folk, Bruce Springsteen was called the most representative folk voice today (he earned the Grammy for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for Devils & Dust) and U2 declared itself, "The loudest folk band in the world." The evening was also marked by casual dress and startled winners (Kelly Clarkson should have at least jotted down a few names before leaving the house).

With a contest boasting 105 categories, most of the presentations came, as usual, before the televised portion of the program began. Tim O'Brien won the statuette for Best Traditional Folk Album for Fiddler's Green (the partner of Cornbread Nation) with John Prine was honored for Best Contemporary Folk Album for Fair & Square. Both categories were hotly contested and the prizes richly deserved.

Alison Krauss + Union Station won two Grammys during the pre-show (Best Country Instrumental Performance for Unionhouse Branch and Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for Restless), but the real excitement came when they picked up the prize for Best Country Album during the telecast for Lonely Runs Both Ways. Best Bluegrass Album went to the Del McCoury Band for The Company We Keep and Emmylou Harris won the Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for The Connection.

The only big disappointment for the evening is that there wasn't a performance aspect to the Lifetime Achievement Awards presented, so no songs from or for the Weavers, and Pete Seeger was not in attendance. But neither was David Bowie and they hardly gave Jessye Norman a chance to stand and acknowledge her applause.

Other prizes went to Martin Scorsese's Dylan bio-pic No Direction Home for Best Long Form Music Video, The Complete Library of Congress Recordings by Alan Lomax for Best Historical Album and Best Album Notes (for John Szwed's write-up of Jelly Roll Morton), the Johnny Cash retrospective The Legend for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package, and Songs From the Neighborhood - The Music of Mister Rogers for Best Musical Album for Children.