Grammy '99 Preview
by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Feb. 22, 1999) --This year you can't even blame the Grammys. The mediocrity of the vast majority of this year's Grammy Award nominees is simply a reflection of what is widely acknowledged to have been a mediocre year for commercial pop music.

Bland, generic pop music ruled the charts last year, ranging from Celine Dion's "Titanic"-derived hits to Shania Twain's crossover country-pop, and the 41st annual Grammy Award ceremony, broadcast on CBS-TV on Wednesday night, Feb. 24 at 8 and on the Internet at http://www.grammy.com, will reflect that.

This isn't to say that there wasn't any music of original value released in the eligibility period for this week's awards, which runs from October 1997 to October 1998. The highly-touted Lauryn Hill, a member of the hit group the Fugees, deserves every nomination she received for her solo debut, "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill," a marvelous throwback to classic-era Stevie Wonder that was nominated for best album and best female pop vocal performance, among others.

Sheryl Crow, too, released what is perhaps the best album of her young career, "The Globe Sessions," and goes into the Grammys as a favorite to garner at least one award out of the several for which she was nominated, including best album, best female pop vocal, best female rock vocal, best rock album and best producer.

But frankly, it's hard to get too excited about a best album field that, in addition to Crow and Hill, includes Madonna, Garbage and Shania Twain. There's just nothing to really root for in that crowd: no obvious underdog, no critical darling (other than, perhaps, Hill), no sentimental favorite. There isn't even an obvious front-runner to root against.

The same goes for the record of the year category, which pits Madonna and Twain against the Goo Goo Dolls, Celine Dion and the duo of Brandy and Monica. Pardon me while I stifle my yawn. Can anyone hum the best-selling tunes sung by these artists this year? Would anyone want to?

The nominees in the best female rock vocal category might stir some backroom handicapping, with Crow vying for the award against a hefty field of female powerhouses including Tori Amos, Alanis Morissette, Ani DiFranco and Lucinda Williams. The inclusion of these last two singers is a bit unusual. How DiFranco wound up in the rock category is a mystery, as it is usually reserved for corporate voices like Morissette, and DiFranco's independent streak and protest-minded lyrics have "folk" music written all over them. Of course, DiFranco hasn't a chance in heck to win.

As for Williams, she is indeed the best female rock singer in the business, but then why was her critically-acclaimed album, "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road," nominated in the best contemporary folk album category?

For that matter, why did any of the albums nominated for best contemporary folk album wind up where they did? With the exception perhaps of Lyle Lovett's "Step Inside This House," all the nominees, including Billy Bragg and Wilco's "Mermaid Avenue," Steve Earle's "El Corazon" and Emmylou Harris's "Spyboy," are country-flavored, roots-rock albums. Any or all of them deserved to be nominated for best rock album, as much as, say, John Fogerty deserved to be nominated for "Premonition." But this is typical Grammy Award idiocy, and if you spend too much time thinking about this sort of thing, you might just do like Elvis and shoot your TV set.

Categories to watch closely include the award for best country collaboration with vocals, in which Clint Black, Joe Diffie, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Patty Loveless, Earl Scruggs, Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart, Pam Tillis, Randy Travis, Travis Tritt and Dwight Yoakam all share one nomination for the song "Same Old Train." If the song wins, who gets to keep the trophy? And how come Garth Brooks wasn't invited to that recording session?

What year is this that the nominees for best musical show album include "Cabaret," "Chicago," "Ragtime" and "The Wizard of Oz"?

How did rock artist Robbie Robertson, the former leader of The Band, get a nomination for best world music album? Well, he does live in the world, I guess, although watching "The Last Waltz," you couldn't always tell which world.

No, in the end, these are some very bland nominations for a very bland year in music. As for me, I won't even be watching -- I'll be off at a concert by one of the nominees for best country song, a songwriter's award. Guess who?

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[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Feb. 23, 1999. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1999. All rights reserved.]