Plant And Krauss Nab Five Grammys

The Dynamic Duo's Wins Include Record Of The Year And Album Of The Year

(AP)  The 51st annual Grammys was an all-ages affair ultimately dominated by a rock legend who took up with a younger bluegrass singer on a whim.

The unlikely pairing of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss that produced the hit album "Raising Sand" won five Grammys on Sunday including album of the year. The former Led Zeppelin frontman, previously best known for his high-decibel shrieking and rock star theatrics, found more docile Nashville melodies with Krauss.

While accepting the Grammy for album of the year, the 37-year-old Krauss - perhaps wanting to remind the audience that Plant's rock star hadn't entirely matured - said there's "never a dull moment" with the 60-year-old singer.

"Raising Sand," produced by T Bone Burnett, bested fellow nominees Lil Wayne, Ne-Yo, Coldplay and Radiohead. Their "Please Read the Letter" also won record of the year.

"I'm bewildered," said Plant. "In the old days we would have called this selling out, but I think it's a good way to spend a Sunday."

---

Photos: Grammy Winners

---

In a performance-stuffed live broadcast on CBS, the subject of age - and intertwining musical realms - was always close at hand.

Taylor Swift, 19, and Miley Cyrus, 16, sang a duet of Swift's "Fifteen." The 66-year-old Paul McCartney, with 40-year-old Dave Grohl on drums, sang the Beatles classic about a girl who "was just 17."

Stevie Wonder performed with the Jonas Brothers and even a nine-months pregnant woman - the rapper M.I.A. - hobbled out on the stage to join the dapperly dressed Jay-Z, Kanye West, Lil Wayne and T.I. in a "rap summit" performance of T.I.'s "Swagger Like Us."

---

Photos: On The Grammy Stage

---

Before the night's end, Plant and Krauss seemed to be in a three-horse race with Lil Wayne and Coldplay - a trio of acts of wildly different sounds.

Lil Wayne - who led the field with eight nominations - won three awards, including best rap album for "Tha Carter III," for which he literally hopped on stage to receive. (His tally came to four Grammys if you count his inclusion on "Swagger Like Us," which won best rap performance by a duo or group.)

Coldplay also took home three awards, including best rock album for "Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends."

"We've never had so many Grammys in our life," said lead singer Chris Martin, perhaps so excited he got confused (they had already won four over the years). "We feel so grateful to be here. I'm going to tear up."

---

Photos: On The Red Carpet

---

The Grammys this year offered a CBS telecast without a host and -
unexpectedly - without several performers.

Rihanna and Chris Brown, both nominated for awards and scheduled to perform, were absent after the Los Angeles Police Department announced that Brown - who is dating Rihanna - was the subject of an investigation into a felony domestic violence battery from around 12:30 a.m. Sunday.

Brown turned himself into police late Sunday and was released after posting bail. Police booked the 19-year-old R&B singer on suspicion of making a criminal threat.

To fill in for Rihanna's scheduled performance, the Recording Academy hastily put together an ensemble of Al Green, Justin Timberlake, Boyz II Men and Keith Urban performing Green's "Let's Stay Together."

One of the night's superior performances, it reflected the comments of producer T. Bone Burnett, who explained while accepting the award for record of the year: "Good things happen out of nowhere."

"Things happen; you have to be nimble," said Recording Academy president Neil Portnow after the show, explaining he didn't know of the absences until Sunday afternoon. "We think to ourselves, we've got the greatest musical talent in the world in the same place at the same time."

The broadcast from the Staples Center in Los Angeles sometimes had the appearance of a bubble. No mention was made of economic troubles across the country or of the music industry's continuing declining sales. Though download sales are rising, album sales dropped 14 percent last year.

Even the election of Barack Obama was hardly referred to. Following the inauguration and the Super Bowl, it was just about the only major broadcast of late not to feature Bruce Springsteen, whose "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" won for best rock song.

Besides the expected will.i.am mention of Obama ("congratulations," will.i.am said), Portnow was one of few to mention Obama. He noted musicians had supplied "the soundtrack to history" and that the new president is, after all, a two-time Grammy winner for his readings of his books.

Such awards, though, never make it into the televised broadcast, which this year included awards for only a dozen of the 110 categories.

Among the unseen awards was a posthumous award for George Carlin in the comedy album category for "It's Bad for Ya," a recording of his final HBO comedy special. Al Gore - adding to his extensive awards tally - won for the audio book of his "An Inconvenient Truth."

Instead of focusing on the awards, though, the Recording Academy has increasingly turned the Grammys into an all-star revue, packing the three-and-a-half-hour long show with performance after performance, duet after duet.

Among them: U2 kicking things off with their new single "Get on Your Boots"; Lil Wayne and Allen Toussaint paying tribute to New Orleans; Neil Diamond singing "Sweet Caroline"; Radiohead performing with the University of Southern California marching band; Jay-Z joining Coldplay; a tribute to the Four Tops; and Jennifer Hudson singing a rousing, touching version of "You Pulled Me Through" that left her teary-eyed.

Following the Super Bowl, it was Hudson's second major performance since her mother, brother and nephew were killed in October. Hudson's self-titled disc also won best R&B album.

"I first would like to thank God, who has brought me through," she said accepting the award. "I would like to thank my family in heaven and those who are with me today."

The Grammys also sought to tap into online traffic with official updates on Twitter and Facebook throughout the broadcast.

There were some oddities in the show, too:

Gwyneth Paltrow introduced not the giant British rock group that her husband, Chris Martin, plays in (Coldplay), but the giant British rock band they have often been compared to (Radiohead). Introducing the Al Green performance, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson curiously declared, "I live for the Grammys." Katy Perry, again singing her hit "I Kissed a Girl," performed a choreographed routine while simultaneously appearing to disdain choreographed routines.

Other notable winners included: Rick Rubin for producer of the year; Adele for best female pop vocal performance ("Chasing Pavements"); Duffy for best pop vocal album ("Rockferry"); Radiohead for best alternative music album ("In Rainbows"); Metallica for best metal performance ("My Apocalypse"); Al Green for best R&B performance by a duo or group with vocals, and best traditional R&B vocal performance; Daft Punk for best dance recording, and best electronic dance album; George Strait for best country album ("Troubadour"); and B.B. King for best traditional blues album ("One Kind Favor").

A complete list of winners is available at www.grammy.com.

Following last year's surprise best album winner - Herbie Hancock's Joni Mitchell tribute "River: The Joni Letters" - the Grammys have now picked a folk album for best album a year after choosing a jazz record.

Krauss is the most decorated female artist in Grammy history with 26 awards. Burnett has known Grammy glory before, too, most notably as producer of the best-album winning soundtrack to "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

Led Zeppelin, which was given a lifetime achievement Grammy in 2005, was never otherwise honored by the Recording Academy.

[erasmus606]

Most of what passes as popular music these days could be better used for torture purposes at Guantanamo.

Oh My GOD - I''''ve become my PARENTS!!!


Posted by usclimey at 12:52 PM : Feb 09, 2009

Haha, scary huh?

[valentin73]

ITS ALL PROPAGANDA PEOPLE, MOSTLY ITS POP ARTISTS WHO GET THIS AWARD ANYWAY, VERY FEW JAZZ ARTISTS ARE RECOGNIZED.
AWARDS SHOULD NOT BE BASED ON RECORD SALES ALONE. OR FOR THAT MATTER CD SALES, BUT ON TALENT.
PEOPLE SHOULD VOTE ON THIS MATTER...
GRAMMY AWARDS ARE NOTHING BUT PROPAGANDA!!!!!!!!!1

[citizenusa-2009]

The pregnant girl dressed in a skin tight black and white outfit looked like a swollen tick. Yuk! We nearly threw up our dinner when she was on stage!

[dagrandma]

What the hell has Allison Krauss done to herself? She used to be this adorable singer and fiddle player. Now she looks like she just stepped out of The Spears/Simpson Sisters Finishing School.

[daisie7388]

I thought it absurd to have the jonas Brothers and Stevie Wonder on stage at the sametime. Stevie should have been in better company.

Who ever told Mylie and Taylor they could sing.....please.

[rushuugly]

Robert Plant acts like he just found folk music, is he suffering from Demenita?

Led Zeppelin III marked a change in focus for the band from late 1960s hard rock to a more folk rock or electric folk and acoustic inspired sound


whilst the acoustic material was criticised by others for merely imitating the music of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Page commented that this comparison was unwarranted, stating in an interview he gave to Cameron Crowe that

when the third LP came out and got its reviews, Crosby, Stills and Nash had just formed. That LP had just come out and because acoustic guitars had come to the forefront all of a sudden: LED ZEPPELIN GO ACOUSTIC! I thought, Christ, where are their heads and ears? There were three acoustic songs on the first album and two on the second.

Page has also said that the negative press given to the third album affected


Jimmy Page %u2013 acoustic guitar, electric guitar, pedal steel guitar, backing vocals, banjo, Dulcimer, Mandolin
Robert Plant %u2013 vocals, harmonica
John Paul Jones %u2013 bass, organ, synths, mandolin, backing vocals
John Bonham %u2013 drums, percussion, backing vocals

[rushuugly]

Led Zeppelin III has better folk songs on the album than the Plant/Krauss effort

I do like a few songs from Raising Sands but album of the year, seriously even though I''m a Robert Plant Led Zeppelin fan that album is overrated.

And how ironic Led Zeppelins only grammy was a life time achievement award the band recieved from the RA back in 2005.

No doubt there''s some good new talent in the music industry but these award shows prove how rigged the system really is.

[bobnjersey]

[Led Zeppelin, which was given a lifetime achievement Grammy in 2005, was never otherwise honored by the Recording Academy. ]

wow ... what does this say about these awards?

[bobnjersey]

[No mention was made of economic troubles across the country or of the music industry''s continuing declining sales. Though download sales are rising, album sales dropped 14 percent last year. ]

hmmm ... the claim a couple of years ago was that it was all the illegal downloads that were depressing album sales. what happened to this theory?

[tngreen]

"No mention was made of ... the music industry''s continuing declining sales."

Let''s see, the industry has a handful of labels turning out cookie-cutter "artists" (I use that word loosely) and uninspired music--yeah, that''ll get you declining sales. I have one word for the industry: DISCO. And as a counterpoint, another word: GRUNGE, the music that saved the industry. Take some risks, sign some creative, edgy musicians, give them the support they need, and things might change. As it stands, I haven''t listened to music on the radio in at least 2 years and thus don''t know most of the names mentioned in this article. Any time I''ve made the attempt, I lasted about 30 seconds before I popped in a CD. I think it says volumes that the big winners yesterday were an aging musician from the golden age of rock, and a bluegrass singer--two people coming from musical traditions with deep roots.

[usclimey]

Most of what passes as popular music these days could be better used for torture purposes at Guantanamo.

Oh My GOD - I''ve become my PARENTS!!!

[cntrymuzksux]

As a fan of both Alison and Robert I think they made a great duo and deserved what they got.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by maypo402t at 12:17 PM : Feb 09, 2009

The problem is, relative to music especially, so many people are either stuck in a time warp or their history only extends to last week.

[citizenusa-2009]

Like I said. What a waste of air time. Between the endless commercials they force down our throats (22 per break), and the lame "talent" that''s presented, I don''t know who could sit through the whole thing...oh, yeah, people that are bed and wheel chair bound who can''t actually get away from their TV sets, and can''t reach the remote..

[maypo]

As a fan of both Alison and Robert I think they made a great duo and deserved what they got.

[claytonantho]

Chris Brown and long-time girlfriend Rihanna, each nominated and slated to perform, separately dropped out of the Grammys at the last minute and their whereabouts were not immediately known Sunday night. The victim of Brown''s alleged assault wasn''t identified, and it wasn''t immediately clear whether Rihanna''s absence was related to Brown''s.


This story probably would be somewhat interesting if I knew who either of them were. Are we supposed to forget the days of Aretha Franklin and Luther Vandross because of these one-hit and maybe two-hit wonders???

[claytonantho]

You mean to tell me that the Grammy''s is still being shown once a year??? I thought the Grammy''s was over when Michael Jackson did his last performance on it during the 1980s. What a waste of television time. Now, let me get back to watching my reruns of Sanford and Son.

[blogthis1]

*** is wrong with Robert Plant? When did he turn into such a loser??? He won''t do a Led Zepplin tour but he will sing this sappy *** with her? He is an embarressment to Rock

[cntrymuzksux]

i haven''''t watched the Grammys in twenty years. Every performance in lip-synched. There really isn''''t a lot of talent out there, take away the recording studio and most of these people couldn''''t carry a note in a bucket, and that''''s a fact.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by Lemonskink at 11:42 PM : Feb 08, 2009

I don''t know that I''ve gone twenty years without watching a Grammy ceremony but I can''t recall the last time I did watch. I don''t think I''ve even watched one the whole way through. I''ve pretty much given up on commercial radio because the pap they regurgitate over and over. Playlists nowadays are so narrow and limited. The only reason I could think of to give any creedence to these award shows is to skim the list of nominees to see if I may have missed a chance to give an artist a listen. As a fan of Booker T. & the M.G.''s, Steve Cropper would fall into that category.

[shawnp1968]

A strange grammys indeed....whitney wasn''''t high or drunk....Posted by timbuckthree ---------------------------

That is up for debate!!! Whitney looked and sounded like she was under the influence of "something" She definitely wasn''t sober!!!
And, although Alison Krauss and Robert Plant are talented musicians..... they had absolutely no business winning Album of the Year!!! I''d be willing to bet that less than 10% of the people watching the Grammy''s last night had even heard their music before last night!!! What a shame, that even the Grammy''s have become an untrustworthy institution! No different then Wall Street or Enron!!!

[jon_mccain]

How many Grammys did Al Gore or Barack Obama get?

Posted by Eliphord

They were in the running, but lost out to condoleezza Rice''s tear jerking performance of Mammy.