Steve Earle and Levon Helm Win Folk Grammys

February 15, 2008

Steve Earle picked up a statue for Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album for Washington Square Serenade and Levon Helm was honored for Dirt Farmer in the Best Traditional Folk Album category at the 50th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Other interesting wins of note included Herbie Hancock winning Album of the Year for his jazzy tribute to Joni Mitchell, Country megastar Brad Paisley beating out a lot of good trad players to win Best Country Instrumental Performance with an electric guitar, and Terrance Simien & the Zydeco Experience winning the first award presented for Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album (pulling those two genres out of Folk and/or World). Earl Scruggs and The Band were among those honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards.

More Grammy wins by Folk Alley artists (there are 110 Grammy categories - no joke):
Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals - Gone, Gone, Gone, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Best Pop Instrumental Perfomance - One Week Last Summer, Joni Mitchell
Best Country Collaboration with Vocals - Lost Highway, Willie Nelson & Ray Price
Best Bluegrass Album - The Bluegrass Diaries, Jim Lauderdale
Best New Age Album - Crestone, Paul Winter Consort
Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel Album - Salt of the Earth, Ricky Skaggs & The Whites
Best Native American Music Album - Totemic Flute Chants, Johnny Whitehorse
Best Hawaiian Music Album - Treasures of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar, Various
Best Traditional World Music Album - African Spirit, Soweto Gospel Choir
Best Contemporary World Music Album - Djin Djin, Angelique Kidjo
Best Polka Album - Come Share The Wine, Jimmy Sturr and his Orchestra
Best Comedy Album - The Distant Future, Flight of the Conchords
Best Historical Album - The Live Wire-Woody Guthrie in Performance 1949, Woody Guthrie
Best Classical Crossover Album - A Love Supreme: The Legacy of John Coltrane, Turtle Island String Quartet
Best Short Form Music Video - God's Gonna Cut You Down, Johnny Cash