Keedron Bryant

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ReImagined At Home: Keedron Bryant Powerfully Interprets John Legend’s Love Song “Ordinary People”

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11-time GRAMMY winner John Legend wrote this song for bumbling couples trying to make amends. Now, a 13-year-old vocal powerhouse gives it new dimensions
Morgan Enos
GRAMMYs
Feb 9, 2021 - 11:29 am

In the wake of George Floyd’s killing, a then-12-year-old Keedron Bryant emerged out of nowhere with "I Just Wanna Live," a plea for mercy in the midst of police violence. (Even Barack Obama praised its poignancy.) But Bryant—now 13—is a skilled interpreter, too, as evidenced by this commanding take on John Legend’s 2004 hit "Ordinary People," about fumbling through a relationship and righting wrongs.

Back in 2006, at the 48th GRAMMY Awards, "Ordinary People" was nominated for Song Of The Year, Best R&B Song and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, winning in the latter category.

Victoria Anthony Leans Into Impassioned Cover Of Taylor Swift's "Blank Space" | ReImagined At Home

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ReImagined At Home: Watch Jake Wesley Rogers Perform A Scintillating Version Of Brandi Carlile's "The Joke"

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In the latest episode of ReImagined At Home, watch singer/songwriter Jake Wesley Rogers perform Brandi Carlile's "The Joke" alone with a piano
Morgan Enos
GRAMMYs
Jun 29, 2021 - 12:36 pm

Brandi Carlile's "The Joke" didn't just net her a GRAMMY in 2018 for Best American Roots Performance & Song. Jake Wesley Rogers is showing how it can be a launchpad for volcanic displays of emotion.

In the below clip, the singer/songwriter—clad in a lacy, floral getup—performs "The Joke" with the gravitas of an old standard before letting his voice fly over a thunderous chord sequence.

Watch Jake Wesley Rogers Cover Brandi Carlile

Such is the latest episode of ReImagined At Home, where Rogers attacks a relatively recent tune like he's trying to carve out his own notch in the Tower of Song.

Watch the magnetic video above and click here to enjoy more episodes of ReImagined At Home.

ReImagined At Home: Watch Ant Clemons Croon The Cosmic Blues In Performance Of Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine"

ReImagined At Home: Ant Clemons

Ant Clemons

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ReImagined At Home: Watch Ant Clemons Croon The Cosmic Blues In Performance Of Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine"

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Singer/songwriter Ant Clemons puts his own spin on Bill Withers' immortal "Ain't No Sunshine" in an exclusive performance for ReImagined At Home
Morgan Enos
GRAMMYs
Jun 15, 2021 - 9:13 am

Why has Bill Withers' immortal hit, "Ain't No Sunshine," endured for decades? And, furthermore, why does it seem set to reverberate throughout the ages?

Could it be because it's blues-based? Because it's relatable to anyone with a pulse? Because virtually anyone with an ounce of zeal can believably yowl the song at karaoke?

Maybe it's for all of those reasons and one more: "Ain't No Sunshine" is flexible. 

Watch: Ant Clemons Performs "Ain't No Sunshine"

In the latest episode of ReImagined At Home, check out how singer/songwriter Ant Clemons pulls at the song's edges like taffy. With a dose of vocoder and slapback, Clemons recasts the lonesome-lover blues as the lament of a shipwrecked android.

Giving this oft-covered soul classic a whirl, Clemons reminds music lovers exactly why Withers' signature song has staying power far beyond his passing in 2020. It will probably be a standard in 4040, too.

Check out Ant Clemons' cosmic, soulful performance of "Ain't No Sunshine" above and click here to enjoy more episodes of ReImagined At Home.

ReImagined At Home: Keedron Bryant Powerfully Interprets John Legend's Love Song "Ordinary People"

 

Francisca Valenzuela

Francisca Valenzuela

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ReImagined At Home: Francisca Valenzuela Performs A Pindrop Version Of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt"

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Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" took on a life of its own when Johnny Cash covered it in 2002. Now, singer/songwriter Francisca Valenzuela has further tapped into the song's compelling power
Morgan Enos
GRAMMYs
Mar 23, 2021 - 9:34 am

When Nine Inch Nails leader Trent Reznor first heard Johnny Cash's version of "Hurt," he had a full-body emotional reaction. "Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps," Reznor described his feelings to Thursday's Geoff Rickly in 2004. 

"It really made me think about how powerful music is as a medium and art form," Reznor added about the highly personal song's transposal into another genre, rumbled from an iconic voice.

In the latest episode of ReImagined At Home, the lineage of "Hurt" continues by way of Francisca Valenzuela, a Chilean singer/songwriter, pianist and poet. She strips back the arrangement to its skeleton, thereby turning every line into a knife-twist on its own accord.

ReImagined At Home: Francisca Valenzuela

Check out Francisca Valenzuela's spectral version of "Hurt" above and click here to watch more episodes of ReImagined At Home.

ReImagined At Home: Keedron Bryant Powerfully Interprets John Legend's Love Song "Ordinary People"

Yolanda Adams

Yolanda Adams

Photo courtesy of CBS

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Here's What Went Down At "A GRAMMY Salute To The Sounds Of Change"

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Featuring performances by stars from Patti LaBelle to Andra Day to Gladys Knight, "A GRAMMY Salute To The Sounds Of Change" was a decades-spanning celebration of the songs that both reflect and alter the course of social justice history
Morgan Enos
GRAMMYs
Mar 18, 2021 - 10:01 am

When Woody Guthrie wrote "This Land is Your Land," he certainly understood he was expressing something important to the world. Ditto John Lennon with "Imagine" and Marvin Gaye with "What's Going On." But could any of them have known we'd still be singing them in 2021? That amid the racial nightmares of George Floyd's killing and the anti-Asian violence that just battered Georgia, we'd return to the well of songs from 50 or more years ago for healing? 

Welcome to "A GRAMMY Salute To The Sounds Of Change," a special that solemnly, respectfully paid homage to the songs that altered the course of social-justice history. But the event, which the hip-hop heavyweight Common hosted, didn't just focus on the great tracks of the 20th century; it filtered them through the musical luminaries of the 21st.

A mix of archival performances and COVID-safe new ones, the special succeeded in showing that our modern horrors aren't so new at all—and that throughout history, brave men and women have risen to address the changing tides of history in song. Thus, the young guard (LeAnn Rimes, Chris Stapleton and Andra Day) rubbed shoulders with the old (Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle), showing these well-worn standards still emanate transformative power.

It's no accident that Common was at the helm of "A GRAMMY Salute To The Sounds Of Change"; check out his socially conscious 1999 classic Like Water For Chocolate if you're curious about how he fits into this puzzle. (Not to mention his poignant performance of "Glory," the theme song to the 2014 film Selma, with John Legend at that year's GRAMMY Awards show.)

After the MC's dignified introduction, the night kicked off with a nocturnal version of John Lennon's "Imagine" by the pearl-covered singer Cynthia Erivo. She ended the rendition with a hair-raising vamp, surrounded by projected imagery of placards reading things like "Close The Camps" and "Unjustified War Is Criminal."

Country titan Chris Stapleton then performed Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World," showing how the old chestnut easily transmutes into a variety of American idioms. (To this point: check out Jon Batiste's melancholic version from 2018's Hollywood Africans.) 

In a tonal 180, LeAnn Rimes then performs Loretta Lynn's saucy (and at the time, unspeakably scandalous) 1975 ode to birth control, "The Pill." Her masked, punked-up backing band showed us how the tune essentially invented Bikini Kill. The womens' liberation theme continued with R&B great Patti LaBelle laying into Lesley Gore's "You Don't Own Me." 

That performance segued into even heavier territory with a version of the "Strange Fruit" by Andra Day—who recently won a Golden Globe for her performance in 2021's The U.S. vs. Billie Holiday. She crooned the anti-lynching classic in a crepuscular, green-screened forest. Showing that times tragically haven't changed in certain respects, "Strange Fruit" segued into Leon Bridges' "Sweeter," a response to George Floyd, featuring Terrace Martin on blazing saxophone.

These issues represent mere facets of human disharmony. But Marvin Gaye's intellect and imagination were keen enough to not only grasp that vastness but channel it into a song for everyone. Enter seven-time GRAMMY winner Gladys Knight, who stepped on stage to perform the immortal "What's Going On" with Sheila E. on percussion, Israel Houghton on guitar, D Smoke on keys and musical director Adam Blackstone on bass.

"Hi, Marvin!" Knight crowed at the outset. "I miss you so much. I love your music—the way you write, the way you sing, the whole thing. You touch my spirit every time you sing a song."

The specter of war was addressed with, well, "War," the Norman Whitfield tune we know from Edwin Starr's version. And after his piano-and-gospel version of his 2021 anti-Trump song "Weeping in the Promised Land"—crescendoing with a collective wail of "I can't breathe!"—John Fogerty rocked things up with Creedence Clearwater Revival's thrilling, outraged, oft-misunderstood classic "Fortunate Son."

Cutting to the essence of the other-ness that feeds racial division, CBS's Gayle King sat down with singer-actor Billy Porter to discuss the struggles of growing up gay and Black—and how music with a social conscience is returning to the forefront in 2021. 

"I'm feeling once again the energy surrounding the power of protest music," Porter said. When asked about his choice to cover Patti LaBelle's "You Are My Friend" for the show, "I just wanted to choose something that was about chosen family," he added. "We talk often in this world about family values, but what happens when your family—your biological family—don't have the tools to understand how to love you?" 

As Porter sang the empathetic ballad on a flower-festooned stage, images of people of all colors, identities and persuasions embracing—often draped in rainbow flags—flashed on the screen. "I want to talk to you a little bit about where I've been in the world!" he crowed midsong.

"A GRAMMY Salute To The Sounds Of Change" also honored and elevated Latin voices. After a brief preamble from Common about the meaning and import of the neologism "Latinx," Gloria and Emilio Estefan discussed how Latin music is woven into the fabric of American social change. Their daughter Emily Estefan then performed "This Is What," a tribute to Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic and Latina member of the Supreme Court.

Sotomayor was nominated in 2009 by then-President Barack Obama, and Brad Paisley touches on the legacies of our first Black president and first lady. From the floor of the Woolworth on 5th restaurant in Nashville, the country star performed his ascendant "Welcome to the Future," which he wrote in response to Obama's election. Paisley then strolled to the counter, explaining that the restaurant was a historic spot where John Lewis and his friends took a stand for racial justice in 1960.

The special then homed in on "We Shall Overcome," a cornerstone of the civil rights movement. Yolanda Adams laid down a reverent monologue about the tune to the haunting strains of a gospel choir. But then, something unexpected happened. The lights flared up, and Adams upshifted several gears, launching into a raucous take on the soul-strengthening classic. 

It was a joyful capper for a heartening night, conceived and broadcast for all the right reasons. But most importantly, almost every minute of "A GRAMMY Salute To The Sounds Of Change" was stuffed with music, which is usually the loam from where real change springs.

"A GRAMMY Salute To The Sounds Of Change" is available on-demand on Paramount+.

From Aretha Franklin To Public Enemy, Here's How Artists Have Amplified Social Justice Movements Through Music

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