It felt like her year.
Brandy Clark is no stranger to the Grammys. Over the past decade, the Morton-reared singer-songwriter has become a perennial contender whenever she unleashes a new album, artfully walking the ridge between Americana and country’s mainstream.
Armed with a bold new self-titled album produced by fellow Washingtonian Brandi Carlile, 2024 was already Clark’s biggest showing yet with six nominations that placed her among this year’s top nominees. Racking up 17 career nominations over the past decade without taking home a trophy, her fortunes seemed destined to change on Sunday during the 66th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.
It wouldn’t take long for Clark’s party to begin. Minutes before accepting her first-ever Grammy win for best Americana performance, Clark took the stage early into the show’s daytime Premiere Ceremony, where most of the awards are handed out, for an arresting solo rendition of “Dear Insecurity,” a song recorded as a duet with Carlile. Ceding the moment to Clark, Carlile helped lead her cheering section in the Peacock Theater, across the street from the Crypto.com Arena where tonight’s televised ceremony takes place.
Surrounded by a small army of string players, including SistaStrings of Carlile’s live band, Clark emerged from the shadows, standing cool and confident at the mic stand for a chillingly powerful rebuke of the voices in our heads whispering self-doubts.
Fortunately, she didn’t stray too far from the stage, promptly returning once presenter Carly Pearce revealed that Clark and Carlile had won best Americana performance with “Dear Insecurity.”
“Wow. Thank you,” Clark gasped, clearly taken aback after being handed her first Grammy trophy. “Thank you Warner Records. Thank my mom for always believing in me, whatever my crazy dreams have been,” she added before shouting out various members of her team.
“And mostly, I want to thank Brandi Carlile for making this record with me and … for championing so many of us,” Clark finished.
A less-stunned but equally giddy Carlile joined her on stage, grinning ear to ear. “I love you, B,” she exclaimed.
Carlile would lend a similar supporting smile to Joni Mitchell, accompanying the music icon as she accepted the best folk album award for “Joni Mitchell at Newport,” the live album from Mitchell’s surprise comeback performance at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival. Later during the televised ceremony, Carlile joined Mitchell for her first Grammys performance, introducing the legendary singer-songwriter as “the matriarch of imagination, a true Renaissance woman.”
Mitchell, Carlile and friends brought a taste of last summer’s Gorge Amphitheatre gig to the Grammys, sitting in a living room-style half circle mimicking the jam sessions at Mitchell’s house that aided her recovery from a near-fatal brain aneurysm in 2015. Seated in a gold-trimmed easy chair, a cane-tapping Mitchell led the crew through one of her best known songs, “Both Sides Now,” her voice rich and tender. Easily one of the standout moments of the night, the performance drew a standing ovation from the room full of celebs, including Meryl Streep and Beyoncé.
Clark and Carlile’s joint win with “Dear Insecurity” would be the Americana stars’ only victories Sunday, with Clark losing out to outlaw belter Chris Stapleton and twang rocker Jason Isbell in the other country, roots and Americana categories in which they were nominated. Clark was also up for best musical theater album for her work on Broadway play “Shucked,” though the award went to “Some Like It Hot.”
“It feels amazing because it’s a journey home for me,” Clark told reporters backstage. “It was a journey home to make this record with Brandi, both of us being from the Northwest, and then sonically it was a journey home because it is the rawest I’ve ever been. And it feels so amazing to have that be rewarded.”
Carlile was also up for best pop group/duo performance for her supporting vocals on Miley Cyrus’ “Thousand Miles.”
Clark and Carlile’s win, as well as Clark’s showstopping performance, were hardly the only local bright spots from the afternoon ceremony.
Although the Foo Fighters struck out in their three nominations, Bellevue-based violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan earned a best global music album prize for Shakti’s “This Moment.” An accomplished player in the world of Carnatic music, a style of South Indian classical, Rajagopalan was invited to join the revived ‘70s band featuring progressive jazz guitar great John McLaughlin. “This Moment,” Shakti’s first official album in more than 45 years, blends traditional Indian music and jazz fusion. It was an impressive win in a catchall category that included Afrobeats titans Burna Boy and Davido.
If there was an award for best backstage news conference, the clearly delighted Shakti crew (minus McLaughlin) surely would have taken it. Asked how they felt after their Grammy win, the trio broke out in a beautifully skittering vocal harmony.
A glowing Rajagopalan said he was “really grateful for the entire journey,” while directing praise to his bandmates and Shakti’s founders.
“It’s 50 years of labor of love and pain and hard work that we all are here enjoying those roots,” he said.
Seattle-rooted vocal quartet säje picked up their first Grammy for best arrangement, instrument and vocals with their song “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning” featuring Jacob Collier, who also took part in Mitchell’s performance. The all-female foursome consists of Roosevelt High School grad Sara Gazarek, Cornish College of the Arts professor/Seattle jazz staple Johnaye Kendrick, Amanda Taylor and the lone non-Seattle member Erin Bentlage.
It was säje’s second Grammy nomination after impressively earning their first in 2021 with their independently released debut single. After this year’s win, the L.A.-based Gazarek said the “thrilling” honor “feels like a win for so many female and independent creators.”
“I think I speak for a large group of independent musicians when I say that a lot of times this kind of acknowledgment feels like it’s out of grasp for a lot of us that aren’t signed to major labels, don’t have major publicists,” Gazarek said backstage. “So there’s been a lot of work and a lot of sisterhood and a lot of love.”
Folk-country growler Zach Bryan, a Navy vet who wrote many of his first big songs while stationed in Washington, was unable to net his first Grammy win on Sunday despite three nods. While amassing a legion of passionate country fans, the barrel-chested singer-songwriter has kept the Nashville establishment at a distance, a move unlikely to curry favor with the country delegation of the Recording Academy, which runs the Grammys.
Although he wasn’t officially nominated, Sammamish singer-songwriter SYML was surely rooting for Lana Del Rey to take home album of the year honors, the Grammy’s most prestigious prize. The alt-pop star got hooked on the real-life Brian Fennell’s music, which ranges from full-band folk-pop to electro-brushed singer-songwriter fare, and recorded vocals to one of his instrumental tunes. Del Rey’s version, titled “Paris, Texas,” appears on her Grammy-nominated album “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd” — as does a sermonizing interlude from Kirkland celebrity pastor Judah Smith.
Ultimately, the award went to — who else — Taylor Swift, who became the first artist to win the award four times.
