Boygenius, Stax among big local winners
The 66th annual Grammy Awards were handed out Sunday in Los Angeles and Memphis/mid-south artists had a whole lot to celebrate, with boygenius, DJ Paul, Bobby Rush and Stax Records among the big winners.
Indie rock super group boygenius — featuring Germantown-born, Bartlett-raised Julien Baker — came into the awards with six nominations for its debut LP, “The Record.” boygenius won three Grammys, earning trophies for Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song for “Not Strong Enough,” and Best Alternative Music Album.
boygenius — featuring Baker and fellow singersongwriters Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus — was on hand to accept the awards. An emotional Baker offered a speech after the group notched its second win. “All I ever wanted to do in my life was be in a band,” said Baker, fighting back tears. “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.”
boygenius lost in the Best Alternative Performance category, falling to Franklin, Tennessee, pop-punk combo Paramore. The group also was nominated for Record of the Year and Album of the Year, losing to Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift respectively.
Legendary Memphis soul label Stax Records also was honored with a pair of Grammys for the archival set “Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos” — a seven-cd collection of 146 tracks putting the spotlight on Stax’s legendary roster of songwriters including Bettye Crutcher, Homer Banks and William Bell, among others.
“Written In Their Soul” won the Grammy for Best Album Notes, with the honor going to its co-authors, previous Grammy-winning writer Robert Gordon and veteran Stax publicist and executive Deanie Parker. Parker accepted the award along with Gordon, and noted that the set “shines a light on many of the foremost Stax songwriters.”
“We’re grateful to the recording academy,” added Gordon, who had previously won a Best Album Notes Grammy in 2011 for his work on Big Star boxed set, “Keep An Eye on the Sky.” “We have insured that the songwriters of Stax records will live on through songs written in their soul.”
“Written In Their Soul” — which was nearly two decades in the making — was compiled by multiple Grammy-winning producer Cheryl Pawelski. Pawelski shared the award for Best Historical Album along with Gordon and Parker, and fellow producers Mason Williams and Michelle Smith. The Stax set held off competition from the likes of Bob Dylan and Lou Reed, among others.
“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 and they
prospered,” said Parker in a speech accepting the Best Historical Album honor. “This set highlights some of Stax and America’s most talented rhythm and blues songwriters.”
Parker went on to thank the Stax label’s current owner, Concord Music, as well as the Stax Music Academy and Stax Museum of American Soul Music.
In the blues category, Mississippi legend and past Grammy winner Bobby Rush won his third award for Best Traditional Blues Album for “All of My Love for
You.” The 90-year-old Rush beat out a group of competitors that included Mississippian Mr. Sipp.
Accepting his Grammy, Rush paid homage to a number of his late blues and R&B compatriots. “I’ll treasure this in honor of Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Tyrone Davis, Johnnie Taylor, all the guys that come before me that I looked up to,” he said. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” (In the Best Contemporary Blues Album category, Mississippian Christone “Kingfish” Ingram missed his shot at a second Grammy in the category, having previously won in 2022, as Nashvillebased band Larkin Poe took the award).
Three 6 Mafia co-founder DJ Paul — aka Paul Beauregard — earned a Grammy in the “Best Rap Song” category. DJ Paul was one of the writers on Atlanta rapper Killer Mike’s “Scientists & Engineers” which took the honor. Killer Mike’s “Michael” album further dominated the Grammy rap categories, winning the Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song awards, and DJ Paul was by his side as he accepted the honors.
Memphis producer and engineer Matt Ross-spang — already a two-time Grammy winner — earned two trophies during the ceremonies. He co-produced Blind Boys of Alabama’s “Echoes of the South” which won in the Best Roots Gospel Album. Ross-spang also co-engineered Jason Isbell’s “Weathervanes” LP, which won for Best Americana Album, while the track “Cast Iron Skillet” won for Best American Roots Song. Isbell is a former Memphian and recent University of Memphis graduate.