DeWitt Clinton

It’s official. After analyzing this year’s list of Grammy winners, Breakdown concludes that being an independent musician is not necessarily the best route to a victory at the Recording Academy’s annual show. Out of 105 possible categories, only 6 independent artists won an award (for a total of 8 overall). Considering the amount of brilliant independent music released in 2003, one has to speculate that an artist’s affilliation with the Recording Industry Association of America must factor into the voting process. And not to be overly cynical, but two of those winners were only given the award because they sadly passed away this year (June Carter Cash and Warren Zevon), and one of them won not for her music, but for her album’s packaging (Ani DiFranco). Thus the only living independent Grammy winners for music this year were Joan Sebastian, Black Eagle, and The Monks Of Sherab Ling Monastery. And you can bet that if there were any Native Americans or Buddhist monks signed to Sony, the list would be even shorter for independent artists.

The independent winners, listed here in their entirety, are:

Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal
(For duo, group or collaborative performances, with vocals. Singles or Tracks only.)
Disorder In The House
Warren Zevon & Bruce Springsteen
Track from: The Wind
[Artemis Records]

Best Female Country Vocal Performance
(For a solo vocal performance. Singles or Tracks only.)
Keep On The Sunny Side
June Carter Cash
Track from: Wildwood Flower
[Dualtone Music Group]

Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album
(Vocal or Instrumental.)
Afortunado
Joan Sebastian
[Musart/Balboa Records]

Best Traditional Folk Album
(Vocal or Instrumental.)
Wildwood Flower
June Carter Cash
[Dualtone Music Group]

Best Contemporary Folk Album
(Vocal or Instrumental.)
The Wind
Warren Zevon
[Artemis Records]

Best Native American Music Album
(Vocal or Instrumental.)
Flying Free
Black Eagle
[Soar]

Best Traditional World Music Album
(Vocal or Instrumental.)
Sacred Tibetan Chant
The Monks Of Sherab Ling Monastery
[Naxos World]

Best Recording Package
Evolve
Ani DiFranco & Brian Grunert, art directors (Ani DiFranco)
[Righteous Babe Records]

This entry was posted on Monday, February 9th, 2004 by DeWitt Clinton and is filed under breakdown. You can bookmark this post at del.icio.us. You can digg this post. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.