JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Ande's at the Grammy's! Any favorite moments?

Anybody watching the Grammy's? Ande is in the audience just a few rows back. I have been text messaging him. He is having a great time! I am so jealous. ha! But I am so thrilled for him! I even got a pic shot from his cell phone. Man I just love modern technology! I kind if felt like I was right there. It's the next best thing!

So are you all enjoying the awards? Any favorite moments? I thought Alicia Keyes sounded pretty good and looked real pretty tonight.

I will say without trying to be mean there are a couple of singer/songwriters that I don't feel deserve to be up there and are quite an embarrassment to the music biz and anything else. One person in particular (cough cough)... what has this world come to? Apparently talent isn't a factor but being absolutely bizzarre is. Hmmmm

Anyhow.. the rest of the show has been quite enjoyable thank God!
Congrats to Vince Gill! I loved Josh Groban and Andrea Bocelli!


Tammy

www.tammyedwards.com
www.myspace.com/tammyedwards2

I thought with a few exceptions that the Grammy's have come a long way to reinstilling some class and integrity into what had gone a long way down the wrong road over the years. Clearly Neal Portnow has brought them back from the disaster that it had become before he took over. Sure, there's always going to be few issues when you're dealing with the politics involved when the stakes are so high, but they brought a respectable mix of music to the forefront.. paying attention to the current hits, but clearly showing respect for those who have come before. And the album of the year was a nice surprise after Amy Winehouse had won 5 of 6 awards she was up for. It took 43 years for another Jazz album to win album of the year.. I think it was about time eh?

Kanye West was the real disappointment. I actually appreciated his performance a lot (his singing aside) because he's right, it's time for some diversity to keep things fresh in his genre. He does bring that. And his tribute to his mom was odd, but heartfelt. Sad that he ruined it all in his acceptance speech and refused to leave the stage like everyone else (including George Martin) when their time was up.

I think they were about 80% of the way back to where the Grammy's should always have been. Each year they get closer to making the show truly representative of all music, not just the most commercial music.

During the pre-awards, I noticed the voting was based mostly on name recognition or connections. I was able to correctly pick all but 3 winners (out of about 65 categories I guessed on) simply by looking at the nominee list they posted and choosing only based that info. That implies it's still primarily a popularity contest with less to do with the music. But it certainly is a good measurement of commercial success and awareness. And anytime musicians get recognition, it's a good thing. There's so little opportunity to make money these days that recognition of all types becomes even more important than ever before.

I think the show itself did the music community proud. If they could figure out a better voting system than simply picking names off a list I think it would be far better for all involved.

Congrats to Daniel Ho! 3 Grammy's in a row!

Brian

I didn't see it all, but I was overjoyed to hear Little Richard kick it out like he did! He's just as old as Jerry Lee, who came off as pretty darn good for an elderly fellow...but Little Richard blazed brightly in comparison. Just love that guy. Sounded better than Paul McCartney did several years ago when he did "Long Tall Sally".

Good for Ande!!!! My favorite moment was when Josh and Andre shared the stage in song! What a class act!! Glad to see Vince Gill took home a Grammy, I love his song "The Reason Why"!!!

I don't have a TV, so I didn't watch, but I just heard that Vince Gill had the best line of the night mentioning to Kanye that he just got an award from a Beatle.

Vince is a CLASS act.

I was wondering where Ande was the whole time, I spoke to him a few days before he took off. Kanye's stage production was cool, ruined by his speaking, he should just stick to music. Beyonce and Tina was fun, Carrie Underwood wasn't at her best, but still better than most, I have seen the LOVE show in Vegas so that was a treat, Vince Gill well deserved and even got his jab in on Kanye which I thought he deserved more than he did the 4 awards. Herbie Hancock, he's just cool and does his own thing, well deserved. Alicia Keyes is a very talented and gracious gal. Kid Rock sounded like a lost pup trying to do that duet but I admire him for trying, though it wasn't even close to what a Grammy performance should be. Brad Paisley took another chance to prove he plays the sh*t out of a guitar. Aretha did nothing to move me, I think she has a little trouble moving like she used to. Amy Winehouse, OK she's unique and has some talent, but I wouldn't call myself a big fan, why we choose to edify people that are so obviously f*cked up I really have no clue, alot of yound people really dig her though, I'll give her that. I recently saw her performing with the Stones, her and Mick were both horribly off key, alot of people are live, I saw Dierks Bentley on Austin City Limits last week and he needed a pitch operator very badly, so there ya go. The Foo Fighters bring alot to the table as far as being unique and doing rock that has great production, good taste, and maintaining the edge that genre must have. The highlight for me was Groban and Bocelli, now that was just beautiful music, did you notice the timing and pitch on that duet singing, now that was a Grammy performance, and quite truthfully one of the only Great performances of the night, although there were alot of good ones, hell alot of us are good, that however was Great.

Moker, I have to agree with you about Groban and Bocelli! That's what I call a class act and a beautiful talent. I think that is what the Grammy's should be about although I still won't discredit the talent in all other genres. I just like classy music. It was wonderful!

Tammy

www.tammyedwards.com
www.myspace.com/tammyedwards2

I've never been into Beyonce's music...really not my style. But when she performed with Tina, she made me feel a little uncomfortable at work. I think my ears kinda turned red.

I couldn't agree more Brian. I really did feel for him with his tribute to his mom, but then, in my book, he totally washed that away by his typical unbridled arrogance. I don't like his genre of music very much, however, I do appreciate his talent. I just wish there was a splash of humility smattered in there somewhere, so I could feel happy for him when he won – right now it's just apathy.

I loved Tina and Beyonce, but wish Tina hadn't decided to wear foil paper and had shown off those famous legs. haha But anyway, she definitely still “has it” in my book, and it was a decent and fun performance. Likewise for Aretha.

The Prayer is one of my favorite songs and I enjoyed the performance immensely.

I was very stoked for Vince Gill as he is one of my all time favorite Singer/Songwriters. He was here for a show in CT and a storm knocked the lights out. After about a half hour of sitting in the dark waiting for the electricity to come back, he asked the 3000+ fans at the Oakdale to be as quiet as possible, then he did the acoustic set of a life time for the appreciative crowd. Seriously, I've never heard anything more beautiful than Vince Gill singing songs like "Love At Us" with just a guitar. Oops digressed big time! But anyway, I was super happy for him last night!

I like Amy's voice and I found her song Rehab quite addictive (no pun intended) in a bunch of wallpaper music on the radio last year, but the album, although amazingly well produced, was my least favorite I bought last year. It only had 2 decent songs in my opinion, so I was surprised that she won for best pop album in the pre-show. I was so happy when she lost out, deservedly so, to Herbie for album of the year! Herbie is a legend and I was so psyched for him!

All in all, I think the show was a tad more entertaining this year than it was last year. I would have liked to see more spreading of the honors, but I guess it was some folks' year.

Favorite Moment: The ever so troubled Amy Winehouse embracing her family and friends after winning record of the year. Something tells me she needs more of that(embracing of loved ones) literally and figuratively. I wish her good luck in her quest to recover from addiction. Music has already lost too many talented people.

Groban and Bocelli were by far the best...I liked this gal who sang a song on just acoustic and had all these horn players with her.....who was that? I liked her song

I don't like everything that Beyonce does, but I think she can really sing. Vince Gill was a surprise since he hasn't won one for a while now. He's the consummate gentleman.

Why Amy won anything is beyond me...I don't think there's anything original about her at all and she's an absolutely terrible role model for anyone...uh, Kanye...hmmm. No comment.

Groban and Bocelli were totally class.

I'm not a huge fan of the Foo Fighters, but do have to appreciate the talent there.

Overall, I think it was one of the more "watchable" Grammy shows in several years. I only fast-forwarded through a few of my less favorite artists.

That was Feist performing the song that Apple made famous with zillions of non stop annoying iPod video ads. I was disappointed to learn she didn't even write the song, someone from Australia did. She's from Canada.

I agree the talent level didn't rise to amazing individual performances as we've seen in previous years. Though Groban was good.. I've actually seen both of those guys much much better. That was an average night for them. (Proving how talented they really are). So, I thought everyone in general brought their B game (except for the really elderly performers who let's face it.. most of us don't play that well in our youth.. imagine doing it in your late 60's and 70's and 80's and 90's (there were several 90+ year old blues performers playing at the pre-awards telecast). But the mix of performers, the interesting combinations (I loved that they brought out Morris Day and the Time, even though I was saying to myself "why in the hell are these guys on stage" while they played, I still loved it) made for an enjoyable evening of entertainment. And let's face it, that should be their first goal at a show like that. I really am sick of the ego maniacs who seem to have some type of ownership over the show. (Kanye West being the poster boy for that). I also find it odd that they cart out Kid Rock constantly. Though I appreciated the idea of the segment he was in, the sad part was that the woman he sang with, the first ever Grammy winner, blew him off the stage vocally and performance wise. He actually forgot the lines at one point. It was bad.

The Amy Winehouse thing was odd. Still not sure how I feel about it all. Her celebrity drug abuser status likely brought her several wins. But I will give her (and moreso her producer) credit for putting out something that, though retro in nature, sounds fresh and different. As mega talented as Beyonce is (and she really IS mega talented) her style of R&B power vocals is so tiring that anything other than that style winning anything (even rap) is a breath of fresh air. I noticed that Christine Aguilera had a throw back album stylistically recently. I guess if you can't innovate further, then go back to the start and do it all again.. and I think we're going to see more of that going forward.

But I give credit where it is due.. the Grammy's have made leaps and bounds back to respecting the music and being a proud example of the best in commercial music (at least during the televised broadcasts portion) that the big corporations have to offer. And th Herbie album wasn't really THAT out of the blue. He had gigantic mega stars all over it.

I thought the Cirque de Soleil segment was very weak. It was an obvious cross-marketing effort and a way to get the beatles music performed by them on the Grammy stage. When the Beatles where in their heyday, the Grammy's largely ignored them. They seemed to skip over that fact.

Brian

Hi Guys:

I didn't get to see the Grammy Awards this year. So glad to hear a Jazz Artist was recognized. Obviously, Vince Gill, who is such a class act... was a nice surprise and I agree with the others... well deserved.

Now, if somebody will just teach me how to use this darn TiVo knock-off the Dish people have provided... I'll try to think ahead and record some of these shows... and zoom through the stinkin' commercials. LOL!

All my best,

Dave

I have a number of jazz musician friends who were ecstatic that a jazz record won this year. It will do a lot for their own CD sales, no doubt.

Dave, You gotta learn to use that thing! Since getting a DVR, I rarely watch "live TV" anymore. I started watching the Grammys about an hour after they started and got to skip through all the commercials.

I haven't watched (or payed much attention to) the Grammy's in years, but I watched almost all of the show the other night an I really enjoyed it. The selection and variety of music was great.

I thought Vince Gill's line was pretty funny, and I did enjoy seeing Amy Winehouse do her thing. Haven't listened to her much, but, but I do like her sound. I thought the Herbie Hancock and ... I forget the other pianist's name... performance was amazing, and I was glad he won Album of the Year.

Overall, I was really impressed. I'll be paying more attention to the Grammy's next year.

I thought the show this year was great - SOOOO much better than the last several years. I was So excited that Herbie won!!! Go Herbie!!! Go Joanie Mitchell!!!

I was absolutely glued to the George Gershwin segment, with the two grand pianos and excellent pianists!! Loved the old and the new. Great show!

And congratulations to Daniel Ho! Daniel and Ande, I'm going to be picking your brain when you get back, because I'm submitting a project for next year and have never done this before - need any and all advice I can get

Thanks!!!
Cher

Cher

thank you tammy

here's my blog of someoof what I could remember


Friday
arrived in LA from San Antonio. We flew the United direct flight that left at 6:00 am so we left home at 3:30
Got to LA around 7:00 am got our bags and rent car and got breakfast.

Went to our hotel then to the Staples center to pick up our tickets.

Saturday Feb 9th
Went to Manns Chinese theater

noon I went to BMI's 2nd Annual
'How I Wrote That Song' panel discussion on the art of songwriting at The Key Club in Hollywood
http://www.bmi.com/events/entry/536027
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news..._bmi_honor_songwriting.html?200802130458
I invited Ryan Jirovec and treated him and his mom, I recorded the whole thing and was thinking about pod casting it but when I looked at my recorder when I got home all the files were erased.

Autographs: Chris Daughtry, Fat Joe and Polow da don

Evening I went to the
Grammy Special Merit Awards and Nominee Reception
they honored
Burt Bacharach, (not there, kids accepted)
The Band, (several were there, Robby Robertson)
Cab Calloway, (daughter accepted)
Doris Day, (not there sent a letter)
Izhak Perlman, (not there kids accepted)
Max Roach and (decd kids accepted)
Earl Scruggs (was there, his son Randy wast there too)

Trustees awards were given to
Clarence Avant (Quincy Jones introduced him)
Jac Holzman
Willie Mitchell (was there, huge memphis, songwriter and producer)

Nominee Reception was fun
Autograph: Eddie Montgomery of Montgomery Gentry
had a nice conversation with Gentle Thunder.
wanted to stay longer

Sunday grammy stuff
Took a shuttle van to the grammys around 1:20
(waiting on women to get ready, doors opened at 12:30 event started at 1:00)
walked the backside of the red carpet
(the red carpet is split in 2 sections
front part is for famous people and muckety mucks, with news people and handlers lining up interviews,
back part is for every one else, there's police officers and bouncer types present to encourage people to keep moving)
found out later I should have told them I was a governor and I would have gotten to walk the celebrity side. (maybe next time, if there is a next time, I'm up for reelection in April)

Pretelecast: Arrived as #43 the Hawaiians were on stage.
They awarded 100, I looked behind me a few rows back was Ace Youngfrom Idol Season 5. http://www.americanidol.com/contestants/season5/

Many famous artists weren't present to accept their grammys, but I was impressed that Carrie Underwood ran to the stage to accept hers, Brad Paisely was present to accept his in the instrumental country category and the Foo Fighters were also there to accept theirs. I was thrilled that Willie "Pinetop" Perkins, 94 http://www.pinetopperkins.com/ from Austin, TX won the traditional blues Grammy for their appropriately titled album
"Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen:
Live in Dallas." He got up and played he wore a bright red suit and hat with a blue feather.

Autographs: I got Carrie Underwood's
My daughter got Ace Young's and David Grohls from the Foo fighters in my songwriting book

when the pre telecast was over we walked over to the Grammys
as we walked over I said hello to band members from Shiny Toy Guns and asked if Steven McClintock was around. They said he was, a little later I said hi and shook his hand while we were in line.

My son an I sat in the Platinum Section for Grammy Governors, we were about 35 feet from stage left in the 9th row on the side next to the stairs. Stage left means if you're facing the stage from the audience we were on the right.

Our seats were in section 119 on the 9th row, seat 18 & 19
so I sat right next to the stairs where I requested to be
here's a seating chart, thought the stage was more upfront about 25 feet from the stage above the floor. (sections 113 - 118 were backstage and blocked off.
http://www.ticketmaster.com/seatingchart/73985/2358


On the floor I saw Cindy Lauper, Ringo Star, Yoko Ono, Bonnie Raitt, George Martin (beatles), Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Taylor Swift, the Foo fighters, Tony Bennett, Josh Groban, Carrie Underwood, and many others

Had an absolute blast

Made a scrap book of all the Grammy stuff I collected
including a little of the confetti they blasted out during the final performance, many people shuffled near the end, not realizing that there was a finale performance of a beatles song.

It felt great to be part of such an awesome organization and event and I encourage you to get involved too.

Autographs: got Tony Bennett and Robby Robertson from "The Band" (take a load off Annie) I asked, Yoko Ono but she refused. I was an arms length from George Martin but like a fool I was suddenly too shy ask.

after party,
had some great hordeourves type food, it was open bar, had one cab, I walked past Evander Holyfield but didn't get his Autograph. We walked around a little then made our way to the stage where Cindy Lauper was about to perform. she wasn't on stage so a crowd hadn't formed but when she walked on and performed several songs there was a sea of people behind me. We stood right by the stage and watched her perform her hits barefoot, Several times she gave angry looks and hand signals to the sound guy. I guess wanting to adjust her monitors.

Food at the after party was delicious, open bar, lavish decorations and athletic barely dressed cirque du soliel type performers performed on multiple stages and wandered through the crowds it was quite a specacle. We were feeling tired and decided to leave as Cindy wrapped up her set. Near the exits they were handing out Grammy Bags filled with TIGI Bedhead Type Products.

We walked over to the shuttles, got on it took us to the Biltmore which was close to our hotel.

Monday I met with Harold Payne and Allison Sattinger for lunch. Harold and I have a song in the works.
http://cdbaby.com/cd/haroldpayne93/from/ande
http://cdbaby.com/cd/haroldpayne01/from/ande
http://cdbaby.com/cd/gravityband/from/ande

http://cdbaby.com/cd/sattinger2/from/ande
http://cdbaby.com/cd/sattinger/from/ande

I met Harold through JPF and Allison went to school with my friend and cowriter Adam Donmoyer. Both people are awesome artists and class acts. Harold is the featured perfomer and one of the cowriters of JPF's theme song
We're all in this together.



Tuesday I went home, If I get re elected as a governor or officer and go again I want to arrive a few days earlier and participate in more of the events.

If you want to go to the Grammy's
(here's what you might budget for one person)

$100 grammy membership (allows you to buy 6 tickets)
$300 airfare
$300 - $600 hotel (could be more if you go fancy)
$300 - $1,000 ticket
$200 after party ticket
then there's food, transportation, and airport parking
We rented a car, the funny thing is the hotel parking was $42 a day and the car cost $20 a day
There tends to be lots of food at Grammy

don't forget shopping

when we arrived we needed to kill a little time so we went to el segundo beach to watch the surfers waves, pelicans and dolphins

Awesome Ande! I am so glad you had a great time! Sounds so wonderful! Thanks for the detailed report. Sounds like you had to wait on woman, and didn't get there right on time. ha! So typical of us gals. So it looks like going to the Grammy's could run between 1k and 2k depending on how fancy a person wants to go. Sounds good. Something to save up for! Thanks for the info!

Tammy

www.tammyedwards.com
www.myspace.com/tammyedwards2

There's a picture of me, Tammy and Harold sitting on the table in my office. It's the only picture I have displayed right now.. = )

I do have one that includes myself, Harold Payne, Melody Guy, Kerry Getz, Cindy Alexander, Todd Herzog, Joe Rathburn, Corrine May and Susan Gibson sitting on the floor waiting to go up. There's zillions of others I keep thinking I should print out and frame. Tammy was nice enough to send me the one of her and Harold. Harold's still the classiest act I've ever met in my entire JPF lifetime.

Brian

Sounded like a great time Ande!

thanks david

y'all here's details from my 2007 trip

here's a few other details of my Grammy experience


Friday
We arrived, went to Venice Beach, had lunch then drove up to Malibu. Shirley wasn't feeling well so we headed back to the Hotel. We stayed at the Sheraton on Hope Street, we stayed on the Lounge level, they provided breakfast and happy hour each day.

Saturday
I met with Alan O'Day who wrote "Undercover Angel" and "Rock N Roll Heaven."

Then attended a BMI songwriting workshop on Sunset
http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/534304
http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/534415

That evening we went to the Grammy Special Merit Awards Event, special awards were given to Joan Baez, Booker T and the MG's, Maria Callas, Ornette Coleman, The Doors, Grateful Dead, Bob Wills, Estelle Axton, Cosimo Matassa, Stephen Sondheim David Smith, & Yamaha. My friend Shirley is nuts about the Doors so I got her Robby Krieger's autograph. Immediately after we attended the Nominee Reception.


Sunday
Walked over from the Hotel to the event to attend the Pre Telecast Awards, the girls didn't want to attend that part. I sat pretty close to the front and Joe Satriani and Stevie Vai performed, later Zuleka Rivera, the 2006 Miss Universe was one of the hosts. There were 99 Grammy's awarded in that ceremony and I watched the first 58. Some of the recipeints weren't there to accept their Grammy but I enjoyed hearing the acceptance speeches from those who were there. Like when they announced Angelin Chang, in the Classical Solo category she jumped to her feet, screamed WOW then gave a very moving acceptance speech, she said. "What a great journey through a wonderland of music, I urge us all to support music education. We wouldn't be here but for our teachers." Angelin's mom and dad were sitting in the audience. A little later the Hawaiian category was announced and the largest group got up, each person gave a short acceptance speech. At # 58 there was a break, Susan Tedeschi got up and performed and my wife called so I met up with her, Tena, and Shirley.

Beth and I walked the red carpet which was a tunnel of tents. We saw ourselves on TV in the back ground on the Grammy Awards With Joan & Melissa when their male correspondent was interviewing Omarossa. The truth is the red carpet carpet was split in 2 sections, 1 for TV cameras, media, celebrities and nominees and another for normal people to walk with out all the fan fare,

Our seats were "stage right," in section 112 on the 8th row,
here's a seating chart, thought the stage was more upfront about 25 feet from the stage above the floor. (sections 113 - 118 were backstage and blocked off.
http://www.ticketmaster.com/seatingchart/73985/2358
The stage was split in half so the crew could set up and tear down while one act was performing. We could see things on our side very well, but had a bad angle for the other side. The Police performed on our side. Sitting on the floor near us on the floor was Reba, Scarlett Johansen, Samuel L Jackson, Lionel, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Paris Hilton, guys from earthwind and fire, Smokey Robinson, couple guys from the grateful dead, jackson brown. My friend shirley is nuts about Jackson so I got his sig for her.

One of the interesting things, is that many of the celebrities came and left and there were people who worked as seat fillers, there were organizers who filed people in and out during the breaks, like Paris Hilton showed up late for the show, she was only there for about 2 songs and talked on her cell most of the time. I'll write more later

We also attended the after party, Chaka Kahn and Kool and the Gang Performed.


Monday
When I was in the airport waiting for my flight home. I saw Cowboy Troy walking out of a store and I asked
"Are you Cowboy Troy?"

he said "yeah"

I told him I bought his "Hook "Em Horns" song
asked him when he graduated from UT

he said 1993

Then we talked for a few more minutes and I met his Tour manager.

My impression of him was he's a nice laid back humble person

added details about where we sat to my blog

Our seats were in section 119 9th row, seat 18 & 19
so I sat right next to the stairs where I requested to be

here's a seating chart, thought the stage was more upfront about 25 feet from the stage above the floor. (sections 113 - 118 were backstage and blocked off.
http://www.ticketmaster.com/seatingchart/73985/2358

Hi Ande!!

Got a few questions...When do you suggest we arrive when going to the Grammy's? Are there events happening all week leading up to the ceremony? Are the "non-telecast" awards given out earlier that day or earlier that week? What is the meaning of life? (ok, I know it's 42.)

Cher & Gene

I need to dig up Susan Gibson's Grammy diary which we ran that year in two parts in the newsletter... it's was really funny to read.

(PS: Susan wrote Wide Open Spaces which won awards for just about everyone surrounding it EXCEPT Susan that year).