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Rollin' on the river
In ceremonies held earlier this evening, everyone in the music business was presented with a Grammy. Or so it seemed tonight, anyway. I’m a fan of Amy Winehouse, and I’m glad she won so many awards (and survived her bizarre appearance from London). I’m also happy for Maroon 5, Foo Fighters, the White Stripes, the Chemical Brothers, Alicia Keys and Carrie Underwood and all the other winners.

But checking over the list, I’m even more impressed with some of those who didn’t get to perform on television (and in most cases didn’t even get mentioned). Willie Nelson won a Grammy tonight. Eric Clapton, Steve Earle and Levon Helm won. Ricky Skaggs, the Muppets and Barack Obama all won Grammys in 2008, as did both Madonna and Johnny Cash (for music videos). And Bruce Springsteen won a bunch of them. Hooray for that.

As for the televised portion of the ceremony, some performers are a little too self-important for their own good, no matter how talented everyone thinks they are. I tend to tune out those who are pretentious, overbearing, and proud of carrying huge chips on their shoulders, even if it’s supposedly part of their public persona. Most people’s mothers would be even prouder if they showed a little humility once in awhile. I’m just saying, it would be nice to see someone like, say, Herbie Hancock win Album of the Year instead of the puffed-up new breed. Oh! He did! For his tribute to Joni.

As much as the producers tried to make this into the Alicia-Amy-Kanye show, who is it we will remember when we look back on this night? Tina! I don’t know what Tina was wearing tonight, but she’s sexier now at sixty-plus than she was forty (!) years ago when I saw her live. She sounds magnificent and still dances like a twenty-something (more or less). And she’s still doing some of the same material I saw in the UCSB gym when she sang “Proud Mary” with Ike and the Ikettes, although this time it’s a duet with Beyoncé. (How cool is it that John Fogerty performed tonight, too! Even though Tina and Beyoncé took his best-known song, he more than held his own with Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis. He actually held them together, I think.)

The only problem with Beyoncé and Tina’s performance: I kept cringing in fear that Tina was going to swing around and knock Beyoncé off the stage and into the audience. I was hoping Ringo and Cyndi Lauper were ready to catch her, just in case.

The world of country music was represented tonight by Carrie Underwood singing a rock song, and Brad Paisley doing a novelty number. All Vince Gill did was accept an award, but he had more country soul just walking on stage and speaking from his heart than anything else that happened on the show. (Plus he had the best line of the night: “I just got an award given to me by a Beatle. Have you had that happen yet, Kanye?”)

In spite of anything I said above, by the way, I should report that I get chills every time I hear Alicia Keys sing “No One.” And she totally rocked it tonight.

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