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Micheal Ledbetter

Photo: Courtesy of The Blues Foundation

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Blues Music Awards Celebrate The Late Michael Ledbetter & Much More In Memphis

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The 40th annual Blues Foundation event saw touching tributes, spontaneous moments and electrifying performances
Mark Jordan
GRAMMYs
May 14, 2019 - 10:53 am

The blues music community gathered at the Cook Convention Center in Memphis, Tenn., on May 9 to recognize excellence in the genre. It was at the 40th anniversary of the Blues Foundation’s Blues Music Awards, a milestone the marking of which ordinarily would have dominated the evening. But this year’s ceremony took on an appropriately bittersweet — if no less joyous — tone, with the big winner on the night being a rising young blues vocalist whose career was tragically cut short.

Go Backstage At The Blues Music Awards

Michael Ledbetter, a distant relative of the early 20th century folk blues great Lead Belly, died in January at age 33 from complications from epilepsy. On this night the blues community honored the opera-trained vocalist and guitarist with his first individual BMA wins, including the coveted B.B. King Entertainer of the Year award.

“There’s a lot of people who knew Mike as a great entertainer but his family knew him as a great person and lot of people here tonight have come and said the same thing,” said Ledbetter’s sister Ginger Burroughs, who accepted the award along with their parents and Ledbetter’s partner Kathy Cahoon.

Ledbetter also won best vocalist. His group with guitarist Monster Mike Welch, the Welch-Ledbetter Connection, took home best band.

Ledbetter was on the minds of other winners, many of whom who paid tribute to the Illinois native from the stage, most notably his band mate Welch, who won best guitarist, and traditional male artist winner Nick Moss, with whom Ledbetter started his blues career nearly a decade ago.

“We all miss Mike every day, but I feel like I got a little angel looking over me,” Moss said backstage. “When Mike won that first award, I looked up and said, hey man, got a little bit more in the tank for me.”

Moss almost missed accepting his award; he had been in the lobby looking for his wife’s cell phone and had stopped at the bar when someone came up and told him his name had been called. It was the kind of spontaneous moment that has come to typify this award show over four decades.

“This is one of my favorite events,” said actor, radio host, and member of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers the E Street Band Steven Van Zandt, who returned for the second year to host this year’s awards. “The fact that it’s so crazy. It’s very loose, it’s very spontaneous, and there’s nothing quite like it. But I enjoy that. I enjoy the fact that things are changing constantly and improvising. It’s like the blues.”

Among the night’s other winners were such well-known no shows as Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, who won best blues-rock album for his solo effort Big Bad Blues, as well as Grammy winners Buddy Guy and Ben Harper. Joining them were such blues circuit stars as Shemekia Copeland, who took home two awards, Kenny Neal and Eric Gales, all of whom were present to accept their awards.

Presenters at the show included Grammy nominees Maria Muldaur, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement recipient Steve Cropper, whose Memphis soul band Booker T. & the MGs was inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Blues Hall of Fame the night before in a ceremony co-hosted by GRAMMY winner Dom Flemons, formerly of the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd At The Blues Music Awards

A nearly five-hour long affair, the BMAs were studded with dazzling performances, including an all-star set featuring Copeland, Tony Braunagel, Scot Sunderland, and Kid Anderson, a powerful song featuring best blues/rock artist Gales playing dazzling acoustic guitar and a barn-burning finale with the Reverend Peyton’s Big Band backing saxophonist Mindi Abair, Flemons, Cropper, and Van Zandt in a rendition of “Shake Your Moneymaker,” an Elmore James classic that was also inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame this year.

COMPLETE LIST OF 2019 BLUES MUSIC AWARDS WINNERS:

Acoustic Album
Journeys to the Heart of the Blues, Joe Louis Walker/Bruce Katz/Giles Robson

Acoustic Artist
Rory Block

Album of the Year
America's Child, Shemekia Copeland

B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year
Michael Ledbetter

Band of the Year
Welch-Ledbetter Connection

Best Emerging Artist Album
Free, Amanda Fish

Blues Rock Album
The Big Bad Blues, Billy F. Gibbons

Blues Rock Artist
Eric Gales

Contemporary Blues Album
America's Child, Shemekia Copeland

Contemporary Blues Female Artist
Danielle Nicole

Contemporary Blues Male Artist
Kenny Neal

Instrumentalist-Bass
Danielle Nicole

Instrumentalist-Drums
Cedric Burnside

Instrumentalist-Guitar
Monster Mike Welch

Instrumentalist-Harmonica
Dennis Gruenling

Instrumentalist-Horn
Vanessa Collier

Instrumentalist-Pinetop Perkins Piano Player
Marcia Ball

Instrumentalist-Vocals
Michael Ledbetter

Song of the Year
"No Mercy In This Land," written By Ben Harper and performed by Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite

Soul Blues Album
I'm Still Around, Johnny Rawls

Soul Blues Female Artist
Annika Chambers

Soul Blues Male Artist
Sugaray Rayford

Traditional Blues Album
The Blues is Alive and Well, Buddy Guy

Traditional Blues Female Artist
Ruthie Foster

Traditional Blues Male Artist
Nick Moss

Kenny Wayne Shepherd Talks Career Beginnings At The Blues Music Awards

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Hero The Band perform at the Recording Academy Atlanta Chapter Annual Membership Celebration
Photo: Marcus Ingram/WireImage

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Report: Music & Culture Infrastructure Can Create Better "Future Cities"

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How sound planning for a creative future in our urban areas makes all the difference for artists and musicians
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Oct 23, 2019 - 2:27 pm

The future, as they say, is now. And for music makers around the world, building a future for themselves often starts at home, in their local creative community and in the city where they live. While technology has expanded communication and made the world smaller, cities continue to grow, making planning for the future a critical cultural mission of the present.

To that end, a new report by global organization Sound Diplomacy titled "This Must Be The Place" examines, "The role of music and cultural infrastructure in creating better future cities for all of us." The 37-page deep dive into community planning and development highlights the importance of creative culture in what it calls "Future Cities."

"The government defines ‘Future Cities’ as 'a term used to imagine what cities themselves will be like," the report states, "how they will operate, what systems will orchestrate them and how they will relate to their stakeholders (citizens, governments, businesses, investors, and others),'"

According to the report, only three global cities or states currently have cultural infrastructure plans: London, Amsterdam and New South Wales. This fact may be surprising considering how city planning and sustainability have become part of the discussion on development of urban areas, where the UN estimates 68 percent of people will live by 2050.

"Our future places must look at music and culture ecologically. Much like the way a building is an ecosystem, so is a community of creators, makers, consumers and disseminators," the report says. "The manner in which we understand how to maintain a building is not translated to protecting, preserving and promoting music and culture in communities."

The comparison and interaction between the intangibility of culture and the presence of physical space is an ongoing theme throughout the report. For instance, one section of the report outlines how buildings can and should be designed to fit the cultural needs of the neighborhoods they populate, as too often, use of a commercial space is considered during the leasing process, not the construction process, leading to costly renovations.

"All future cities are creative cities. All future cities are music cities."

On the residential side, as cities grow denser, the need increases for thoughtful acoustic design and sufficient sound isolation. Future cities can and should be places where people congregate

"If we don’t design and build our future cities to facilitate and welcome music and experience, we lose what makes them worth living in."

For musicians and artists of all mediums, the answer to making—and keeping—their cities worth living in boils down to considering their needs, impact and value more carefully and sooner in the planning process.

"The report argues that property is no longer an asset business, but one built on facilitating platforms for congregation, community and cohesion," it says. "By using music and culture at the beginning of the development process and incorporating it across the value chain from bid to design, meanwhile to construction, activation to commercialisation, this thinking and practice will result in better places."

The report offers examples of how planners and leaders are handling this from around the world. For instance, the Mayor Of London Night Czar, who helps ensure safety and nighttime infrastructure for venues toward the Mayor's Vision for London as a 24-hour city. Stateside, Pittsburgh, Penn., also has a Night Mayor in place to support and inform the growth of its creative class.

Diversity, inclusion, health and well-being also factor into the reports comprehensive look at how music and culture are every bit as important as conventional business, ergonomic and environmental considerations in Future Cites. Using the Queensland Chamber of Arts and Culture as a reference, it declared, "A Chamber of Culture is as important as a Chamber of Commerce."

In the end, the report serves as a beacon of light for governments, organizations, businesses and individuals involved in planning and developing future cities. Its core principals lay out guideposts for building friendly places to music and culture and are backed with case studies and recommendations. But perhaps the key to this progress is in changing how we approach the use of space itself, as the answer to supporting music may be found in how we look at the spaces we inhabit.

"To develop better cities, towns and places, we must alter the way we think about development, and place music and culture alongside design, viability, construction and customer experience," it says. "Buildings must be treated as platforms, not assets. We must explore mixed‑use within mixed‑use, so a floor of a building, or a lesser‑value ground floor unit can have multiple solutions for multiple communities."

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Sierra Lever

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:NEXT With Sierra Lever: The Rising Music Marketer Talks Artist Storytelling, Kendrick Lamar & More

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The future industry leader and Associate Marketing Director at Columbia Records opens up about how 'Good Kid, M.A.A.D City' inspired her to champion artists' stories and pursue a career in music
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Nov 11, 2019 - 1:31 pm

Meet Sierra Lever, a young music professional primed to make waves in the industry. As Associate Marketing Director at Columbia Records, she already has worked on such major releases as Tyga, Polo G, Chloe X Halle, Chase B, and previously at Motown Records on Migos, Stefflon Don, Zaytoven, and more. She's also featured in the latest episode of :NEXT, the Recording Academy’s new digital short-run series featuring the future of the music industry.

Music Marketer Sierra Lever Is :NEXT

Her journey began back home in Portland, where she put on parties to showcase local talent. She began booking more artists, big artists, such as Too $hort and Big Krit on her college campus. Her DIY spirit and interest in the behind-the-scenes workings of the music business led to her joining GRAMMY U and eventually taking an internship in the Recording Academy, where she worked in the Awards department and the Executive Office.

This wide range of experience helped illuminate Sierra's path into marketing, where she could learn how to tell artists' stories in a way that helps spread the word about their music. And while going to a Spice Girls concert as a little girl that lit the initial spark of Sierra's interest in music, it was a seminal hip-hop album that showed her the way to a career in the industry.

"Kendrick Lamar's Good Kid, M.A.A.D City was the album that really inspired me to enter into the music industry," she said. "[It] really tells his story. And it connected to me, and it connected to so many, It really represented the pressures of our environment that we live in… the minute I listened to it, it was on repeat. There's really no skips for this album. It's very thematic. It has all these different themes from the Bible to street violence to love and lust, all those different elements."

Sierra felt she was part of something when she listened to that album. Not content to be just a fan, she wanted to share that sense of belonging. She drew inspiration from the artists she loved and channeled those storytelling concepts into her own career on the business side of music.

"You have to be a student of the game," she said. "That is what really shows. You see these artists and you see how them studying the game really translates to their evolution over time, and I feel like that's the same for me working as a professional in music, [finding my] individuality [and] really taking risks."

Sierra first heard about :NEXT as an intern at the Academy. As her eligibility for GRAMMY U was coming to a close, Lever thought it'd be the perfect segue into a professional career. She was right.

"The best part about being a 'Nexter' is really being able to connect with your peers and see your peers evolve. That is a big thing for me, to be able to support each other, to know that you do have a support system," she said, adding, "We have panels, we have these industry vets that we get to have that face time with and connection with."

Sierra also talks fondly of her mentor, Recording Academy Washington D.C. Chapter Executive Director Jeriel Johnson. "He is someone who is really connected in the urban [music] space, someone who is a leader within it. I identified with him in the sense of, this is where I want to go and where I want to grow," she said.

"The most valuable lesson I learned from him is to always try," Sierra said. "Always go with your foot forward in the sense of, 'I'm learning and I'm going to be successful.'"

Now, Lever is striving to pursue her dreams in the music industry, and being a part of :NEXT has helped her stay on course. She compares the support she's received—and given to her fellow young music professionals—to that of a family.

"I will say this: The GRAMMYs, they are a family to me. There are so many people who have seen me evolve over time," Sierra says.

Her long-term vision is to continue to tell artists' stories, and she's off to a great start. She puts it best when asked what else she's learned from Johnson,  her :NEXT mentor, about being successful in music:

"When you strive for success, you never fail, you just learn."

:NEXT With Scott Michael Smith: The Innovative Producer/Mixer On Taking Risks, Steve Reich & More

Ramblin' Jack Elliott at The Freight & Salvage

Ramblin' Jack Elliott at The Freight

Photo: Hail McGrath

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Historic Berkeley Folk Venue Freight & Salvage Welcomes A New Generation Of Music Fans

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"There's kind of a special feeling when you walk in. It's like you are walking into someone's extra-large living room with a bunch of your close friends," Sharon Dolan, the historic venue's Executive Director recently explained
Lily O'Brien
GRAMMYs
Oct 4, 2019 - 9:20 am

When The Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse opened its (original) doors in 1968 in Berkeley, Calif., the intention was to create a cafe and gathering place for the community. Housed in a former used furniture store (thus, the name of the venue), it began to attract local musicians—acoustic guitar strummers, banjo pickers, fiddle players and more. It soon became the nexus for the burgeoning traditional folk and old-time music scene that was rooted in the anti-establishment, counter-culture, radical and experimental ethos of the iconic '60s and '70s eras.

Now, 51 years later, this legendary establishment is still going strong. The Recording Academy spoke to several of the people who help run the venue to learn how it's still shining bright.

In 1983, the popular club became a nonprofit, "the Berkeley Society for the Preservation of Traditional Music," to be exact. Five years later, the Freight moved to a slightly larger venue nearby, in 1988, eventually moving to its current home at 2020 Addison St. in 2009. The newer space offers an inviting, architect-designed 400-plus seat performance hall with a state-of-the-art sound system from Berkley's Meyer Sound. Yet even as they've grown, their space—and those who perform there—retains the rustic and intimate atmosphere.

Read: Where Do You Keep Your GRAMMY: Fantastic Negrito

Just down the block from other popular cultural institutions—Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Aurora Theater Company and the California Jazz Conservatory—it is firmly planted in the heart of the Downtown Berkeley Arts District. A large, eclectic group of local and international artists, like Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Teresa Trull and David Grisman, have graced its stage, in genres ranging from traditional folk, blues, jazz, bluegrass, world and classical music.

GRAMMY-nominated Windham Hill Records artist Barbara Higbie has served on the Freight's Board of Directors for 14 years, and is currently its Co-Chair. A pianist, composer and fiddler, she began performing there 42 years ago, alongside fiddler Daryl Anger and guitar and mandolin player Mike Marshall.

"The City of Berkeley really wooed the Freight to come down there [to the current area], because they wanted to create an arts district, and at the time, the club was bursting at the seams," Higbie explained. "The Freight has so much goodwill. In the East Bay there are a few big communities that have supported it in a big way—the bluegrass community, the women's community, the blues community, the people who really love singer/songwriters and the alt-country community." 

Deeply passionate about preserving the integrity of the club, she initially had some concerns about the new venue, based on what she had seen happen to other spaces in the Bay Area. Now, 10 years later, she believes they are on the right track.

"I had experienced so many clubs getting bigger and either going out of business or changing beyond recognition," she explained. "I am so loyal to the Freight and I want it to survive, so it was a really a big concern to me that we didn't become just a commercial venue." 

Three years ago, Peter Williams was hired as the new Program Director at the Freight and has been giving their programming a fresh, worldly spin. With a resume that includes prominent positions at the Green Music Center in Sonoma, the Napa Valley Opera House, and Yoshi's in Oakland, his eclectic musical background made him the perfect choice.

"When the position became open I was really excited about it, because they wanted to diversify the programming and the audience a bit, so it sounded like a great opportunity for me to get creative and put all my musical tastes to work," Williams said over the phone. 

He explained the Freight's focus for many years had mostly been Americana and bluegrass music before he came on board. He began mixing it up by booking a healthy mix of Latin and world music artists, including bands from Haiti, Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

"Since Peter came, it's been phenomenal—he's such an expert at booking," Higbie revealed. "He is balancing it out amazingly between big draws, keeping all the constituents happy, bringing in new communities and trying to expand. He is a really visionary booking person and I think it has made a huge difference."

Not long before Williams, current Executive Director Sharon Dolan came onboard in 2015, after many years as a patron and volunteer. She is committed to preserving the Freight's original ideology of diversity.

"When I first got there, I saw the potential to fully live out our mission of preserving and promoting traditional music from a variety of cultures around the world," she said. "Historically we had focused on music from the folk revival from when we were founded in 1968—bluegrass, old-time and Celtic music. We still continue to do all that, but we also saw an opportunity to broaden our thinking and reach more people, partly by community outreach and partly by what we were putting on stage."

Dolan feels that the newer venue has maintained the comfortable, welcoming atmosphere it has always been known for. "There's kind of a special feeling when you walk in. It's like you are walking into someone's extra-large living room with a bunch of your close friends—a shared experience that we have. It's different from being in a large stadium show where the audience is so far away. You are right there, and there's much more of a connection between the performers and the audience, and that's a really key part of what happens here."

Along with the innovative and eclectic programming, the Freight also offers music classes for adults and kids, open mic nights and education and community outreach programs, to further its mission. 

"Our new education programming is part of our longer-term planning. We are continuing to work with adults, but the new part is the collaboration with middle schools in Berkeley, and we are definitely reaching a more diverse population," Dolan added. "The program is about mashing up traditional music with something more contemporary that the kids can relate to. For example, we have a program mixing traditional Indian vocal percussion with rap that the kids are really enjoying. We have only just started it and it's really cool."

They are also set to work on a new project with their local Recording Academy chapter in early 2020. PC Muñoz, who was recently hired as the Freight's Director of Education and Community Engagement has been an active member of the Recording Academy San Francisco Chapter.  He explained by email they are working on the details of a collaboration with Academy members who are educators, for a professional development event for the Freight's teachers.

With an exciting and ever-expanding roster of performers, classes, events and numerous other collaborations, the Freight seems to have found a sweet spot in the arts community that has helped it to retain its vitality and relevance in the Bay Area.

"I think music and the arts right now are critical," Dolan emphasized. "Music is one of the ways we build empathy for each other and for each other's cultures—we learn about each other that way. It's a way to share with a room full of other people, your despair or your hope about what's happening in the world."

Wide Open Bluegrass Celebrates Past, Present & Future In Raleigh, N.C.

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Shani Gandhi and Paker Millsap

Photo: Jason Davis/WireImage

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Lauren Daigle, Parker Millsap, Kathie Lee Gifford & The Brummies Talk Creative Process

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The Recording Academy Nashville Chapter hosted a Member Mix Listening Session to discuss the finer points of artists and producers collaborating in the studio
Hunter Kelly
GRAMMYs
Jun 28, 2019 - 1:01 pm

An artist and their co-writers/producers spend a LOT of time together during the music-making process, and forging that successful working relationship doesn't happen by chance. In the studio, friendship, mutual respect and strong communication skills are key to fostering the creative process.

These essential elements of collaboration were on full display at the Member Mix Listening Session hosted by the Recording Academy Nashville Chapter on June 25. Artists Lauren Daigle, Parker Millsap, The Brummies, Nicole C. Mullen and Kathie Lee Gifford all sat down with their creative partners during the session as Entertainment One Vice President and General Manager Gina Miller led them in discussing the creative process surrounding a focus track from their latest projects.

The conversation took place in a large control room at Nashville's Welcome to 1979 studio with vintage gear, reel-to-reel tapes and a massive vinyl collection providing the backdrop. The informal feel of the evening and familiar surroundings of the studio allowed everyone to drop their guard and give attendees an intimate look at how these creative relationships really work.

Here are some lessons from the session that apply to anyone currently engaged in musical collaboration:

Use Music to Cope with the Music Business

As a small town Louisiana girl, Daigle felt like she was losing herself in the stress and constant motion of the music industry. She'd just performed on her first award show and taken home three trophies. Coming off the adrenaline of that experience was disorienting for Daigle. The next day, she ended up talking about it with her collaborators, Paul Mabury and Jason Ingram, during a writing session, and they helped pull her back to reality.

"One of them said, 'We just need to replace the lies that you're feeling — the insecurity and the doubt — we just need to replace that with the truth,'" Lauren said. "So, that's where the lyric started coming from."

The song they wrote that day, "You Say," later became Daigle's first top 40 pop hit.  The creative relationship with Mabury and Ingram continues to keep Daigle centered as her career keeps on skyrocketing.

She said, "I met these guys from the very, very beginning, and I think that's something that's pretty pure. When you begin something with people, it becomes intrinsic into the music. You can hear the history. You can hear the years invested."

Don't Stifle the Creative Process Before It Begins

Millsap wanted to play electric guitar on his new album, Other Arrangements, after making a name for himself as an acoustic artist on his first three albums. Initially, he got no resistance from his producers, Gary Paczosa and Shani Gandhi, when he first told them he wanted to change up his sound, or at least that's what he thought until he sat down with Gandhi for this listening session. She admitted she gave him "quiet resistance" throughout the recording process.

Gandhi said, "He'd want to track with the band on his electric guitar, and I'd be like, 'Why don't we try this on acoustic?'"

Millsap appreciated Gandhi's subtle approach at getting him to refine the electric guitar sounds, as heard on the sultry, soulful track they played, "Tell Me." The results were a success due to open-minds from everyone, and a delicate but strong team effort.

"It never felt like, 'That's bad! You can't play electric guitar!'" Millsap said. "It was always something way gentle."

The Bond You Share with Your Collaborators Will Show Up on the Record

The Brummies' working relationship with their producers Austin Jenkins and Jarrad Kritzstein grew naturally out of their shared love for the same music and the same alcohol. They all hit it off after getting together to write a few songs, and now they're all working together to make The Brummies' upcoming studio album.

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The Brummies
Photo: Jason Davis/WireImage

"It's been so fun," Kritzstein said." I think you can hear that in this new record."

This group's idea of "fun" includes spending an hour in the studio hashing out how many milliseconds they should allow for the fade out on their new song, "Tomorrow," which they played in the session.

Band member John Davidson said, "It's good to have people who are understanding. I get that you can be too precious about something, but this is just the very detailed work of people who care. Everybody's really listening."

Establishing Trust Leads to Unexpected Breakthroughs

Kathie Lee Gifford and gospel artist Nicole C. Mullen had a rough idea of what they were going for when they set out to record a demo of their 11-minute modern oratorio "The God Who Sees," but the concept was still fluid when Mullen stepped into the booth to flesh out the piece, which includes a mix of singing and spoken word. Based on Gifford's background in musical theater, she sensed that Mullen could go in and deliver the song on the fly, but Mullen wasn't so keen on the idea. Gifford recalled, "She goes, 'I don't do that.' I said, 'Well, you haven't done that, but you can do that.'"

Mullen trusted Gifford's vision and went in to record the song with producer Sal Oliveri following along on piano. They ended up performing 95 percent of what you hear on the final track right there on the spot.

Gifford credits divine inspiration for this breakthrough. She added, "Nicole was simply magnificent. I came from a completely different world from hers, and we find out that our common ground is sacred ground."

Work whenever and however works best for the artist

A big part of Daigle's successful working relationship with her co-writers and producers, Mabury and Ingram, stems from with their willingness to work outside Nashville's normal studio hours.

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Photo: Jason Davis/WireImage

Daigle said, "We don't start doing vocals until midnight because my brain works best when everything in the world is still. There's no distraction. I can turn off my phone and be super-isolated so that everything these guys are saying is the only thing that is in the forefront of my mind."

Feed Your Creative Self

Mullen closed out the entire listening session with a word of encouragement for all music creators in the room saying, "In your art, you have the power and the ability to sway opinions and moods and mindsets. You can take somebody from depression to elation. You can do that in your art. So, I would like to encourage you to continue in that."

She also stressed the importance of artists feeding their creative selves what whatever inspires them. Mullen added, "Whatever God has gifted you to do, give it to the world. As you're pouring out, make sure that you fill back up so that you can keep on doing it.

Balancing Act: Recording Academy Members Talk Work-Life Balance In The Music Industry