’09 Grammy Awards…Hmmm…

Watching the 51st Grammy Awards marathon broadcast last night brought about a few, shall we say…impressions.

In the “out of the blue” category, the unlikely pairing of an aging rock front-man and the queen of bluegrass dominated the evening. The album Raising Sand from Robert Plant and Allison Krause took home five awards, including album of the year.

Robert Plant? Led Zeppelin?

Bottom line here – and similar to last year’s surprise – we like seeing albums that are a bit off the mainstream big-selling hype machine earn some recognition. This is a good thing for working musicians out there and for the music industry as a whole.

Other big winners were more anticipated, including Coldplay with three grammys including best rock album and Lil Wayne with his own trifecta including best rap album.

As for the performances, nothing was in the jaw-droppingly good category, but there were some fine performances. Radiohead performing with the USC marching band…nice! We also liked Al Green and Justin Timberlake doing “Let’s Stay Together”, backed by Boyz II Men and Keith Urban. (Impressive, as this was a last minute fill-in number for the absent Rihanna.)

Until next year…happy listening!