Did you miss the Philadelphia region’s nods at the 2021 Grammy Awards?
Though Sunday, March 14’s night at the 2021 Grammy Awards made a destination point of Los Angeles (OK, Seoul, Korea is where BTS performed, but still), you would be a fool to miss an acknowledgment of all things local in the Californian breezes.
The main acknowledgment of Philly (and by extension, I must include upstate Pennsylvania) music is by way of Taylor Swift. Look, I can’t pretend that, over her decade-plus run at the pop, country or dance charts, that I have ever been a fan. She’s been shrill. She’s been obvious. And, she can’t dance. Then, in isolation came her stay-at-home-recordings, folklore and evermore, in a surprise release form. Recorded and written with New Jersey’s Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner of The National, these two C-19 albums flipped her script for me as both sparkling efforts were unusually intimate and subtle in their sonic and lyrical approach.
Sure, she won an Album of the Year award last night, after performing a lovely version of “Cardigan” with Dessner and Antonoff by her side. The award was to be expected, in my book, as it clearly outshone (by way of aesthetic merit and sales) every other album nominated. I mention this here because, Swift’s historic victory – becoming the first woman artist to ever win Album of the Year three times with folklore, then Fearless in 2010 and then again for 1989 in 2016 – wasn’t just overlooked during the Grammys. It was never even brought up by host Trevor Noah, who solely focused on Beyonce’s own historic female Grammy count. I am a Bey devotee for sure, but, credit where credit is deserved. Swift is now tied with only just three other artists on the planet who have won Album of the Year Grammy three times — Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, and Frank Sinatra. Nice.
More Philly in the house came with the nomination of Glenolden, PA’s late great blues icon Frank Bey for Best Traditional Blues Album. Yes, he lost, the big prize, but it is still a bittersweet bit of acclaim for the blues cat who passed away in June 2020 at the age of 74. If you don’t know Bey, get to it. Not only did he play behind singers such as Otis Redding and James Brown in his time. He’s got a sharp slate of his own releases dating back to the mid-70s, such as Steppin’ Out and Blues in the Pocket). His 2020 album, All My Dues Are Paid, should have taken the prize. And he’s got an upcoming documentary about his life, “Frank Bey: You’re Gonna Miss Me” coming up shortly that dosage MAGAZINE and I will surely write up.
Lastly, there is the Silk Sonic pairing of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak whose new single, and its touch of the Sound of Philadelphia-inspired single, “Leave the Door Open,” I wrote about here last week. They made their Grammy showcase debut last night in full-blown matching maroon suits, open-collared shirts, high falsettos and collaborative harmonies as if they were The Delfonics. Dag!
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