Singer-songwriter John Prine can’t believe how popular he is now at 72
Sarah Burke here from SiriusXM Canada.
As you know, we gather every Sunday in the name of Americana Music, to both worship our founders, and preach about new artists that you need to know. This week’s show has a spotlight on the 2019 Grammys which are this Sunday! The show airs before the event so the focus is on the nominees, after all, a Grammy nod is a Grammy nod!
Hear Sunday Service: 9 am / 9 pm ET on SiriusXM’s North Americana
Sunday, February 10th, 2018:
- John Prine – Knockin’ On Your Screen Door
- Kacey Musgraves – Slow Burn
- Willie Nelson – Last Man Standing
- Margo Price – All American Made
- Iron and Wine – Waves of Galveston
- Brandi Carlile – The Joke
- Brothers Osborne – Shoot Me Straight
- Boz Scaggs – Radiator 110
- Mavis Staples – Build A Bridge
- Chris Stapleton – Millionaire
- Buddy Guy – Cognac
- Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit – If We Were Vampires
The 61st Annual Grammy Awards are this Sunday, February 10, 2019, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles recognizing the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the eligibility year. For anyone ALSO wondering, that means October 1, 2017, to September 30, 2018. I’ll highlight the best of the Americana, Folk & Blues categories this weekend.
Congratulations to Brandie Carlile for her six nominations including Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Americana Album. Hear her talk about everything from style to being nominated for six awards:
Kacey Musgraves isn’t far behind with a total of four nominations including a nod for Album of the Year and she’s also performing on the broadcast. Talk about women leading the way… It’s crazy to think just a year ago, she was hardly being played on the radio when she was somewhere between genres finding her voice. Well, she did indeed. At the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles this week, she attended a youth education fundraiser and reflected on being nominated in the mystic ‘Album of the Year’ category:
It’s just a different level, a different kind of compliment. When you are put up in a category with albums that have garnered giant sales numbers and a giant number of spins, you just don’t expect to be put there with them. I know the Recording Academy doesn’t always look at those as the end-all-be-all as factors, but it’s a giant part of it, whether we like it or not. I think I was just surprised, because this record was different for me and you never know how that is going to go down. People want the things that they like to stay how they like them. They like what they know. We could all be guilty of that…
Being in that category, whether I win or not, it makes me feel like all of our work has paid off. The gruelling travel or not seeing my family very much, it makes me feel like my hard work and my team’s hard work is paying off. And it reinforces the notion that people just want to hear songs that they connect with or resonates with them and it doesn’t matter how they hear them, where they hear them, how big those artists are, what genre they come from, what kind of clothes they wear. It gave me hope. It’s a really big compliment.
Remember this?
46 years ago, he was just beginning his career, nominated as Best New Artist at the Grammys when he was 24. Now, with his first album of original music in ten years, John Prine is nominated for three awards this weekend, including Best Americana Album for The Tree of Forgiveness. Funny enough, he’s competing against himself for the other two nods for Best American Roots Song. He says:
The attention the record’s gotten has really knocked me out…That wasn’t something that was totally expected — the fact that it wasn’t just an initial reaction when the record came out, but that it’s stayed throughout the year, I’m really grateful. It’s a good feeling to have when you’re 72.
Rooting for you, Johnny! I guess if one of your songs loses to another, the sting won’t be as bad anyway…right?
Enjoy the show, and please let me know what you loved, or what you’d like to hear in the future @BurkeTalks on Twitter. Hell, I’ll take your predictions and bet you anything Kacey Musgraves wins Album of the Year…MARK MY WORDS. (If I’m wrong, this will disappear early Monday morning haha).
