Post Grammy Ramblings - Part 2

So the day after the GRAMMY awards I asked everyone I ran into to explain the Carrie Underwood / Rascal Flatts Performance. The press release on grammy.com said it was a tribute to country rock. Between them they did one Bob Wills song and 3 Eagles songs. The music alone ran just under 11 minutes.

First question: What part of Bob Wills rocked?

Second question: What's with the 3 to 1 ratio?

I have more questions but I'll stop there. I finally learned - thanks only to a SONY BMG prep sheet because no one I talked to got it - that it was a "salute to Lifetime Achievement honoree Bob Wills and MusiCares Person of the Year Don Henley."

In other words - nothing whatsoever to do with country rock.

Third question: How did these two artists get chosen to sing these four songs?

Fourth question: What's with the 3 to 1 ratio?

Seriously. I didn't see the segment on tv, but I did listen to it in the XM archives. I'm told Reba introduced the segment. Raise your hand if you think Reba would have rocked on that Bob Wills song. Now raise your hand if you would have rather heard Carrie let those pipes loose on one of her own mega hits. Next show of hands - everyone who thought 3 Eagles songs was 2 too many.

I knew I liked y'all.

Don Henley had his own tribute Grammy Week- a completely separate event - and I don't believe either RF or Carrie were a part of it. Raise your hands if you'd have rather heard Trisha singing a Don Henley song like she did at the event. Ok, those of you who only raised your hands because you wanted to oogle her husband sitting in the audience, put your hand down and go stand in the corner.

The whole thing just makes no sense. It's not like anyone's suddenly going to go "OMG! Who knew that the Eagles songs were so GREAT! I'm going to run out and buy my first Eagles album tomorrow!" Who did that segment benefit? Not Carrie... not Rascal Flatts... Don Henley isn't exactly hurting for royalty checks. The least they could have done was share the wealth - have several different performers. Performers who actually have a connection to the artists they're honoring. (Raise your hand if you hear "Eagles" and think "Rascal Flatts." Didn't think so.)

Or better yet - let people do material that's right for them, don't force them to sing something out of their range or comfort zone just because that's the only way they can get on national television. When you have the best selling CD in any genre of music, you shouldn't have to pimp yourself to get a performance slot.

Ok, on to next thing that made no sense to me. I told you this morning about Vince's quote to a Nashville newspaper, cutting down people who are nominated but don't show up. (Read the blog entry below this one if you missed it.) Yet he told an Illinois newspaper that he wasn't going to be there this year so that he could spend another night at home with his girls before going out on tour.

Which is fine and all... sometimes you have better things to do than show up at awards shows. But shouldn't you have thought about that before you bad mouthed people who might be doing exactly what you yourself were doing? How do you know why other people don't show up? Could be that they had a much better reason than you for not being there.

The full Vince interview is found here, it's a really good read, if you cut out the little segment of hypocrisy.

I think I'm done Grammy rambling now. If you really want some DC controversy check out Jon Anthony's MySpace page. Thanks to everyone who commented over on my post on the XM Grammy Blog, they updated it today so I could see everyone's responses. Corporate was very excited by the country participation. Y'all rock!

(But that doesn't mean I want to hear y'all singing "Tequila Sunrise" ok?)