Tag: The Recording Academy

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Memphis Wins Big at 66th Annual Grammys

(L-R) Mason Williams, Michael Graves, Cheryl Pawelski, Deanie Parker, Michele Smith & Robert Gordon, winners of the "Best Historical Album" award at the 66th GRAMMY Awards.(Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

As the 66th Annual Grammy Awards unfolded over the weekend, many names associated with Memphis and the Mid-South were among the winners, including musicians, songwriters, producers, engineers, and writers.

If award-winning music creators are already a well-established Bluff City tradition, the music writing being done here is quickly becoming another of the city’s music industry exports. In 2021, the Commercial Appeal‘s Bob Mehr won the Best Album Notes award for the writings he penned for Dead Man’s Pop, a collection of music by The Replacements, and scored another win last year for his notes in the deluxe edition of Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, co-produced by Cheryl Pawelski of Omnivore Recordings.

This year, it was Robert Gordon’s and Deanie Parker’s turn to take home the Best Album Notes prize — for yet another Pawelski project, Written in their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos, Craft Recordings’ seven-CD collection offering a glimpse into the the rare songwriting demos of Stax Records in its heyday. Profiled in the Memphis Flyer last summer, the collection is an intimate portrait of the men and women who wrote the songs of the pioneering soul label. The same box set, produced by Gordon, Parker, Pawelski, Michele Smith, and Mason Williams, also won the award for Best Historical Album.

It’s a subject that’s been thoroughly researched by Gordon, who also won a Grammy in 2011 for notes accompanying Big Star’s Keep An Eye on the Sky box set before penning the book Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion in 2013. But if Gordon knows Stax, co-writer Parker outdid him with her eyewitness accounts, having worked at Stax through most of its existence and even serving as a songwriter there herself.

Over the past 20 years, Parker has also championed the creation of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, the Stax Music Academy, and the Soulsville Foundation, as celebrated in this 2023 Memphis Flyer story. Thus her Grammy win was an important tribute to one of the label’s key behind-the-scenes players, and as the co-producers of the set gathered onstage to receive the award, they naturally deferred to Parker to speak on their behalf.

Album note writers Deanie Parker and Robert Gordon on the jumbotron, accepting their Grammy Award. (Credit: Pat Rainer).

“Stax founders Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle Axton gave the Stax songwriters a racially integrated paradise where they were encouraged to discover and develop their authentic talents by Al Bell,” Parker said while accepting the award. “This set highlights some of Stax’s and America’s most talented rhythm and blues songwriters: Eddie Floyd, William Bell, Steve Cropper, Homer Bates, Mack Rice, Bettye Crutcher, Bobby Manuel, and Henderson Thigpen.” After thanking the Recording Academy and her fellow co-producers, she also gave a nod to local artist Kerri Mahoney for designing the look and layout of the box set, before concluding with a warm acknowledgment of “the remarkable visionary and producer, Cheryl Pawelski.”

Another non-performing contributor to Grammy wins was Matt Ross-Spang, who engineered on Weathervanes, the Best Americana Album winner by Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, and who co-produced and mixed Echoes Of The South, the Best Roots Gospel Album winner by the Blind Boys Of Alabama, at his Southern Grooves studio in the Crosstown Concourse.

Beyond the scribes, historical producers, and knob-twiddlers, musical artists from Memphis also made a strong showing at this year’s ceremony. While Memphis has always loved native daughter Julien Baker, it seems all the world loves boygenius, her band with fellow singer-songwriters Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus. Their 2023 album The Record garnered six nominations, and ended up winning Best Alternative Music Album, with the group also scoring Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song wins for the single “Not Strong Enough” — featured in this week’s Music Video Monday.

boygenius (Photo courtesy Chuffmedia)

When boygenius, decked out in matching white suits, accepted their second award, Baker wore her heart on her sleeve. “All I ever wanted to do in my life was be in a band,” she said, visibly shaken with emotion. “I feel like music is the language I used to find my family since I was a kid. I just wanted to say thank you to everybody who ever watched me play.”

Bobby Rush, based in Mississippi but with longstanding ties to Memphis (and awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities by Rhodes College), also saw his latest work celebrated, with his 2023 album All My Love For You winning Best Traditional Blues Album. He too was eloquent in his gratitude. “I treasure this, and honor Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Tyrone Davis, Johnnie Taylor, all the guys coming before me that I looked up to…thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Finally, while not winning as a performing artist, the legendary DJ Paul was a towering presence onstage as Killer Mike accepted awards for, Best Rap Album, Best Rap Performance, and Best Rap Song. He co-wrote his track, “SCIENTISTS & ENGINEERS,” with DJ Paul (aka Paul Beauregard), Andre Benjamin, James Blake, Tim Moore, and Dion Wilson. In winning the latter category, Killer Mike and his collaborators edged out another Memphis talent, producer Tay Keith, who was among the songwriters for the Grammy-nominated track “Rich Flex” by Drake and 21 Savage.

Right out of the gate, Killer Mike acknowledged his colleague from Memphis as they stood together at the podium. “I’m from the Southeast,” he said. “Like DJ Paul, I’m a Black man in America. And as a kid, I had a dream to become a part of music, and that nine-year-old is excitedly dancing inside of me right now… I want that thank everyone who dares to believe that art can change the world.”

DJ Paul, of course, has long been an integral player in the Oscar-winning Three 6 Mafia, and is an active solo artist and producer to this day, as profiled by the Memphis Flyer here. His old crew included the late Gangsta Boo, who was honored during the In Memoriam segment of the ceremony. Wayne Kramer of Detroit’s MC5, whose appearance on Joecephus & the George Jonestown Massacre’s Call Me Animal album was likely his last released recording before his death on February 2nd, was also remembered in the segment.

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Jim Stewart, Other Memphians Recognized at 65th Annual Grammys

Honoring Jim Stewart at the Grammys: (L-R) Pat Mitchell Worley (Soulsville Foundation CEO), Stewart's children Shannon, Lori, and Jeff Stewart, Michele Smith (VP, Estate & Legacy Brand Management for Concord Records), and Jim's granddaughter, Jennifer Stewart. Photo courtesy Soulsville Foundation.

It’s been less than twenty-four hours since the Grammy Awards wrapped, and there’s been just as much online chatter about what the Recording Academy missed about Memphis as about what they got right. Celebrating fifty years of hip hop music with a sprawling medley, featuring the Roots backing up star rappers from the past half century, was bound to ruffle some feathers, and many zeroed in on the absolute omission of the city’s greatest hip hop innovators.

“If Three 6 Mafia isn’t in this 50 years of hip hop performance at the Grammys than [sic] I don’t want it,” tweeted Silly Little Goose, later adding, “sleep with one eye open tonight, @RecordingAcad.”

Another Twitter user, Jamesetta M. Walker, quipped, “Wow, Gangsta Boo was not included in the Grammys’ 2023 memoriam. No way they never heard of Three 6 Mafia.”

The lack of recognition was indeed striking, given what Memphis has contributed to the genre over the decades. Yet the sprawling medley, curated by Questlove, included a stunning mix of performers such as Grandmaster Flash, Mele Mel, Rahiem, Run-DMC, LL Cool J, Queen Latifah, Missy Elliott, Lil Wayne, Big Boi, Public Enemy, Busta Rhymes, De La Soul, Lil Baby and others. And Memphis was at least represented well by the breakout star Glorilla, who performed a segment of her hit, “F.N.F. (Let’s Go).”

Nevertheless, Memphis music, being the force of nature that it is, was bound to turn up elsewhere during the proceedings. Erstwhile Memphis writer Bob Mehr, now living in Tucson, Arizona, won the Best Album Notes Grammy for his contribution to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (20th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition), his second in that category, while that album’s producers, including Cheryl Pawelski of Omnivore Recordings, also won in the Best Historical Album category.

Meanwhile, Arkansas’ Ashley McBryde won the Best Country/Duo Performance award for “Never Wanted to Be That Girl” with Carly Pearce, and Aaron Neville’s song “Stompin’ Ground,” performed with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band for the film Take Me to the River: New Orleans, which counts Cody Dickinson and Boo Mitchell among its producers, won Best American Roots Performance.

But it was a figure from Memphis history that received the ultimate recognition yesterday, in the form of a Grammy Trustees Award: Stax Records’ co-founder Jim Stewart, who passed away last December 5th. The award, which recognizes “individuals who, during their careers in music, technology, and so on have made significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording,” was also given to photographer Henry Diltz and jazz educator (and musician) Ellis Marsalis Jr.

Receiving the award puts Stewart’s name in the company of such legends as Duke Ellington, The Beatles, Thomas Edison, George and Ira Gershwin, Jerry Wexler, and Stewart’s sister and fellow Stax-founder, Estelle Axton.

On hand to receive the award in Stewart’s name were his adult children, Shannon, Lori, and Jeff Stewart, along with Jim’s granddaughter Jennifer Stewart. As Lori noted, “when dad’s dream of being in the music business first began, he was a nine- or ten-year-old boy who received a guitar for Christmas.”

Jennifer Stewart added, “Grandaddy was a man before his time. Not only was he an innovator in the music industry, by creating that distinct Stax sound, he was also an advocate for equal rights and opportunities for everyone. He didn’t care where you came from, what color your skin was, or your gender. If you had any kind of talent, he wanted you to be a part of his family.”

It was a fitting tribute to a man who represented a more progressive demographic among Southern professionals at the time, paving the way for the multi-racial camaraderie that the Stax community strove to foster through all its days.

Jim Stewart with Stax Records publicist Deanie Parker in 2018 (Photo courtesy The Soulsville Foundation)

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Royal Studios Celebrates Three Grammy Winners

Cedric Burnside and Boo Mitchell accept the Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album (Photo courtesy Boo Mitchell).

It’s not every day that three different Grammy winners in one year can trace their sound back to one recording studio, but such was the fate that the 64th Annual Grammy Awards bestowed upon Royal Studios this week. While it’s not surprising that Mississippi blues Grammy-winners Cedric Burnside and Christone “Kingfish” Ingram worked at Royal, the studio — and a stellar Memphis musician — also played a key role in recording the debut album by Silk Sonic, whose “Leave the Door Open” claimed four wins: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best R&B Performance, and Best R&B Song.

To learn more about this year’s Grammys from a Memphis perspective, I caught up with producer/engineer Boo Mitchell, Royal’s co-owner, on layover in Dallas while flying home from Las Vegas, where the gala event was held on Sunday.

Uriah and Boo Mitchell (Photo courtesy Boo Mitchell)

Memphis Flyer: You’ve attended a lot of Grammy Awards ceremonies. Was there anything different this year, even before the winners were announced?

Boo Mitchell: We had a lot of family out this year. My son Uriah was my road warrior with me. We got to Vegas Thursday, and then Jeff Bhasker, the co-producer of “Uptown Funk” and the Uptown Special project, invited us to this insane party. We thought it was in Vegas, but it was in L.A.! So me and Uriah drove to L.A. Friday for this party, and then had to be back in Vegas Saturday morning for the premier screening of Take Me to the River: New Orleans at the House of Blues in Vegas. Then I was invited to the Black Music Collective’s event — the maiden voyage with John Legend, Jay Z and a whole host of amazing artists.

And then we went to see Silk Sonic Saturday. They have a residency at Park MGM. If you’re in Vegas, you should see it. The choreography, the humor, the music, and the musicianship are incredible. Then they have the after party. [Trombonist] Kameron Whalum DJ’s at that, and some of the band hops on stage and plays while Kameron is DJing.

Memphis in the house! Uriah Mitchell, Kenneth Whalum III, and Kameron Whalum at the Silk Sonic after party (Credit: Boo Mitchell)

And Kameron’s brother, Kenneth Whalum III, who plays with Nas, was there. I think Kenneth is the one who introduced Kameron and Bruno Mars. Kenneth was playing with Maxwell at the time, or Jay Z. Bruno was just starting to emerge, and was like, ‘I need a horn section.’ So Kenneth connected those dots. It’s a family affair, full circle. And those same guys have been playing with Bruno since the beginning. They’re on Bruno’s early records. Kameron’s been with Bruno’s touring band for ten years.

And you know Kameron, he was playing Three 6 Mafia and Young Dolph and all that stuff. Memphis was in the house!

It seems Silk Sonic is tied to Memphis in more ways than one. You engineered most of the album, yet, because the single was a live recording, Royal wasn’t technically involved in Silk Sonic’s Grammys, correct?

We didn’t get credit for the Silk Sonic single because of a record company glitch. I recorded the intro to the song with Bootsy [Collins], which was supposed to be part of the song, but when it got uploaded, the intro was listed as a separate track.

How many tracks from that album did you work on Royal?

I think seven out of ten tracks, including that intro and “777,” the song they performed at the Grammys. We did the horns on that one with Kameron, Marc Franklin and Kirk Smothers.

Christone “Kingfish” Ingram’s 662 won Best Contemporary Blues Album, and though most of that was engineered by Zach Allen, you engineered the bonus track at Royal.

Man, that kid … well, he’s not a kid anymore. But, he’s literally one of the most talented and prolific guitar players of our time. He plays with the feel of an 80-year-old man. How can you have that much soul? You’re only 20-somethin’!? Kingfish is incredible. His voice, too. I’ve watched him grow as an artist, working with him over the years. And he just keeps getting better and better. That 662 album is amazing. The producer, Tom Hambridge, is a veteran blues producer who worked with Buddy Guy. Pop [Willie Mitchell] and I got to work with Tom on a Buddy Guy record. We did some horns on that album. And Tom did a phenomenal job with Kingfish.

Cedric Burnside and Boo Mitchell accept the Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album (Photo courtesy Boo Mitchell).

And clearly Cedric Burnside winning Best Traditional Blues Album was very meaningful to you, as producer.

Man, that record, I Be Trying, was so special to me. I’d been wanting to work with Cedric for years. Our chemistry is really good. We’ve always had this instant kinship, and working with him in the studio was like we were raised from kids or something. It was very intuitive. His voice, his musicianship. He’s like the spirit of Mississippi. It’s nostalgic and futuristic at the same time.

Have you known Cedric a long time?

I’ve always known the Burnside family legacy. Maybe the first time I met Cedric was 2010 or ’11, and it may have been a Grammy thing. And I got to make a record with him for Beale Street Caravan. They were doing these videos of different artists at different locations, and they asked me if I would record Cedric in front of a little audience, and film it. Like in a little club. So we did this recording, and it was not the ideal studio setting to make a record. He had a floor monitor — it was more like a club. And I was like, ‘I don’t even understand why this sounds so good.’ Because it was recorded all wrong, according to textbooks. But his energy, man. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how you record things, as long as you capture the energy. As long as God is in the room and you’re recording, and the tape’s rolling. There was clearly something anomalous about it, and about him and his voice. And he was like, ‘Man, that sounds so good!’ I was like, ‘Yeah, right? I don’t know why!’

That may have been the catalyst, because every time I’d see him after that, I’d be like, ‘Man, we’ve got to make a record.’ And then the stars lined up with the label, Single Lock. Those guys are amazing. They just gave me the freedom to do what I wanted to do.

Cedric was so good to trust me. Sometimes I would have these crazy ideas for a blues record. Like, ‘Can we put a cello on this?’ [laughs]. But Cedric really trusted me in the process. Even if he didn’t quite understand what I was going for at the time. And then he’d be like, ‘Man, I had no idea this would sound like that.’ Between the artist and the producer, there’s always a give and take, and I’m not a heavy handed person. I always try to consider what the artist wants or what the label wants. But at the end of the day, I’ll always go with my gut.

Also, Cedric’s songwriting is incredible. That’s one of those albums where something is guaranteed to resonate with you. Even the last song, “Love You Forever,” I was like, ‘Man, we just made a bedroom blues song!’ [laughs]. A blues love song! It’s one of my favorite songs. It almost sounds like something D’Angelo could have sung.

It’s nostalgic and futuristic at the same time. It captures all the spookiness of the old deep blues, and it still sounds current. Some of those tracks could be in a Wu-Tang sample.

And for me personally, Cedric’s record was the first time I got to do what Pop did. Because he produced, engineered and mixed all the Al Green stuff. So I finally got me one, doing it like him. Which is all I want to be anyway.

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Jerry Phillips Remembers Brother Knox: “He Was The Keeper Of The History”

CREDIT: Diane Duncan Phillips

Diane Duncan Phillips

Knox Phillips and John Prine, ca. 1979

Last autumn, I found myself in Jerry Phillips’ office at the headquarters for WSBM and WQLT, the family’s radio stations in Florence, Alabama. The conversation I had with Jerry and his daughter Halley that day ranged from music production techniques to professional wrestling. But one thing kept coming up again and again: Jerry’s older brother Knox, who had been in poor health for some time. “My brother is real ill,” Jerry said. “He used to go all over the country. He’s got every award you can get. And now he can’t do anything; it’s really a sad situation.”

Last night, those words took on an added poignancy when it was announced that Knox Phillips, son of celebrated producer Sam Phillips and his wife Becky, had passed away, bringing closure to a prolonged period of immobilization that had been tortuous for the entire family. “He’s been out of the picture now for about four or five years,” Jerry said, last September. “It’s been a real tough go for our family to see him not be able to even get up and walk anywhere. It’s been a real hard thing for our family, ’cause you know Knox was just as important as Sam in a way. He was the keeper of the history. He was the one that always knew everything about Sun. He was the one that always got things going.”

Knox Phillips’ importance to his family’s legacy, and to the history of Memphis music, cannot be overstated. Though never content to merely live in his father’s shadow, he came to embody his same iconoclastic spirit, ushering those values, and the Phillips Recording Studio, into the 21st century. “He was a great record producer, a great mixer,” Jerry noted, and his role in the co-production of John Prine’s Pink Cadillac at Phillips Recording in 1979 is the perfect example. Recounting the making of that record, Jerry recently interjected, “We can’t leave my brother Knox out of all this, who has his own wild way of producing records, too. He was very effective in those sessions. ‘Cause you know Sam only came in for a couple of days.”
Diane Duncan Phillips

(above, left to right) Billy Lee Riley, Jerry Phillips, John Prine, Knox Phillips

But Knox Phillips’ skill-set went far beyond his recording acumen. “My brother was a political science major in college,” Jerry said. “He gave that up. I think Sam was looking for him to run for governor or something. Knox, he didn’t want to do that. But he was the consummate Memphis music politician. Also he could produce records, and he was a good guitar player, too.”

As for his command of the music scene’s street-level politics, the most obvious example would be Knox’s tireless efforts to establish a Memphis-based chapter of the Recording Academy, formally the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), in 1973. “He got the NARAS chapter here,” said Jerry. “He lobbied for it. Hard. And he paid for, like, 50 people’s dues. For years. Just so there would be members, you know?” To this day, the Memphis chapter, also representing New Orleans, Louisiana, and St. Louis, remains a forward-thinking force in the professional organization.

Beyond that, he took a uniquely personal approach to the Memphis music scene, embracing players from all levels of recognition and success. “You wouldn’t believe how deep his roots went into the love of Memphis music, and the love of people who didn’t have enough money,” Jerry said. “He paid Furry Lewis’ electric bills!”

He was indeed the keeper of the history, and played a decisive role in shaping how the family legacy would be remembered. Discussing Peter Guralnick’s masterful biography, Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll, Jerry points out that “Knox was the one that got Peter Guralnick involved. When that book came out, Knox could not even go to any of the panel discussions, and he would have been all over that. He would have been up there, he’d have been setting it up, he’d have been doing things. He spent 25 years working to get that book done. Twenty-five damn years. ‘Cause Sam wouldn’t talk to Peter for the longest time. There were all these other writers that were trying to get that story. And Knox kept saying, ‘You don’t want these guys, this is the guy you want to write this book.’ So over a 20-year span, they kept getting together and getting together and getting together, and that book is almost completely Sam’s own words. There’s a lot of Peter’s words in there too, of course, but I’m just saying, it’s not just something that Peter guessed at. Sam wanted to write his own book, he thought. But he would have never done it.”

Clearly, Knox’s extended illness and passing have left a huge void in the family. “I was always the rebel of the family. I was always more interested in the performing side of it, the playing side of it, than the politics of the music'” Jerry mused. “So when Knox had to get out of the picture, I had to step up to the plate and do some of the stuff he was doing. Showing up at these functions and speaking to the press.

“We’ve got Knox to thank for a lot of stuff. We really do. I try to always share the spotlight with him, ’cause he’s really the guy that deserves it.”

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Programs Ramp Up To Assist Musicians Losing Work Due To COVID-19

CREDIT: Courtesy Blues City Cafe

Courtesy Blues City Cafe

For musicians, the brave new world we all face in the shadow of COVID-19 is especially difficult. As a recent NPR story notes, “almost at once, it seemed like the entire March calendars of musicians across the country were wiped clean. Within hours Wednesday, thousands of dollars in expected income vanished.”

While many are exploring live-streamed concerts and the tips they can provide, for many players the funds from these events are too little, too late.

But there are signs of hope for these artists, often from very local institutions who realize that if Memphis is to remain a music city, something, or someone, has got to give.

Yesterday Music Export Memphis, a nonprofit that has assisted so many touring acts based here, announced that it was launching fundraising for a COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund. While details of how financial assistance will be administered are still being worked out, the program is now taking donations, in anticipation of an ever-escalating need in the weeks and months to come.

The Blues Foundation is another local nonprofit that is stepping up its community assistance, with a COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund for Blues Musicians. As the foundation announced that its upcoming Blues Music Awards will pivot to become a series of online events, “they are asking those who have purchased 2020 BMA tickets and/or Blues Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony tickets to convert those purchases to donations to be applied directly to this Emergency Relief Fund. Ticket purchasers will also be offered the option for a refund of their ticket purchases or to apply those purchases to next year’s events.” Noting that The Blues Hall of Fame Museum is closed for the time being, they add that they “will continue to accept phone calls and respond to emails throughout the duration of the coronavirus pandemic.”

On a national level, other efforts have sprung into action. The Recording Academy®, which oversees the Grammy Awards, and has a strong chapter based in Memphis, has operated the MusiCares® foundation for some time. It typically offers medical relief to musicians caught off guard without insurance or other niceties of salaried jobs, but has now begun a COVID-19 Relief Fund. 

And Bandcamp, where so many independent artists offer their recorded wares (or files), made this announcement on Tuesday:

To raise even more awareness around the pandemic’s impact on musicians everywhere, we’re waiving our revenue share on sales this Friday, March 20 (from midnight to midnight Pacific Time), and rallying the Bandcamp community to put much needed money directly into artists’ pockets….Still, we consider this just a starting point.

So get online tomorrow and purchase those singles, EPs, albums, and downloads. Your spending will go directly into the pockets of musicians in need. And if you have the means, consider donating to some of the initiatives above. For a musician, it could make all the difference. 

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Big Grammy Wins Have Strong Memphis Ties

Teddy Walton

Some of Sunday’s Grammy award winners had deep Memphis connections, as local talents continue to put the city on the state-of-the art production map. While Memphis may be best known for renegades who forge their own path, the flipside is that these mavericks ultimately become sought-after contributors in the big leagues for those same innovative approaches.

The city’s musicians and engineers boasted sixteen nominees for works released in 2017, conveniently documented by fellow Memphis blogger and musician John Paul Keith. The one nominated record featuring the most Memphians playing together was surely Robert Cray and Hi Rhythm, but, despite some brilliant band chemistry and an inspiring return to form by the classic Hi Rhythm lineup, the Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album went to the formidable pairing of Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’.

Surely the Memphis-related winner with the most international exposure was Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN, which won for Best Rap Album. As it’s an album category, Memphis producer and songwriter Travis “Teddy” Walton, who co-wrote and produced the track “Love,” will take home a statuette for his contribution. The video below gives an insider’s view of Walton’s work flow and how he came to work with Lamar. 

Big Grammy Wins Have Strong Memphis Ties

Matt Ross-Spang

Meanwhile on the rootsier side, we’ve come to expect great things from producer/engineer Matt Ross-Spang. Two years ago, producer Dave Cobb and engineer Ross-Spang contributed to Jason Isbell’s Grammy win in 2016 for the LP Something More Than Free. Now they’ve done it again, with Isbell’s “If We Were Vampires” winning for Best American Roots Song, and he and his band, the 400 Unit, winning Best Americana Album for their LP The Nashville Sound (both engineered by Ross-Spang). Though the album was recorded in Nashville, Ross-Spang’s role in the latest win bodes well for future work at his home base, Sam Phillips Recording.

Finally, one more Grammy winner had Memphis written all over it: the Best Album Notes award for Otis Redding Live At The Whisky A Go Go: The Complete Recordings. Lynell George, the L.A.-based writer who won the award, clearly found her involvement in the album inspiring. “For me the best part of this award is that it honors both Otis’ dream and his memory,” George told the Los Angeles Times after her win was announced. “L.A. was an integral spot on his path, it represented the next rung of fame — going from star to superstar. Those Whisky shows proved that he was more than ready.”

Otis Redding

As the L.A. Times notes about the 1966 shows featured in the release, “Redding’s appearance brought fiery soul and R&B into the mix, and had a huge impact on those who witnessed the shows, including Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, the Band’s Robbie Robertson, Doors guitarist Robby Krieger and future roots music guru Ry Cooder, whose band Rising Sons with blues musician Taj Mahal, opened for Redding.”