(LOS ANGELES, CA) – The winners were announced Jan 26th but we wanted to give just a bit more backstory on the Blues and Americana winners at the 62nd GRAMMY Awards since we didn’t run last week in the e-Guide. Of course, in case you hadn’t heard, the winner for 2019 Best Traditional Blues Album is Tall, Dark & Handsome by Delbert McClinton & Self-Made Men + Dana; the 2019 Best Contemporary Blues Album winner is This Land by Gary Clark Jr.; and the 2019 Best Americana Album is Oklahoma by Keb’ Mo’.
This was 78-year-old McClinton first GRAMMY in 14 years having earned three previously; 1992 Rock Performance by a Duo with Bonnie Raitt for “Good Man, Good Woman;” 2002 Contemporary Blues Album for Nothing Personal; 2006 Best Contemporary Blues Album for Cost of Living.
“When I found out I was nominated, I got to be honest with you, I felt like I could breathe a little bit,” Gary Clark had told Rolling Stone of his nomination. “I was confident in myself, obviously, because I love doing it. I didn’t care what anyone thinks, but I was trying to make a life out of it and kind of be a rebel with a cause—or without a cause, depending on who you are. People were like, ‘I don’t know what to do with you. I don’t know who that is or who you’re trying to be.’ And here I was.” Clark, who also won a 2019 GRAMMY for Best Rock Song “The Land,” and “Best Rock Performance said, “I’m speechless!” in an interview after the receiving his awards, and gave big kudos to Jimmie Vaughan for finding him and showing him love and encouragement by taking him out on his very first tour. Clark won his first GRAMMY in 2014 for Best Traditional R&B Performance for “Please Come Home.”
This is first time he’s won in the Americana category. “This is amazing, I don’t know what to say,” Keb’ Mo’ said in his acceptance speech when thanking his collaborators on Oklahoma, which included his wife and artists Rosanne Cash and Taj Mahal. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, wow.” The four-time GRAMMY winner last won a GRAMMY for his 2017 album, TajMo, which took home the GRAMMY for Best Contemporary Blues Album, a category he’s won a total of four times. He’s won Best Contemporary Blues Album in 1997 for Just Like You, 1999 for Slow Down and 2005 for Keep It Simple.
