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Country Grammy Winners

Editor, Marc Greilsamer

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Faith Hill took home three big awards at the 43rd Grammy Awards, pacing the country music field as she has throughout the past two years. Hill's success was to be expected, but the night always boasts its share of surprising and downright odd choices--like, for example, Shelby Lynne taking home a major award for Best New Artist. I Am Shelby Lynne is indeed a wonderfully original country-soul album; on the other hand, Lynne was a Nashville recording artist more than a decade ago! Here is a list of the top winners in country, along with our thoughts (and in some cases, our own choices).

Best Female Country Vocal Performance
Winner:

 Breathe
Faith Hill
 "Breathe": The smoldering title track to Hill's multiplatinum smash album benefitted from a sultry vocal performance and a seductive video to boot. For Hill, this victory follows last year's CMA award for Female Vocalist of the Year and her ACM award for Top Female Vocalist. Hill's star is on the rise and her first-ever Grammy nod is an indication that more accolades may be in store for the Mississippian.

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The Grass Is Blue
Dolly Parton
 "Travelin' Prayer": On paper it seems unlikely, but Dolly Parton's roaring version of a nearly 30-year-old Billy Joel song opens The Grass Is Blue in impressive fashion. Atop soaring fiddle and rippling banjo, Parton tears into the tune like gangbusters. For her to have even seen the possibilities of this song as a bluegrass burner is worth commending in and of itself.

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Best Male Country Vocal Performance
Winner:

 American III: Solitary Man
Johnny Cash
 "Solitary Man": Once you saw he was nominated, you just knew that Cash would take home this award. The Grammy folks love to give the nod to legends whose time may not be long. Of course, Cash is absolutely deserving. His voice may not have the resonance it once did, but its emotional force remains unaffected.

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dwightyoakamacoustic.net
Dwight Yoakam
 "A Thousand Miles from Nowhere": As much as we love Cash's whole album, we're giving the nod to Dwight Yoakam here. Yoakam was inspired to do an all-acoustic solo project because of the warm reception fans gave to the acoustic sets during his shows. The result is the most intimate album of Yoakam's career and one of the best country albums of the year, one that puts the focus squarely on his passionate, mournful voice and his classic country compositions.

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Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
Winner:

 Ride With Bob
Asleep At The Wheel
 "Cherokee Maiden": In reality, Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel have been paying tribute to Bob Wills throughout their entire career, even if their records haven't explicitly said so. Their second homage to Wills helped focus much deserved attention on the man's enduring music and introduced a whole new audience to the wonderful world of Western swing.

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Oddly enough, "Cherokee Maiden" was the only song on Ride with Bob that did not feature a special guest artist. Instead, Benson and crew carry the day themselves, showcasing the crack instrumental skills that are central to Western swing's appeal. And any opportunity to celebrate Wills's legacy should be taken.


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Best Country Collaboration with Vocals
Winner:

 Breathe
Faith Hill
 "Let's Make Love" (duet with Tim McGraw): Let's face it. George Jones and Tammy Wynette may always be the President and First Lady of country music, but these days Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are the dominant forces in the genre's mainstream wing. Considering this, it's hardly surprising that this husband-and-wife duet took home the prize for Country Collaboration. The track, which also appears on McGraw's Greatest Hits, is quite a steamy ballad indeed.

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Latest Greatest Straitest Hits
George Strait
 "Murder on Music Row" (duet with Alan Jackson): This song created quite a stir in Nashville for its condemnation of the country music machine. Strait and Jackson, two of country's leading traditionalists, take the industry to task for mixing out the fiddles and steels while mixing in the rock drums. Thus we have a case where the industry is rewarding the artists for bashing the industry. Fair enough, though one could make the case that Strait himself hasn't been immune to commercial pressures in recent years. This track, however, is an instant classic.

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Best Country Instrumental Performance
Winner:

 Fair Weather
Alison Brown
 "Leaving Cottondale" (with Béla Fleck): Banjo wiz Alison Brown teams up with one of her primary musical influences and takes home an award in one of the night's biggest surprises. "Leaving Cottondale" was actually first recorded for Brown's debut album, 1990's Simple Pleasures, but the furiously paced new version is truly a head-turner.

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With her sixth release, Brown returns to her bluegrass roots--which, for someone of her generation, includes both traditional breakdowns and more progressive, jazz- and classical-influenced compositions. It's nice to see this veteran banjo picker given her just rewards. "Leaving Cottondale" is only one of many terrific tunes on the diverse album, which boasts a cadre of talented guest pickers and singers.


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Best Country Song
Winner:

 I Hope You Dance [ECD]
Lee Ann Womack
 "I Hope You Dance" (Mark D. Sanders and Tia Sellers, songwriters): The title track to Womack's third album had this Grammy sewn up the day it hit the airwaves last spring. Its majestic, if not grandiose sound captured the attention of country fans immediately, and its enjoy-life-while-you-can lyrical message captured their imagination just as fast.

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Womack's song beat out a pair of Faith Hill numbers plus lightweight entries from Vince Gill and Billy Gilman. We give the nod to Womack's song as well in a particularly weak field that tends to highlight the melodramatic.


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Best Country Album
Winner:

 Breathe
Faith Hill
 Hill's third award of the evening capped an incredibly prosperous year for this country crossover star. While fans debate how "country" Hill's music really is--is she a pop diva in country clothes?--her albums continue to sell like mad and her fandom grows bigger by the hour. Wednesday night's triumphs will only help her build momentum for the future as she looks to challenge Shania for the title of crossover queen.

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Real Live Woman
Trisha Yearwood
 It's difficult for Yearwood to compete with the Hills and Twains of the world when she sticks to mature, heartfelt music of the sort that permeates Real Live Woman. The Georgia-born belter with the perfect pitch has always shown an affinity for the music of her idol, Linda Ronstadt. Like Ronstadt, she deftly and tastefully blends elements of pop and country while finding material from unexpected sources. On her eighth album, Yearwood sounds as gritty and gutsy as she ever has.

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Best Bluegrass Album
Winner:

 The Grass Is Blue
Dolly Parton
 The Tennessee-born Parton brings home the hardware for her very first full-fledged bluegrass release. The move to bluegrass is a natural progression for a singer who never lost sight of her mountain roots even as she detoured into the glitz and ritz of pop stardom.

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Buttressed by some of the most respected pickers in bluegrass, Parton's vibrant, willowy voice makes a seamless transition to the idiom and delivers a superb album. Along the way she covers her own material (including brand-new compositions and old favorites) and the songs of other artists ranging from Flatt & Scruggs, the Louvin Brothers, and Hazel Dickens to Johnny Cash, Billy Joel, and Southern rockers Blackfoot.


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All Grammy Winners
So after all the hype and big-name performances, did the 43rd annual Grammy Awards live up to your expectations? Check out all the nominees and winners on our Grammys page.

Complete list of Grammy nominees and winners


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Updated 27 Feb 2001