#Revelation Rock Gospel Choirs

[septembersghost]

I feel like fine line vault will have the most experimental songs. He was gravitating towards pop with adore you and WS while staying near his comfort zone that was rock. Sunflower was probably a turning point in deciding hsh sound.

sonical things aside I want to listen to his bitter songs about camille's nepo boyfriend and his art gallery lmao

there's a lot of fusion across sounds and genres that happens on fine line and i am in love with it forever. the initial high and glitter and infatuation and freedom and revelation of the first four tracks, the groovy guitar and the gospel choir, swooping down into the sweetbitter sting of cherry and its delicate acoustics and its tinged pink atmosphere (pathetic was his word, regretful is mine), and then the full scale piano soaring vocals drowning heartbreak ballad of falling (that plea: what am i now? i cannot), and then the cheeky/resentful self-deprecating ukulele match strike of to be so lonely, and then the more hs1 old-fashioned rock epic in she, and then sunflower comes in and goes, "hi, so we've been moping for a while, it's time to get psychedelic with it."

sunflower is the light switching back on (lights up and you know who you are, do you know who you are?), some recovery, some happy memories, still the yearning, but it's giving way to something else. the genius of "does he take you walkin' 'round his parents' gallery?" transforming into "i've got your face hung up high in the gallery." HELLO? nepo boyfriend can take you to SEE the art, but to harry...you ARE the art. he's still self-criticizing and reflecting, but in a less harsh way (not the wandering hands or arrogant son of a bitch, just trying hard not to act a fool). kiss in the kitchen like it's a dance floor! keep it sweet in your memory! we're finding our way through! the silly bizarre nonsense mushroom noises because his humor is sparkling back into view. and then! suddenly! bursting onto the scene in screaming bright color, guitars and dulcimer and whistling and sunshine, is canyon moon, and we're going home!!! an old lover's hippie music! you do not understand (actually you probably do), i love the storytelling that happens there SO much. i LOVE the way sunflower was a turning point in the writing and sits as a turning point on the album itself, where it's like, we've grieved, we've paced, we've been lost and questioned everything, we've felt it all, and now it's time to find the sun again. (take me back to the light...i've been thinking back to a time under the canyon moon. golden is answered in sunflower and canyon moon.) i'm going home and looking to treat people with kindness, in spite of everything. go home and take a deep breath and reflect on everything that's happened, and feel that hurt and that mysterious pull, and remember the love that was there, in six minutes and eighteen seconds of catharsis, and it's all just such a fine line. crisp trepidation (the vocal layering and harmonies there. then the horns at the end!), because the fear is crystalline, but we keep going anyway. that's what we always are, constantly walking along it. we'll be a fine line, over and over, in different ways. maybe that's okay. maybe we'll be alright.

perfect album i am so serious.

ALL that said, because it is such a perfect album and told in such a specific way and follows a story, anything extraneous or that didn't directly enrich it, or was TOO cutting or too sorrowful, he took out, which objectively i understand for the sake of the art, but subjectively and selfishly, i want to know what it was. I NEED. i'll take the even more experimental ones, the bitter and angry songs, or sad ones, or earlier adoring ones, please give them all to me immediately. the fact that this will probably never happen??? i can't think about it!

*jenny slate meme* i had to stop thinking about fine line because it made me too crazy! harry would just be like, "loving you's the antidote -> you've got my devotion, but man, i can hate you sometimes." or "i know that you're scared because i'm so open -> spreading you open is the only way of knowing you..." and i was like, "SCREAMS!!!"

[stylesnews]

Harry Styles is a Rorschach test – the antithesis of his pop peers who are very keen to set the terms of their own narrative and furiously reject what they perceive as incorrect interpretations of their work. He offers little information about his personal life, and seldom cares to address comments about his relationships and sexuality; a recent cover profile in Rolling Stone provided a portrait of a boy at ease with fame, partial to Steely Dan and magic mushrooms, but not much in the way of hard detail. This laissez-faire approach is probably a reaction to spending his teenage years in One Direction, a band tightly controlled so as not to alienate potential consumers, though the upshot is much the same: he can be all things to all people. A sceptic could take it as a commercial strategy; another might suggest that such an approach wouldn’t be available to female pop stars, who are generally held to more punishing standards. Either way, there is something quite soothing about his welcome-all-comers approach. Lights Up, his excellent comeback single – presumably the first from his forthcoming second album – is another open door. It largely leaves behind the 70s rock influences of his 2017 debut for more soulful territory, halfway between the rootedness of Michael Kiwanuka and the celestial airiness of Frank Ocean. It is laced with surprises – the looping, stilted pre-chorus cracks the easy mood, and even the sound of a gospel choir gets processed to an unnerving intensity – and sounds nothing like his blandly secular British male peers, or the narcotised synth-pop that’s dominated this year. As with his debut solo single, Sign of the Times (2017), Lights Up could easily straddle the Radio 1 and 2 playlists: the former thanks to his residual teen heartthrob status, the latter courtesy of the sophisticated production and conspicuous vintage elements. Meanwhile, the hardcore element of his fanbase have taken it as “proof” of Styles’s coming out as bisexual – his progressive attitude to sexuality (other people’s – he has never elucidated his own) and gender-fluid dress sense have seen him adopted as a queer ally. He sings about wondering who he is, coming into the light and refusing to go back; the song was released on National Coming Out Day, and the unequivocally sexy video features a shirtless, sweaty Styles being grasped at by dancers of all genders. Who knows if they’re right – Styles’s ability to imply intimacy while remaining beguilingly vague is his defining pop trait. The verses of Lights Up could find him and a former partner talking at cross-purposes around the void of a relationship, or they could be a conflicted inner monologue; the personal revelation he unearths in the chorus is as blinding as it is oblique: “Step into the light … I’m not ever going back.” While Styles is unlikely to offer up the results of self-actualisation publicly, his unlikely post-boyband evolution remains captivating.

[bardofsomerset]

“Together We Stand” - WiM 2016

In grand tradition, a year after it should have been posted, my most recent revvy musings.

WiM is a magical place, so obviously it comes together spontaneously through some undefined magic.

No? Well, then obviously the WiM Co-ordinator is a magical person who makes WiM happen through their undefined magic.

As I more than once had to tell the 2016 WiM Co-ordinator to go and lie down before she fell over because she was so ill, I don’t think this is true. WiM is put together by a team. A whole group of people working together behind the scenes so by the time WiM starts, it looks like magic. That team is made up of people like you.

I don’t, as a general rule, volunteer for things. I realise I’m writing this as a member of Rev’s National Volunteer Team, so obviously something went wrong somewhere along the line. I’m taking my article on WiM 2016 as a chance to think about why. For the last two years, my volunteering hasn’t just been confined to the national network. I’ve also been an active volunteer in the organisation of WiM; Rev’s annual week away. If someone like me can do that, I see no reason why you shouldn’t be able to as well. Whether on the national team or an event team, Rev has something you can do.

I’ve mentioned before how it took me a long time to make it to my first WiM. When I eventually did go, in 2013, it was only because of a bit (or more than a bit) of nudging from a friend. It was a scary experience, but rather brilliant, and I enjoyed myself very much. Feeling quite triumphant about my successful attendance, I did the same thing next year. I saw no need to do more. I’d found somewhere I was comfortable and the idea of volunteering still seemed unnatural. Besides, no one needed me.

The next WiM, in 2014, was when I ended up on the National Volunteer Team, but that was entirely an accident. I wrote one piece for one concert programme and my ever encouraging friend had suddenly nudged me right into writing for Rev all the time. It wasn’t my idea. There wasn’t even a position waiting for me – they had to create a new one from scratch. That just shows you how eager Rev is to give new people a chance in whatever way they can. You don’t have to know what you want to do – just say you want to help; they’ll find you a place.

That same friend who nominated me to write for Rev also suggested, and I just kind of nodded (as I usually do) that 2015 would be a good time to try being on WiM team. After all, there were media positions on the team that were pretty similar to my new national role. I could write letters to people, which was one of my specialities.

I considered. Could I do it? It was theoretically inside my capabilities, but it was also a little outside of my comfort zone. I was still considering the day before the job application deadline. It really did seem quite a lot of effort. I was perfectly happy just attending WiM as an attendee. I thought I might not bother.

That evening, I received a Facebook message from that year’s WiM Co-ordinator. She wasn’t the person who normally nudged me into these things, but she was (and still is) a friend. It seemed that just because I didn’t think they needed me, it didn’t mean they didn’t want me. She said, “I was just wondering if you are considering applying for a position on team this year. I’d really love to have you on my WiM team! Would be great to have your local knowledge and awesome writing skills.”

What can you do when a friend says something like that? When I expressed my uncertainty, she said, “I’d love you to be on team but no pressure, it has to be the right thing for you.” She was being far too understanding. There was no way I could say no.

My first ever WiM job was Press and Sponsorship Secretary. I had to send letters to businesses asking them if they’d send us free stuff because we’re a charity and letters to local media asking them to tell the world we were putting on a concert. It was a job I could finish before WiM even started. I felt quite satisfied with myself as I typed and sent out my e-mails. Absolutely none of the people I contacted replied, so the success of my first WiM role can be debated, but no one was angry at the lack of sponsorship and I was able to spend the week of WiM itself relatively chilled.

At least at first. Right until concert day. You see, the media team (of which Press and Sponsorship Secretary is part), are more generally responsible for things like concert programmes and tickets at WiM. These things become more important when the concert is only a few hours away. Especially when you don’t even have a final set list yet. It’s difficult to print programmes when you don’t actually know what’s going in them.

I mentioned in a previous article how I ended up preparing a PowerPoint, folding more concert programmes than I humanly thought possible (why did we not print them until an hour before the concert?) and arranging some biscuits all in in the one half hour of free time we had on concert day. Well, plus during half a rehearsal that I ended up skipping (I knew the songs as well as I was going to by then). It was a bit ridiculous, but it wasn’t just me. There were three of us on the media team. There’s another important lesson – when you’re volunteering with Rev, there’s always someone there ready to help and support you.

My position was overseen by the Media Secretary and she didn’t mind that no one responded to my sponsorship requests. She did compliment my letter writing and made herself available whenever I had questions. I didn’t have to be alone. As I added words to someone else’s pictures on the PowerPoint, there was a feeling of satisfaction at seeing the work being completed. Half the joy of WiM is making the impossible seem possible.

For reasons best known to herself, nudging me onto the National Volunteer Team and helping me on WiM team weren’t enough for my friend. When WiM was over, she told me that I should be Admin/Treasurer at WiM 2016. As we have established previously, when she tells me I should do something, I generally end up doing it. Admin/Treasurer was a leadership role, bigger and more important than Press and Sponsorship Secretary. I’d be in charge of e-mailing all WiM attendees, of managing their payments and making sure they knew where the church was and what kit they had to bring. I would be the one who made the signup forms, then sorted the information they gave me. It was all very important.

Again it was a job I could mostly do before WiM even began. Again it required plenty of writing but little face-to-face interaction. Unlike other leadership roles, I wasn’t responsible for a team of my own. The only other member of WiM team I had to collaborate with was the WiM Co-ordinator, with whom I shared an identical taste in books and therefore could work with well. When we weren’t too busy talking about lady knights and militant librarians. She also rapped the plot of Macbeth to me at one point. It was a perfect partnership. Still, it was quite a lot of responsibility.

Luckily, I again had support, both from the WiM Co-ordinator and the National Finance Administrator. Payments couldn’t be made for WiM without the National Finance Administrator’s access to the Rev bank account. Guess who the National Financial Administrator was in 2016? If you guessed the same person who had been my supervising Media Secretary and who had convinced me to come to WiM in the first place, you’d be right. Yet again Rev proved I didn’t have to do anything alone. Even better, I didn’t need to do any of the mathematical half of my job, which was what had almost put me off applying.

One of the most important things for me to decide was the WiM budget. My guidance said I needed to consult with the National Finance Administrator and the WiM Co-ordinator to decide how much money we had to spend and to inform the team. I couldn’t attend the Forum where the budget was first discussed, but NFA and WC put together their first draft and sent it to me for any improvements I thought could be made.

As the NFA is a qualified maths teacher and the WC is a structural engineer, they’re both reasonably familiar with working with numbers. I am a writer. Maths is not particularly my area of expertise. The only numbers I worry about are word counts in my stories (which I’m not very good at sticking to anyway). I told them I was sure they knew what they were doing and gave it my stamp of approval. See, being on WiM team is easy. Just delegate or ask for help.

Making signup forms proved a trickier responsibility for me as WiM Administrator. Trying to figure out all the information we needed to know and how to frame questions so they would fit in the limited format of Survey Monkey took some experimentation. However, it was the sort of puzzle I enjoy. Then there was repeatedly e-mailing the WiM Co to make sure she approved of the form before I sent the link out – she wasn’t always the quickest at responding to messages.

When WiM actually began, my main role became making sure people had filled in their medical forms (to the extent of texting one person at eight in the morning because she was staying at a hotel and needed reminding to bring her form back to the church). Please be prompt filling in your medical forms, to save administrators headaches and reduce the chance of you dying in a sudden and unexpected emergency.

There were elements of WiM that didn’t go to plan. The WiM Co became ill on the very first day and by Sunday had been reduced to enthusiastic gesturing as her main mode of communication. Her voice had completely gone, which is awkward when you’re at a choir event anyway, let alone when you’re meant to be instructing people. It was time for the rest of the team to help her instead of the other way round.

Then I woke Thursday morning with a tickle in my throat. By evening it was fuzziness through my whole head. When we did a sound check on Friday, I spent most of it sitting down. Even during the concert, I ended up leaving stage during the last number as I felt myself swaying where I stood. I do recommend not being ill at WiM if you can help it (or at least plan ahead and bringing all possible cold, flu and sore throat medication with you).

During my time of illness, I ended up with a somewhat unexpected role, not connected to administrating or treasuring. On Friday, the National Co-ordinator and National Finance Administrator (a former WiM Co in her own right) were discussing buying our current WiM Co a present to thank her for her hard work. This is a WiM tradition, but they wanted to make sure they bought her something she would like, as opposed to a plant that might die two days later (NFA is not horticulturally minded and had not managed to preserve her own WiM gift).

For some reason, despite the fact that the WiM Co had been coming to WiM for over ten years whilst I’d only been there for three, NFA decided I was the best person to pick a gift. It must have been the identical taste in books, because I was sure there were people who’d known the WiM Co longer and better than me.

What followed was a long trek down the narrowest streets of Norwich with the NFA, poking our heads in every gift shop we saw as I looked for the craft shop I was sure I had seen earlier in the week. We walked past it several times, only to eventually buy the gifts from the shop next door. Dragonfly cushion and Norwich colouring book in hand, the NFA phoned her husband to discuss whether it was a good idea to spend an extortionate amount of money on a cushion with a badger on it. Don’t ask. By the time we returned to the church, my brief surge in energy had disappeared and I was ready to curl up and be ill again.

Other than that shopping trip, my memories last few days of WiM 2016 are blurry at best. I do vaguely remember that I left the moneybox full of our profits in an unlocked room in the church whilst we all went to the pub. That wasn’t my proudest moment. This is why being a WiM treasurer is better than working with money in the real world. You aren’t fired for something like that. Everyone continued to be lovely and supportive and took over my job whilst wishing me a speedy return to health.

WiM ended with me receiving the best thank you card ever for my administrative help (it was gold and fancy and had a quote from my favourite Shakespeare play on it). There’s no risk of not feeling appreciated when you volunteer with Rev. Despite the illness, WiM 2016 was pretty successful for me.

This year, I decided something a bit different at WiM. I’m not going for a job that’s all sitting behind a computer and no human interaction. I’m going to be on the environment team. This will involve me actively being nice to people and socialising, which is even more unnatural to me than volunteering in general. Still, it’s people like my previous bond group leaders who made WiM a comfortable enough place that I was willing to keep coming back and trying new things. I hope I can do the same thing for someone else.

Trying to push yourself and find the skills you never knew you had is right there in Rev’s Aims and Values. It’s a fundamental part of the choir. Whether it’s music or other performing arts, concert tech or concert decoration, publicity or social activities, catering or paperworking, we have a place for you. There are positions open on the national team at this very moment and if you’re not sure what you can do, you can always e-mail to say “I’d like to be helpful but don’t know how.” We’d love to have you. Why don’t you give it a try?

[grammys2019-blog]

Grammys 2019: the winners

After this new edition of the Grammys Awards (the 61st), with great novelties and feminine imprint - from the conduction of Alicia Keys (winner of 15 of those awards) to the numerous nominees -, these are the artists who took the stage of the Staples Center of Los Angeles, to receive the most precious statuettes of the music industry:

Best pop duo "SHALLOW" by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper

Song of the year "THIS IS AMERICA", by Childish Gambino (Donald Glover)

Best country album "Golden Hour" by Kacey Musgraves

Best rap song "God's Plan" by Drake

Best R&B album "H.E.R.", by H.E.R.

Best rap album "Invasion of privacy", by Cardi B

Best new artist Dua Lipa

Record of the year "This is America", by Childish Gambino (Donald Glover)

Album of the year "Golden Hour", by Kacey Musgraves

Best Comedy Album "EQUANIMITY & THE BIRD REVELATION", by Dave Chappelle.

Best musical theater album "THE BAND'S VISIT", by Etai Benson, Adam Kantor, Katrina Lenk and Ari'el Stachel.

Best alternative music disc "COLORS" by Beck.

Better instrumental composition "BLUT UND BODEN" ("BLOOD AND SOIL"), by Terence Blanchard

Better instrumental or a cappella arrangement "STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER", by John Daversa.

Better arrangement, instrumentation and vowels "SPIDERMAN THEME", by Mark Kibble, Randy Waldman & Justin Wilson

Best packaging design "MASSEDUCTION", by Willo Perron.

Best packaging design of a limited edition "SQUEEZE BOX: THE COMPLETE WORKS OF" WEIRD AL "YANKOVIC", by Meghan Foley, Annie Stoll and Al Yankovic.

Best album notes "VOICES OF MISSISSIPPI: ARTISTS AND MUSICIANS DOCUMENTED BY WILLIAM FERRIS", by David Evans.

Best historical album "VOICES OF MISSISSIPPI: ARTISTS AND MUSICIANS DOCUMENTED BY WILLIAM FERRIS", by William Ferris, April Ledbetter and Steven Lance Ledbetter.

Better engineering of a non-classical disk "COLORS" by Beck.

Best remix of an album: "WALKING AWAY (MURA MASA REMIX)", by Alex Crossan, remixer (by Haim).

Best immersed audio album "EYE IN THE SKY - 35TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION", by Alan Parsons.

Best contemporary instrumental album "STEVE GADD BAND", by Steve Gadd Band.

Best gospel album "NEVER ALONE", by Tori Kelly.

Best Christian music performance "YOU SAY" by Lauren Daigle.

Best gospel album "HIDING PLACE", by Tori Kelly.

Best contemporary Christian music album "LOOK UP CHILD", by Lauren Daigle.

Best gospel root music album "UNEXPECTED" by Jason Crabb.

Best World Music Album "FREEDOM" by Soweto Gospel Choir.

Best compilation for a soundtrack "THE GREATEST SHOWMAN" by Hugh Jackman and several artists.

Best soundtrack for audiovisual media "BLACK PANTHER" by Ludwig Göransson.

Best composition for audiovisual media "SHALLOW" by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt.

Best New Age Album "OPIUM MOON", by Opium Moon.

Best American Roots performance "THE JOKE", by Brandi Carlile.

Best American Roots song "THE JOKE", by Brandi Carlile.

Best bluegrass album THE TRAVELIN 'MCCOURYS, by The Travelin' McCourys

Best traditional blues album "THE BLUES IS ALIVE AND WELL", by Buddy Guy

Best contemporary blues album "PLEASE DON'T BE DEAD", by Fantastic Negrito

Best Folk Album "ALL ASHORE" by the Punch Brothers

Best children's album "ALL THE SOUNDS" by Lucy Kalantari & The Jazz Cats

Best Spoken Word Album "FAITH - A JOURNEY FOR ALL" by Jimmy Carter

Best Latin Pop Album "SINCERA", by Claudia Brant

Best Latin Rock Album "AZTLÁN", by Zoé

Best regional album of Mexican music "MEXICO FOREVER!" By Luis Miguel

Best Latin Tropical Album "ANNIVERSARY" by Spanish Harlem Orchestra

Best regional roots album "NO 'ANE'I", by Kalani Pe'a

Best music video "THIS IS AMERICA", by Childish Gambino

Best musical movie "QUINCY", by Alan Hicks and Rashida Jones

Best performance contry alone "BUTTERFLIES" by Kacey Musgraves

Best Country Duo Performance "TEQUILA", by Dan + Shay

Best country song "SPACE COWBOY", by Luke Laird, Shane McAnally and Kacey Musgraves

Best pop performance alone "JOANNE (WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOIN '?)", By Lady Gaga

Best traditional pop vocal album "MY WAY" by Willie Nelson

Best Engineered Album - Classic "SHOSTAKOVICH: SYMPHONIES US 4 & 11", by Shawn Murphy and Nick Squire

Best producer of the year - classic Blanton Alspaugh

Best orchestra performance "SHOSTAKOVICH: SYMPHONIES NOS. 4 & 11", by Andris Nelsons

Best Opera Recording "BATES: THE (R) EVOLUTION OF STEVE JOBS"

Best choral performance "MCLOSKEY: ZEALOT CANTICLES"

Best chamber music - small ensemble "ANDERSON, LAURIE: LANDFALL", by Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet

Volume enhancer

[bongaboi]

Grammy Awards 2019: The List, Part 3

Latin

Best Latin Pop Album

Sincera – Claudia Brant

Prometo – Pablo Alborán

Musas, Vol. 2 – Natalia Lafourcade

2:00 AM – Raquel Sofía

Vives – Carlos Vives

Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album

Aztlán – Zoé

Claroscura – Aterciopelados

COASTCITY – COASTCITY

Encanto Tropical – Monsieur Periné

Gourmet – Orishas

Best Regional Mexican Music Album (Including Tejano)

¡México Por Siempre! – Luis Miguel

Primero Soy Mexicana – Ángela Aguilar

Mitad Y Mitad – Calibre 50

Totalmente Juan Gabriel Vol. II – Aida Cuevas

Cruzando Borders – Los Texmaniacs

Leyendas de Mi Pueblo – Mariachi Sol de Mexico

Best Tropical Latin Album

Anniversary – Spanish Harlem Orchestra

Pa' Mi Gente – Charlie Aponte

Legado – Formell y Los Van Van

Orquesta Akokán – Orquesta Akokán

Ponle Actitud – Felipe Peláez

American Roots Music

Best American Roots Performance

"The Joke" – Brandi Carlile

"Kick Rocks" – Sean Ardoin

"St. James Infirmary Blues" – Jon Batiste

"All on My Mind" – Anderson East

"Last Man Standing" – Willie Nelson

Best American Roots Song

"The Joke"

"All the Trouble"

"Build a Bridge"

"Knockin' on Your Screen Door"

"Summer's End"

Brandi Carlile, Dave Cobb, Phil Hanseroth & Tim Hanseroth, songwriters (Brandi Carlile)

Waylon Payne, Lee Ann Womack & Adam Wright, songwriters (Lee Ann Womack)

Jeff Tweedy, songwriter (Mavis Staples)

Pat McLaughlin & John Prine, songwriters (John Prine)

Pat McLaughlin & John Prine, songwriters (John Prine)

Best Americana Album

By the Way, I Forgive You – Brandi Carlile

Things Have Changed – Bettye LaVette

The Tree of Forgiveness – John Prine

The Lonely, the Lonesome & the Gone – Lee Ann Womack

One Drop of Truth – The Wood Brothers

Best Bluegrass Album

The Travelin' McCourys – The Travelin' McCourys

Portraits in Fiddles – Mike Barnett

Sister Sadie II – Sister Sadie

Rivers and Roads – The Special Consensus

North of Despair – Wood & Wire

Best Traditional Blues Album

The Blues Is Alive and Well – Buddy Guy

Something Smells Funky 'Round Here – Elvis Bishop's Big Fun Trio

Benton County Relic – Cedric Burnside

No Mercy in This Land – Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite

Don't You Feel My Leg (The Naughty Bawdy Blues of Blue Lu Barker) – Maria Muldaur

Best Contemporary Blues Album

Please Don't Be Dead – Fantastic Negrito

Here in Babylon – Teresa James and the Rhythm Tramps

Cry No More – Danielle Nicole

Out of the Blues – Boz Scaggs

Victor Wainwright and the Train – Victor Wainwright and the Train

Best Folk Album

All Ashore – Punch Brothers

Whistle Down the Wind – Joan Baez

Black Cowboys – Dom Flemons

Rifles & Rosary Beads – Mary Gauthier

Weed Garden – Iron & Wine

Best Regional Roots Music Album

No 'Ane'i – Kalani Pe'a

Kreole Rock and Soul – Sean Ardoin

Spyboy – Cha Wa

Aloha from Na Hoa – Na Hoa

Mewasinsational: Cree Round Dance Songs – Young Spirit

Reggae

Best Reggae Album

44/876 – Sting & Shaggy

As the World Turns – Black Uhuru

Reggae Forever – Etana

Rebellion Rises – Ziggy Marley

A Matter of Time – Protoje

World Music

Best World Music Album

Freedom – Soweto Gospel Choir

Deran – Bombino

Fenfo – Fatoumata Diawara

Black Times – Seun Kuti & Egypt 80

Yiddish Glory: The Lost Songs of World War II, various artists

Children's

Best Children's Album

All the Sounds – Lucy Kalantari & The Jazz Cats

Building Blocks – Tim Kubart

Falu's Bazaar – Falu

Giants of Science – The Pop Ups

The Nation of Imagine – Frank & Deane

Spoken Word

Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Storytelling)

Faith: A Journey for All – Jimmy Carter

Accessory to War – Courtney B. Vance

Calypso – David Sedaris

Creative Quest – Questlove

The Last Black Unicorn – Tiffany Haddish

Comedy

Best Comedy Album

Equanimity & The Bird Revelation – Dave Chappelle

Annihilation – Patton Oswalt

Noble Ape – Jim Gaffigan

Standup for Drummers – Fred Armisen

Tamborine – Chris Rock

Musical Theater

Best Musical Theater Album

The Band's Visit – Etai Benson, Adam Kantor, Katrina Lenk & Ari'el Stachel, principal soloists; Dean Sharenow & David Yazbek, producers; David Yazbek, composer & lyricist (Original Broadway Cast)

Carousel – Renée Fleming, Alexander Gemignani, Joshua Henry, Lindsay Mendez & Jessie Mueller, principal soloists; Steven Epstein, producer (Richard Rodgers, composer; Oscar Hammerstein II, lyricist) (2018 Broadway Cast)

Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert – Sara Bareilles, Alice Cooper, Ben Daniels, Brandon Victor Dixon, Erik Grönwall, Jin Ha, John Legend, Norm Lewis & Jason Tam, principal soloists; Harvey Mason Jr., producer (Andrew Lloyd Webber, composer; Tim Rice, lyricist) (Original Television Cast)

My Fair Lady – Lauren Ambrose, Norbert Leo Butz & Harry Hadden-Paton, principal soloists; Andre Bishop, Van Dean, Hattie K. Jutagir, David Lai, Adam Siegel & Ted Sperling, producers (Frederick Loewe, composer; Alan Jay Lerner, lyricist) (2018 Broadway Cast)

Once on This Island – Phillip Boykin, Merle Dandridge, Quentin Earl Darrington, Hailey Kilgore, Kenita R. Miller, Alex Newell, Isaac Powell & Lea Salonga, principal soloists; Lynn Ahrens, Hunter Arnold, Ken Davenport, Stephen Flaherty & Elliot Scheiner, producers (Stephen Flaherty, composer; Lynn Ahrens, lyricist) (New Broadway Cast)

Music for Visual Media

Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media

The Greatest Showman – Hugh Jackman (& Various Artists)

Call Me by Your Name – (Various Artists)

Deadpool 2 – (Various Artists)

Lady Bird – (Various Artists)

Stranger Things – (Various Artists)

Alex Lacamoire, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul & Greg Wells, compilation producers

Luca Guadagnino, compilation producer; Robin Urdang, music supervisor

David Leitch & Ryan Reynolds, compilation producers; John Houlihan, music supervisor

Timothy J. Smith, compilation producer; Michael Hill & Brian Ross, music supervisors

Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Timothy J. Smith, compilation producer; Nora Felder, music supervisor

Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media

Black Panther – Ludwig Göransson, composer

Blade Runner 2049 – Benjamin Wallfisch & Hans Zimmer, composers

Coco – Michael Giacchino, composer

The Shape of Water – Alexandre Desplat, composer

Star Wars: The Last Jedi – John Williams, composer

Best Song Written for Visual Media

"Shallow" (from A Star Is Born)

"All the Stars" (from Black Panther)

"Mystery of Love" (from Call Me by Your Name)

"Remember Me" (from Coco)

"This Is Me" (from The Greatest Showman)

Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando & Andrew Wyatt, songwriters (Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper)

Kendrick Duckworth, Solána Rowe, Alexander William Shuckburgh, Mark Anthony Spears & Anthony Tiffith, songwriters (Kendrick Lamar & SZA)

Sufjan Stevens, songwriter (Sufjan Stevens)

Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez, songwriters (Miguel featuring Natalia Lafourcade)

Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, songwriters (Keala Settle & The Greatest Showman Ensemble)

Composing

Best Instrumental Composition

"Blut Und Boden (Blood and Soil)"

"Chrysalis"

"Infinity War"

"Mine Mission"

"The Shape of Water"

Terence Blanchard, composer (Terence Blanchard)

Jeremy Kittel, composer (Kittel & Co.)

Alan Silvestri, composer (Alan Silvestri)

John Powell & John Williams, composers (John Powell & John Williams)

Alexandre Desplat, composer (Alexandre Desplat)

Arranging

Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella

"Stars and Stripes Forever"

"Batman Theme (TV)"

"Change the World"

"Madrid Finale"

"The Shape of Water"

John Daversa, arranger (John Daversa Big Band featuring DACA Artists)

Randy Waldman & Justin Wilson, arrangers (Randy Waldman featuring Wynton Marsalis)

Mark Kibble, arranger (Take 6)

John Powell, arranger (John Powell)

Alexandre Desplat, arranger (Alexandre Desplat)

Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals

"Spiderman Theme"

"It Was a Very Good Year"

"Jolene"

"Mona Lisa"

"Niña"

Mark Kibble, Randy Waldman & Justin Wilson, arrangers (Randy Waldman featuring Take 6 & Chris Potter)

Matt Rollings & Kristin Wilkinson, arrangers (Willie Nelson)

Dan Pugach & Nicole Zuraitis, arrangers (Dan Pugach)

Vince Mendoza, arranger (Gregory Porter)

Gonzalo Grau, arranger (Magos Herrera & Brooklyn Rider)

Packaging

Best Recording Package

Masseduction

Be the Cowboy

Love Yourself: Tear

The Offering

Well Kept Thing

Willo Perron, art director (St. Vincent)

Mary Banas, art director (Mitski)

HuskyFox, art director (BTS)

Qing-Yang Xiao, art director (The Chairman)

Adam Moore, art director (Foxhole)

Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package

Squeeze Box: The Complete Works of "Weird Al" Yankovic

Appetite For Destruction (Locked N' Loaded Box)

I'll Be Your Girl

Pacific Northwest '73–'74: The Complete Recordings

Too Many Bad Habits

Meghan Foley, Annie Stoll & Al Yankovic, art directors ("Weird Al" Yankovic)

Arian Buhler, Charles Dooher, Jeff Fura, Scott Sandler & Matt Taylor, art directors (Guns N' Roses)

Carson Ellis, Jeri Heiden & Glen Nakasako, art directors (The Decemberists)

Lisa Glines, Doran Tyson & Roy Henry Vickers, art directors (Grateful Dead)

Sarah Dodds & Shauna Dodds, art directors (Johnny Nicholas)

Notes

Best Album Notes

Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris

Alpine Dreaming: The Helvetia Records Story, 1920-1924

4 Banjo Songs, 1891-1897: Foundational Recordings of America's Iconic Instrument

The 1960 Time Sessions

The Product of Our Souls: The Sound and Sway of James Reese Europe's Society Orchestra

Trouble No More: The Bootleg Series Vol. 13/1979-1981 (Deluxe Edition)

David Evans, album notes writer (Various artists)

James P. Leary, album notes writer (Various artists)

Richard Martin & Ted Olson, album notes writer (Charles A. Asbury)

Ben Ratliff, album notes writer (Sonny Clark Trio)

David Gilbert, album notes writer (Various artists)

Amanda Petrusich, album notes writer (Bob Dylan)

Historical

Best Historical Album

Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris

Any Other Way

At the Louisiana Hayride Tonight...

Battleground Korea: Songs and Sounds of America's Forgotten War

A Rhapsody in Blue: The Extraordinary Life of Oscar Levant

William Ferris, April Ledbetter & Steven Lance Ledbetter, compilation producers; Michael Graves, mastering engineer (Various artists)

Rob Bowman, Douglas McGowan, Rob Sevier & Ken Shipley, compilation producers; Jeff Lipton, mastering engineer (Jackie Shane)

Martin Hawkins, compilation producer; Christian Zwarg, mastering engineer (Various artists)

Hugo Keesing, compilation producer; Christian Zwarg, mastering engineer (Various artists)

Robert Russ, compilation producer; Andreas K. Meyer & Rebekah Wineman, mastering engineers (Oscar Levant)

Production, Non-Classical

Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical

Colors

All the Things That I Did and All the Things That I Didn't Do

Earthtones

Head Over Heels

Voicenotes

Julian Burg, Serban Ghenea, David "Elevator" Greenbaum, John Hanes, Beck Hansen, Greg Kurstin, Florian Lagatta, Cole M.G.N., Alex Pasco, Jesse Shatkin, Darrell Thorp & Cassidy Turbin, engineers; Chris Bellman, Tom Coyne, Emily Lazar & Randy Merrill, mastering engineers (Beck)

Ryan Freeland & Kenneth Pattengale, engineers; Kim Rosen, mastering engineer (The Milk Carton Kids)

Robbie Lackritz, engineer; Philip Shaw Bova, mastering engineer (Bahamas)

Nathaniel Alford, Jason Evigan, Chris Galland, Tom Gardner, Patrick "P-Thugg" Gemayel, Serban Ghenea, John Hanes, Tony Hoffer, Derek Keota, Ian Kirkpatrick, David Macklovitch, Amber Mark, Manny Marroquin, Vaughn Oliver, Chris "TEK" O'Ryan, Morgan Taylor Reid & Gian Stone, engineers; Chris Gehringer & Michelle Mancini, mastering engineers (Chromeo)

Manny Marroquin & Charlie Puth, engineers; Dave Kutch, mastering engineer (Charlie Puth)

Producer of the Year, Non-Classical

Pharrell Williams

Boi-1da

Larry Klein

Linda Perry

Kanye West

"Apeshit" (The Carters)

Man of the Woods (Justin Timberlake)

No One Ever Really Dies (N.E.R.D)

"Stir Fry" (Migos)

Sweetener (Ariana Grande)

"Be Careful" (Cardi B)

"Diplomatic Immunity" (Drake)

"Friends" (The Carters)

"God's Plan" (Drake)

"Heard About Us" (The Carters)

"Lucky You" (Eminem featuring Joyner Lucas)

"Mob Ties" (Drake)

"No Limit" (G-Eazy featuring ASAP Rocky & Cardi B)

"All These Things" (Thomas Dybdahl)

Anthem (Madeleine Peyroux)

The Book of Longing (Luciana Souza)

"Can I Have It All" (Thomas Dybdahl)

Junk (Hailey Tuck)

"Look At What We've Done" (Thomas Dybdahl)

Meaning to Tell Ya (Molly Johnson)

"Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" (Willa Amai)

Served Like a Girl (Various artists)

28 Days in the Valley (Dorothy)

Daytona (Pusha T)

Kids See Ghosts (Kids See Ghosts)

K.T.S.E. (Teyana Taylor)

Nasir (Nas)

Ye (Kanye West)

Best Remixed Recording

"Walking Away" (Mura Masa Remix)

"Audio" (CID Remix)

"How Long" (EDX's Dubai Skyline Remix)

"Only Road" (Cosmic Gate Remix)

"Stargazing" (Kaskade Remix)

Alex Crossan, remixer (Haim)

CID, remixer (LSD)

Maurizio Colella, remixer (Charlie Puth)

Stefan Bossems & Claus Terhoeven, remixers (Gabriel & Dresden featuring Sub Teal)

Kaskade, remixer (Kygo featuring Justin Jesso)

Production, Immersive Audio

Best Immersive Audio Album

Eye in the Sky: 35th Anniversary Edition

Folketoner

Seven Words from the Cross

Sommerro: Ujamaa & The Iceberg

Symbol

Alan Parsons, surround mix engineer; Dave Donnelly, PJ Olsson & Alan Parsons, surround mastering engineers; Alan Parsons, surround producer (The Alan Parsons Project)

Morten Lindberg, surround mix engineer; Morten Lindberg, surround mastering engineer; Morten Lindberg, surround producer (Anne Karin Sundal-Ask & Det Norske Jentekor)

Daniel Shores, surround mix engineer; Daniel Shores, surround mastering engineer; Dan Merceruio, surround producer (Matthew Guard & Skylark)

Morten Lindberg, surround mix engineer; Morten Lindberg, surround mastering engineer; Morten Lindberg, surround producer (Ingar Heine Bergby, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra & Choir)

Prashant Mistry & Ronald Prent, surround mix engineers; Darcy Proper, surround mastering engineer; Prashant Mistry & Ronald Prent, surround producers (Engine-Earz Experiment)

Production, Classical

Best Engineered Album, Classical

Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 11

Bates: The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3; Strauss: Horn Concerto No. 1

John Williams at the Movies

Liquid Melancholy: Clarinet Music of James M. Stephenson

Visions and Variations

Shawn Murphy & Nick Squire, engineers; Tim Martyn, mastering engineer (Andris Nelsons & Boston Symphony Orchestra)

Mark Donahue & Dirk Sobotka, engineers; Mark Donahue, mastering engineer (Michael Christie, Garrett Sorenson, Wei Wu, Sasha Cooke, Edwards Parks, Jessica E. Jones & Santa Fe Opera Orchestra)

Mark Donahue, engineer; Mark Donahue, mastering engineer (Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)

Keith O. Johnson & Sean Royce Martin, engineers; Keith O. Johnson, mastering engineer (Jerry Junkin & Dallas Winds)

Bill Maylone & Mary Mazurek, engineers; Bill Maylone, mastering engineer (John Bruce Yeh)

Tom Caulfield, engineer; Jesse Lewis, mastering engineer (A Far Cry)

Producer of the Year, Classical

Blanton Alspaugh

David Frost

Elizabeth Ostrow

Judith Sherman

Dirk Sobotka

Arnesen: Infinity - Choral Works (Joel Rinsema & Kantorei)

Aspects of America (Carlos Kalmar & Oregon Symphony)

Chesnokov: Teach Me Thy Statutes (Vladimir Gorbik & PaTRAM Institute Male Choir)

Gordon, R.: The House Without a Christmas Tree (Bradley Moore, Elisabeth Leone, Maximillian Macias, Megan Mikailovna Samarin, Patricia Schuman, Lauren Snouffer, Heidi Stober, Daniel Belcher, Houston Gran Opera Juvenile Chorus & Houston Grand OperaOrchestra)

Haydn: The Creation (Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Betsy Cook Weber, Houston Symphony & Houston Symphony Chorus)

Heggie: Great Scott (Patrick Summers, Manuel Palazzo, Mark Hancock, Michael Mayes, Rodell Rosel, Kevin Burdette, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Nathan Gunn, Frederica von Stade, Ailyn Pérez, Joyce DiDonato, Dallas Opera Chorus & Orchestra)

Music of Fauré, Buide & Zemlinsky (Trio Séléné)

Paterson: Three Way - A Trio of One-Act Operas (Dean Williamson, Daniele Pastin, Courtney Ruckman, Eliza Bonet, Melisa Bonetti, Jordan Rutter, Samuel Levine, Wes Mason, Matthew Treviño & Nashville Opera Orchestra)

Vaughan Williams: Piano Concerto; Oboe Concerto; Serenade to Music; Flos Campi (Peter Oundjian & Toronto Symphony Orchestra)

Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Volume 7 (Jonathan Biss)

Mirror in Mirror (Anne Akiko Meyers, Kristjan Järvi & Philharmonia Orchestra)

Mozart: Idomeneo (James Levine, Alan Opie, Matthew Polenzani, Alice Coote, Nadine Sierra, Elza van den Heever, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra & Chorus)

Presentiment (Orion Weiss)

Strauss, R.: Der Rosenkavalier (Sebastian Weigle, Renée Fleming, Elīna Garanča, Erin Morley, Günther Groissböck, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra & Chorus)

Bates: The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (Michael Christie, Garrett Sorenson, Wei Wu, Sasha Cooke, Edwards Parks, Jessica E. Jones & Santa Fe Opera Orchestra)

The Road Home (Joshua Habermann & Santa Fe Desert Chorale)

Beethoven Unbound (Llŷr Williams)

Black Manhattan Volume 3 (Rick Benjamin & Paragon Ragtime Orchestra)

Bolcom: Piano Music (Various Artists)

Del Tredici: March to Tonality (Mark Peskanov & Various Artists)

Love Comes in at the Eye (Timothy Jones, Stephanie Sant'Ambrogio, Jeffrey Sykes, Anthony Ross, Carol Cook, Beth Rapier & Stephanie Jutt)

Meltzer: Variations on a Summer Day & Piano Quartet (Abigail Fischer, Jayce Ogren & Sequitur)

Mendelssohn: Complete Works for Cello and Piano (Marcy Rosen & Lydia Artymiw)

New Music for Violin and Piano (Julie Rosenfeld & Peter Miyamoto)

Reich: Pulse/Quartet (Colin Currie Group & International Contemporary Ensemble)

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3; Strauss: Horn Concerto No. 1 (Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)

Lippencott: Frontier Symphony (Jeff Lippencott & Ligonier Festival Orchestra)

Mahler: Symphony No. 8 (Thierry Fischer, Mormon Tabernacle Choir & Utah Symphony)

Music of the Americas (Andrés Orozco-Estrada & Houston Symphony)

Classical

Best Orchestral Performance

Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 11

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3; Strauss: Horn Concerto No. 1

Nielsen: Symphony No. 3 & Symphony No. 4

Ruggles, Stucky & Harbison: Orchestral Works

Schumann: Symphonies Nos. 1-4

Andris Nelsons, conductor (Boston Symphony Orchestra)

Manfred Honeck, conductor (Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)

Thomas Dausgaard, conductor (Seattle Symphony)

David Alan Miller, conductor (National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic)

Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor (San Francisco Symphony)

Best Opera Recording

Bates: The (R)evolution Of Steve Jobs

Adams: Doctor Atomic

Lully: Alceste

Strauss, R.: Der Rosenkavalier

Verdi: Rigoletto

Michael Christie, conductor; Sasha Cooke, Jessica E. Jones, Edward Parks, Garrett Sorenson & Wei Wu; Elizabeth Ostrow, producer (The Santa Fe Opera Orchestra)

John Adams, conductor; Aubrey Allicock, Julia Bullock, Gerald Finley & Brindley Sherratt; Friedemann Engelbrecht, producer (The BBC Symphony Orchestra; BBC Singers)

Christophe Rousset, conductor; Edwin Crossley-Mercer, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro & Judith Van Wanroij; Maximilien Ciup, producer (Les Talens Lyriques; Choeur De Chambre De Namur)

Sebastian Weigle, conductor; Renée Fleming, Elīna Garanča, Günther Groissböck & Erin Morley; David Frost, producer (Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; The Metropolitan Opera Chorus)

Constantine Orbelian, conductor; Francesco Demuro, Dmitri Hvorostovsky & Nadine Sierra; Vilius Keras & Aleksandra Keriene, producers (Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra; Men Of The Kaunas State Choir)

Best Choral Performance

McLoskey: Zealot Canticles

Chesnokov: Teach Me Thy Statutes

Kastalsky: Memory Eternal

Rachmaninov: The Bells

Seven Words From The Cross

Donald Nally, conductor (Doris Hall-Gulati, Rebecca Harris, Arlen Hlusko, Lorenzo Raval & Mandy Wolman; The Crossing)

Vladimir Gorbik, conductor (Mikhail Davydov & Vladimir Krasov; PaTRAM Institute Male Choir)

Steven Fox, conductor (The Clarion Choir)

Mariss Jansons, conductor; Peter Dijkstra, chorus master (Oleg Dolgov, Alexey Markov & Tatiana Pavlovskaya; Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks; Chor Des Bayerischen Rundfunks)

Matthew Guard, conductor (Skylark)

Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance

Anderson, Laurie: Landfall – Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet

Beethoven, Shostakovich & Bach – The Danish String Quartet

Blueprinting – Aizuri Quartet

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring Concerto for Two Pianos – Leif Ove Andsnes & Marc-André Hamelin

Visions And Variations – A Far Cry

Best Classical Instrumental Solo

Kernis: Violin Concerto – James Ehnes

Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 2 – Yuja Wang

Biber: The Mystery Sonatas – Christina Day Martinson

Bruch: Scottish Fantasy, Op. 46; Violin Concerto No. 1 In G Minor, Op. 26

Glass: Three Pieces In The Shape of A Square

Ludovic Morlot, conductor (Seattle Symphony)

Simon Rattle, conductor (Berliner Philharmoniker)

Martin Pearlman, conductor (Boston Baroque)

Joshua Bell (The Academy Of St. Martin In The Fields)

Craig Morris

Best Classical Solo Vocal Album

Songs of Orpheus: Monteverdi, Caccini, d'India & Landi – Karim Sulayman

ARC – Anthony Roth Costanzo

The Handel Album – Philippe Jaroussky

Mirages – Sabine Devieilhe

Schubert: Winterreise – Randall Scarlata

Jeannette Sorrell, conductor; Apollo's Fire, ensembles

Jonathan Cohen, conductor (Les Violons Du Roy)

Artaserse, ensemble

François-Xavier Roth, conductor (Alexandre Tharaud; Marianne Crebassa & Jodie Devos; Les Siècles)

Gilbert Kalish, accompanist

Best Classical Compendium

Fuchs: Piano Concerto 'Spiritualist'; Poems Of Life; Glacier; Rush

Gold

The John Adams Edition

John Williams at the Movies

Vaughan Williams: Piano Concerto; Oboe Concerto; Serenade To Music; Flos Campi

JoAnn Falletta, conductor; Tim Handley, producer

The King's Singers; Nigel Short, producer

Simon Rattle, conductor; Christoph Franke, producer

Jerry Junkin, conductor; Donald J. McKinney, producer

Peter Oundjian, conductor; Blanton Alspaugh, producer

Best Contemporary Classical Composition

Kernis: Violin Concerto

Bates: The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs

Du Yun: Air Glow

Heggie: Great Scott

Mazzoli: Vespers for Violin

Aaron Jay Kernis, composer (James Ehnes, Ludovic Morlot & Seattle Symphony)

Mason Bates, composer; Mark Campbell, librettist (Michael Christie, Garrett Sorenson, Wei Wu, Sasha Cooke, Edward Parks, Jessica E. Jones & Santa Fe Opera Orchestra)

Du Yun, composer (International Contemporary Ensemble)

Jake Heggie, composer; Terrence McNally, librettist (Patrick Summers, Manuel Palazzo, Mark Hancock, Michael Mayes, Rodell Rosel, Kevin Burdette, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Nathan Gunn, Frederica von Stade, Ailyn Pérez, Joyce DiDonato, Dallas Opera Chorus & Orchestra)

Missy Mazzoli, composer (Olivia De Prato)

Music Video/Film

Best Music Video

"This Is America" – Childish Gambino

"Apeshit" – The Carters

"I'm Not Racist" – Joyner Lucas

"Pynk" – Janelle Monáe

"Mumbo Jumbo" – Tierra Whack

Hiro Murai, video directors; Ibra Ake, Jason Cole & Fam Rothstein, video producers

Ricky Saiz, video director; Mélodie Buchris, Natan Schottenfels & Erinn Williams, video producers

Joyner Lucas & Ben Proulx, video directors; Joyner Lucas, video producer

Emma Westenburg, video director; Justin Benoliel & Whitney Jackson, video producers

Marco Prestini, video director; Sara Nassim, video producer

Best Music Film

Quincy – Quincy Jones

Life in 12 Bars – Eric Clapton

Whitney – (Whitney Houston)

Itzhak – Itzhak Perlman

The King – (Elvis Presley)

Alan Hicks & Rashida Jones, video directors; Paula DuPré Pesmen, video producer

Lili Fini Zanuck, video director; John Battsek, Scooter Weintraub, Larry Yelen & Lili Fini Zanuck, video producers

Kevin Macdonald, video director; Jonathan Chinn, Simon Chinn & Lisa Erspamer, video producers

Alison Chernick, video director; Alison Chernick, video producer

Eugene Jarecki, video director; Christopher Frierson, Georgina Hill, David Kuhn & Christopher St. John, video producers

[onestowatch]

5 Pieces of Wisdom Gleamed From Mereba’s “The Jungle Is The Only Way Out”

Photo by N.M Dawit 

Music has always been a remedy when the road gets rough. Mereba’s debut album, The Jungle Is The Only Way Out, is the perfect representation of these trials and tribulations and the strength that comes when you find the silver lining. Best known for her collaboration with Grammy-nominated 6LACK as well as up-and-coming artists J.I.D and EARTHGANG, Mereba has pushed the boundaries of R&B and established herself as a voice of the future. Pulling influences from Lauryn Hill, Joni Mitchell as well as Stevie Wonder, the songstress has built a career based on her brilliant ability to write, rap, play guitar and produce.

These skills are the ingredients of an incredible debut album and one that is set to stand the test of time. But The Jungle Is The Only Way Out doesn’t just feed our souls with its infectious hooks and poetic lyrics; it gives us five incredible life lessons as well.

Life Will Never Push Us Past Our limits if it’s Not Something We Are Capable of Growing From.

It’s no obvious revelation that life is difficult. There are good moments and then there are bad moments and a lot of confusion in-between. We constantly wonder why we keep having to dodge one metaphorical bullet after the next. But Mereba reminds us that nothing comes to us that we cannot tolerate or grow from. As cliche as it is, we find strength in the moments that test our patience and our perseverance. “Black Truck,” a haunting yet groovy is bound to be the anthem for finding our silver lining. As she sings, “I’ve been through the fire/ I’ve felt embers down my spine/ and I’ve said ‘world would you please have some mercy on me” and “I’m not sorry/ stay sick cuz I follow my gut/ they said I was pushing my luck/ now Ima push me a matte all black truck,” we cannot help but feel hope. 

We can find comfort in her harmonious vocals as she preaches the truth: it’s okay to push your luck, stay true to who you are, and you will reap your rewards. And with a rap towards the end that proclaims “don’t be takin’ bullet wounds that keep you in your room feeling less than empress/ just keep it cool/ painting up the city with my hue,” we can hear the passion in her voice and the message she begs us to ingest.

We Need to Learn to “Toss Back Time Like Shots.”

“On The Rocks,” a spoken-word interlude emphasizes what we need to learn to do more: learn to let time go. Time is relative and “nothing loved is lost.” Sometimes we need to let ourselves be a little wild and free and bathe in the mirage of everlasting youth.

Photos: N.W Dawit 

Don’t Let Anyone Play Games With Your Heart.

In a society so driven by the ability to switch romantic prospects each passing second, the songstress stresses the importance of finding your worth and accepting that there is no room in your heart for others to make mistakes. It’s either 100% devotion or nothing at all. “Stay Tru” is the epitome of empowerment, giving us a glimpse at her musical influences and her fantastic ability to blend alternative and R&B. She croons, “don’t play me like a fiddle/ keep another love with me up in the middle/ no, stay tru like a true one do” and “I’d rather sleep with no one beside me/ than with a ghost with a heart that froze/ don’t get it twisted or I’ll have to dip.

You Are in Control of What Controls You.

Many people forget the most significant aspect of life: we are in control. As we get older, we fall for the fallacy that we are stuck in the passenger seat with no power over what happens to us. But Mereba pleads us to see that we are actually in the driver seat, living a life that doesn’t have to be spent “dodging the devil”, but eradicating him completely with the way we live our lives. “Dodging the devil” is another spoken-word confessional, supported only by reverb and sounds of nature, with a faint gospel choir. 

Raw and honest, the track captures Mereba brooding one important takeaway “you’re wise now though, know it/ don’t plan a seed in your mind if you do not wish to grow it” and “all that will try you is designed to unwind you, define you/ but you do get to decide if its tide will capsize you/ the devil’s been lied to, the devil can die too.

There Is More to Life Than Material Wealth.

“Kinfolk” is a downtempo song, featuring a mellowed out guitar riffs and Mereba’s smooth and heavenly vocals. Dark and sulky, the song covers the importance of finding light in those we spend our time with. She sings, “Don’t you see, we/ got what no money could measure and we could be free/ if we’d peep the hidden treasures” and “Not gon save my love for no rainy day I’ll never find no peace that way.” She poetically captures the importance of acknowledging that we cannot save our love for rainy days, that money doesn’t stand a chance next to what our “kinfolk” and that we are wealthy when we find our hidden treasures.

For more from Mereba, be sure to revisit her performance captured at our Baño Flaco event.

[coghive]

The Experience ’17, Themed, Jesus: the Exceptional One – ‘The Most Anticipated Gospel Concert is Back

The Experience, an annual gospel concert platformed by the House On the Rock is returning to the Tafawa Balewa Square after two years of a virtual and a hybrid version respectively due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s edition themed, Jesus: The Exceptional One, will be holding onsite at the TBS on the 2nd of December, 2022 commencing at 7pm. One of the most remarkable things about this much-awaited event is its ability to bring together a cross section of people through music in absolute surrender to their Maker giving no thought to age, gender, race, status or religious inclination. Nothing beats the sound of drums, the feel of worship, the excitement of the crowd, the heartfelt expression of love and adoration to the God who inhabits the praises of His people. The Experience is arguably one of the most anticipated, most watched and most streamed gospel concert in the world. It’s strictly virtual edition in 2020 tagged: Global Edition was viewed over 5million times on YouTube and Facebook. The 17th edition of The Experience boasts an array of award-winning frontline indigenous and international artistes such as, Travis Greene, Sinach, Donnie McClurkin, Nathaniel Bassey, Chandler Moore, Dunsin Oyekan, Phil Thompson, Muyiwa Olarewaju, Mr. M & Revelation, Tim Hughes, Tope Alabi, Mercy Chinwo, Onos Ariyo, Preye odede, Eno Micheals, Eben and the Lagos Metropolitan Gospel Choir of the House On The Rock and many others. According to the organizers, as with previous years, this free concert will be a platform hosted with utmost security, professionalism, hospitality, and most importantly with a focus to continue to provide a platform where attendees can pray for our great nation and worship God freely. The Convener and Metropolitan of all House On The Rock, Paul Adefarasin, has reiterated that this is The Experience that you don’t want to miss as it promises to be a night of pulsating praise, passionate worship, fervent prayers and an outpouring of the presence of God like never seen before. It is noteworthy to state that whilst attendance at The Experience2022 is free, it is important that attendees arrive promptly so that they can fully enjoy what promises to be an enthralling evening of live music comparable to the best concerts on the globe.  The House On The Rock is a metropolitan church headquartered in Lagos with branches across Nigeria and the continents with over tens of thousands in membership and on a mission to reach a hurting and dying generation with Jesus’s message of hope and compassion.  Let the countdown to unfettered praise continue with only a few days to The Experience. Read the full article

[revjem]

Holy crap thats a terrible primary song! I dont think I ever sang that, and if I did I certainly don't remember. I do remember singing lots of quiet and loud songs and loving them tho.

But never as much as the gospel songs I sang in performance choir. Songs like John the Revelator, Elijah Rock, and Witness. I hadn't thought of it as worship before hut it is, and the intensity of the worship in those songs is phenomanal!

Gosh, add this to the things I want to change about my wonderfully flawed church.

I hate it when Mormons talk about reverence. I always feel like it sometimes turns into “Reverence means being quiet and boring so we can hear God.” Like yes there is a time for that, but surely it isnt just that? Doesnt the bible talk about people shouting, singing, dancing to show their love and reverence to God? I like quiet compilation as much as the next guy, but this seems a bit puritan.

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 3rd November 2019

I apologise for how late this will probably end up being posted, but we have a big week to talk about, with EIGHT new arrivals, two from Selena Gomez, three from Kanye West and two appearing here in the top 10 so I’m just going to get through everything as soon as possible to the best of my ability, although this week has several...mishaps on the BBC page to say the least, so I’ll try to correct them if I can, and I have had to wait for my week of non-stop Weezer listening to end or for me to accidentally slip up and listen to something else so I could actually write about the new arrivals here.

Top 10

Interestingly, none of the nonsense that this chart week ensued seems to appear in the top 2 or shake the #1 at all, as “Dance Monkey” by Tones and I is at its fifth consecutive week at the top of the UK Singles Chart.

“Ride It” by Regard featuring Jay Sean – well, it’s actually a remix of a Jay Sean single but just let me relish in the fact Jay Sean is on the charts again – isn’t moving either at number-two, the runner-up spot.

The first impact that we can see at the top level of the charts is the debut at #3 for Selena Gomez’s first US #1 “Lose You to Love Me”, which the BBC has interestingly misspelled as “Loose You to Love Me”, her 13th UK Top 40 hit, fourth top 10 and highest-peaking song ever, after “It Ain’t Me” with Kygo peaked at #7. We’ll talk more about Selena Gomez’s two new arrivals later.

Thanks to Gomez, Post Malone’s “Circles” is down one spot to number-four.

At number-five is Ed Sheeran with “South of the Border” featuring Camila Cabello and Cardi B, down three spots this week to number-five.

We have our second new arrival within the top 10, at number-six, “Follow God” by Kanye West from his ninth studio album, JESUS IS KING. He has several songs debuting here in the UK Top 40 this week, so we’ll talk more in-depth about his mini-album bomb later on, but this is his 44th UK Top 40 hit, which is crazy impressive, and his 20th top 10.

At number-seven, boosted up 11 spots by an Ariana Grande remix, is Lizzo with “Good as Hell”, making it officially her biggest song in the UK and her first top 10 hit, as well as Grande’s 16th.

Up two spaces to number-eight this week is “Memories” by Maroon 5.

Down two spaces from last week, we have Dermot Kennedy at number-nine with “Outnumbered”.

Finally, at #10, to round off the top 10, we have Lewis Capaldi’s “Bruises” down four spaces from last week.

Climbers

Naturally, there aren’t many climbers here because of the album bomb and influx of new arrivals, but we do have some unfortunate boosts for “hot girl bummer” by blackbear up five spaces to #25... and that’s all.

Fallers

Fallers on the other hand... we could split this up into genre, actually.

For pop, rock and EDM, we can start with “Lights Up” by Harry Styles deservedly flopping six spaces down to #17, then continue with “10,000 Hours” by Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber down 12 to #29, “Higher Love” by Kygo and Whitney Houston down eight to #31, “Sorry” by Joel Corry featuring uncredited vocals from Hayley May down 10 to #32 and finally “Don’t Call Me Angel” by Ariana Grande featuring Miley Cyrus and Lana Del Rey down 13 to #39 – but that’s not all.

For hip hop and R&B, we have “HIGHEST IN THE ROOM” by Travis Scott down seven to #12, “Be Honest” by Jorja Smith and Burna Boy down five to #14, “Professor X” by Dave down seven to #21, “Take Me Back to London” by Ed Sheeran featuring Stormzy and remixed by Sir Spyro featuring Aitch and Jaykae down nine to #28, “Playing Games” by Summer Walker down nine to #33, “Ladbroke Grove” by AJ Tracey down 10 to #35 and finally, “Taste (Make it Shake)” by Aitch down nine to #39... but again, that’s not all.

Dropouts & Returning Entries

We have no returning entries but we sure do have a lot of dropouts, some of them genuine hits such as “Strike a Pose” by Young T & Bugsey and Aitch out from #36 and “Beautiful People” by Ed Sheeran featuring Khalid out from #39, hits that never really hit the landing with the British general public but have been on the middling section of the charts for a while and could easily rebound like “Motivation” by Normani out from #27, “Truth Hurts” by Lizzo and remixed by DaBaby from #31, “frick, i’m lonely” by LAUV and Anne-Marie out from #32 and “Lalala” by Y2K and bbno$ and remixed by Carly Rae Jepsen and Enrique Iglesias out from #37, as well as some genuinely premature drop-outs such as “Graveyard” by Halsey out from #29 and finally, “47” by Sidhu Moose Wala, MIST, Steel Banglez and Stefflon Don out from #38. Now, finally, after all that time spent on stray UK Top 40 observations... let’s talk about Kanye.

ALBUM BOMB: Kanye West – JESUS IS KING

On October 25th, Kanye released his ninth studio album, JESUS IS KING, after missing several release dates and changing name from YANDHI. Kanye, a now born-again Christian, makes a “gospel” album free of any explicit lyrics, accompanied by a short film of the same name. It features an all-star guest list of vocalists and producers, including frequent collaborators Ant Clemons, Benny Blanco and Mike Dean, the reunion of legendary rap group Clipse, trap beat-makers Pi’erre Bourne and Ronny J, and smooth jazz saxophonist Kenny G. Obviously, it went #1 in the US, #2 here, but to mixed reviews – now, I won’t be focusing on the politics that surround the album and I am not very knowledgeable of religion so I cannot really comment on much beyond my understanding of Christianity and arguably more importantly, the lore of Kanye West. Mark Grondin of Spectrum Pulse already quoted more Bible quotes in his album review than I could remember digits of pi, and several people, like DeadEndHipHop, Sean Cee and even Anthony Fantano, whether you like them or not, have made several in-depth discussion videos about whether West’s sudden revelation is a genuine moment for the rapper, a mental breakdown or a cash-grab. I’m here to discuss the music... but even that’s not very good. I wrote a very lengthy review for the album two days after it came out (And before it went through an additional few fixes for mixing quirks, sigh) which will be linked here if I remember, and overall, it was disappointing, a light 4/10 and easily the worst record in West’s discography. Regardless, let’s talk about the debuts here.

#20 – “Closed on Sunday” – Kanye West

Produced by Kanye West, Angel Lopez, Brian “AllDay” Miller, Federico Vindver and Timbaland – Peaked at #17 in the US

Features uncredited vocals from the Sunday Service choir and A$AP Bari(?)

The most memeable yet also one of the most detestable tracks on the album, this is his 45th UK Top 40 hit. “Closed on Sunday” was one of the few tracks set to fail off the pure concept, as the biggest issue with most songs on JESUS IS KING is the lack of development or complete mishandling of great ideas, to the point where there basically is no effort to, you know, write a song here. “Closed on Sunday” is essentially one verse split into half due to a flow switch at the midpoint, and despite a runtime of only two minutes and 32 seconds, it drones on endlessly, with a solemn guitar melody leading into what could sound like a pretty cool, dark ballad, built up by the choir vocalising in harmonies that sound actually pretty great but then the 808s come in and ruin any sense of harmony. Kanye comes in with some of the worst mixing I’ve ever heard vocals have, especially on an album with the budget Kanye has, with a lot of background noise and I can even hear the buttons pressed on the phone or other device Kanye is using to record at about 0:38, which signals a drastic change in how the vocals are mixed, but it’s still shoddy and allows them to have some pretty severe clipping during the “chorus”, until a sudden shift where a turgid beeping sound works as a pathetic excuse for you know, an actual synth, and until now, Kanye’s vocals have not had reverb or Auto-Tune added onto them, so his vocals being drenched in effects actually sounds great here... but he still has a sore throat and sounds like he’s struggling here, although unlike “God Is” and just about the entirety of 808s & Heartbreak, where it adds to the emotive performance, Kanye sounds bored and with no choir backing him like they could have been, the release here just isn’t as cinematic as it could be and it just sounds like a melodramatic Kanye aimlessly spouting random Bible motifs over 808s without taking his daily Dequadin lozenge... and there are no drums... ever. Oh, and A$AP Bari comes in at the end to shout “Chick-fil-A”, abruptly interrupting the beat’s natural progression and making it clear as day that the album is unfinished. Also, speaking of those lyrics, should you really be comparing YOURSELF to a fast food restaurant that donates charity to anti-LGBT hate and pressure groups? That’s not very Christ-like, Ye. It probably wouldn’t matter if they didn’t either, because a thinly-veiled Taylor Swift reference (Yes, I know the Bible mentions “snakes” and “vipers” as much as reputation does, but the two aren’t on good terms so it’s no coincidence in my opinion) and calling God your “number-one with the lemonade” don’t exactly make you sound like a wordsmith. Oh, and A$AP Bari, the uncredited vocalist on the outro, pleaded guilty to sexual assault earlier this year, which again doesn’t exactly sound like a Christ-like thing to be supporting either... but I digress. The version he performed on Jimmy Kimmel with a genuine choir backing him and a brass band is miles ahead of this, so don’t bother with this version, or better yet, don’t bother with this monotonous crap at all.

#19 – “Selah” – Kanye West

Produced by Kanye West, E*vax, BoogzDaBeast, Federico Vindver, benny blanco and Francis Starlite – Peaked at #19 in the US

Features uncredited vocals from the Sunday Service choir, Ant Clemons and Bongo ByTheWay

Now, I’m slightly more positive on his 46th UK Top 40 hit, “Selah”, the opening track (Aside from the short “Every Hour” interlude / intro track which is only Sunday Service) of JESUS IS KING, yet that might actually make it more frustrating and it’s easily the track I come back the least to because overall, it’s actually pretty uninteresting and doesn’t have a true “hook”. It starts with some cloudy synth noodling that sounds kind of cool with the subtle strings but then Kanye comes in with some pretty awfully-mixed vocals that is incredibly unprofessional, teasing his fans for wanting YANDHI, and saying it was coming before “Jesus Christ did the laundry”, and quoting John 8:33 to excuse his “Slavery is a choice” comment, which he’s been trying to respond to the backlash to for about a year and a half now, failing each time. Also:

Pour the lean out slower

Hold up –that ain’t Christ-like. The explosions of marching band drums come in in a similar fashion to “Feel the Love” off of KIDS SEE GHOSTS, and then honestly the bridge, which is insanely repetitive but builds up tension perfectly with Ant Clemons and the Sunday Service choir repeating “Hallelujah” incessantly with distant guitar strings, handclaps and sudden pitch shifts reflecting the change in Kanye’s mindset and the intensity soon becomes a lot more ramped up from now on, finishing the bridge with a pretty beautiful vocal line that the 808s hilariously harmonise with. Then, Kanye comes back in with a verse co-written by Pusha T, and you can REALLY tell, and it’s still awfully-mixed, when there’s no true excuse. He’s drowned out by the bursts of drums and bass as well as the choir’s recurring vocal sample. The best part of the song soon kind of fizzles out in a chaotic outro, in which fireworks literally go off while Kanye screams nonsense as well as “Yeezus” which isn’t exactly Christ-like, but it sounds insane and honestly a tad odd and unfitting for the album, which is supposed to be an uptempo Christian rap album? While there are parts of this song I don’t approve of, especially Kanye, who ruins pretty much every song he’s on... on his own album, this is pretty tolerable, albeit somewhat contradictory lyrically and far from my favourite Kanye track. At least there’s some grandiosity and emotion here.

#6 – “Follow God” – Kanye West

Produced by Kanye West, BoogszDaBeast and Xcelence – Peaked at #7 in the US

I should be thankful for the grandiosity and emotion behind “Selah”, because this sure doesn’t have any of that. How the HELL does this have three producers? How on Earth does this album have 11 people on the mixing and mastering and yet this still sound like absolute gutter trash in my headphones? “Follow God” is easily the least interesting song on the JESUS IS KING album, and that’s pretty impressive for a record that contains the song “Water” with Ant Clemons, yet it’s the biggest and I don’t see why at all. There straight-up isn’t a chorus by any meaning of the word, or its many synonyms, and its dated production almost resembling 90s hip hop in the soul sample from 1974’s “Can You Lose by Following God” by Whole Truth and the genuine 90s groove and funk that is somewhere here in the beat, doesn’t exactly make it sound like a catchy trap banger that would reach the US top 10 in 2019, but it’s there. It’s called by many fans a spiritual successor to 2016’s “Father Stretch My Hands” from The Life of Pablo but other than using the lyric “Father, I stretch my hands”, I don’t see it, mostly because the 2016 effort doesn’t actually have much relation to Christianity outside of the beautiful gospel choir harmonising with Caroline Shaw on the bridge of that single. In fact, that song does a better job at flipping Christian rap on its head – it’s a two-part trap banger featuring verses from Desiigner and lines about... bleached posteriors. This song on the other hand is only one minute and 44 seconds, with one badly-mixed and distorted verse from Kanye that is as repetitive as the mind-numbing recurring “Yeah” vocal sample and prone to making me roll my eyes with its one verse and the... outro of sorts. But since this beat is so minimalistic, surely he wants us to hear what he’s saying, right? Well, no, probably not, because not only is his “wordplay”(?) and half-rhymes embarrassing, but I have so many questions to raise to this drum pattern. I want to interview the 808 and the kick drum and ask what the heck they think they’re doing.

People really know you, push your buttons like type-write

That’s not a sentence. “Like type-write”? Excuse my brief, unsubtle blasphemy, but Jesus.

Every single night, right? Every single fight, right?

The ‘i’-based rhyme scheme here is cool in concept and he finds his way around it pretty well, in a fast-paced rap flow that I actually really like, but it reeks of laziness, especially since not only does he completely abandon the rhyme scheme 55 seconds in but – yes, I counted – his verse is 69 seconds, that’s one minute and nine seconds. To put into perspective, Rick Ross’ verse on “Devil in a New Dress” off of Kanye’s 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is one minute and 28 seconds, only twenty seconds longer than this one, and it includes ten times as much clever wordplay, story-telling, interesting flow switches and bars that are really epic, making the song feel really celebratory of sorts actually – and that’s without the epic guitar solo that precedes it. What a fantastic song. On the other hand, this song is substance-less and Kanye says very little of anything despite how much he crams into every bar in the rapid yet sometimes pretty awkward flow. What he’s supposed to be discussing is his situation with his father and how when he was yelling at him and having a massive argument and fall-out, Ray West told him, it wasn’t Christ-like, leading to a revelation and possibly becoming the catalyst for the already-kickstarted Christian rebirth. Surely, his dad and God are the two most important men in his life, right? Then why does this feel passionless and boring? Why doesn’t this feel genuine? Fellow Christian rapper NF, a white rapper who makes bland piano-lead pop-rap with sung hooks, would call this flavourless, dull and more importantly, grey. It doesn’t feel blue and gold like he wants it to as he uses the colours to imply royalty, luxury and loyalty to God on the album cover and lyric video. This doesn’t show loyalty. You made this in five minutes, Kanye. You made this on a whim because you had an idea and you ran with it but you had no idea on how to actually develop it into something interesting or even listenable. What part of this shows royalty, luxury and a rich, graceful connection with God? This sounds cheap and gross, and frankly incredibly disappointing from such a talented artist. I haven’t even gotten onto the rest of the song, man, and I don’t even want to. “Decimal” doesn’t rhyme with “wrestle”, Kanye. “Wrestlin’ with God, I don’t even want to wrestle”? That’s the deepest you want to go into your confusion and conflict between Christianity and fame? That’s pathetic, as is the random screaming at the end of this track for quirky or emotive bonus points. There’s nothing lifelike or Christ-like about your lifestyle, Kanye West. Get some help.

NEW ARRIVALS

#34 – “Nice to Meet Ya” – Niall Horan

Produced by Julian Bunetta – Peaked at #9 in Ireland and #83 in the US

Sorry to any of the Niall Horan fans who crashed his website when this single was announced, but I have considerably less to say about the rest of these new arrivals than I do about Kanye West and/or Jesus Christ. I have to talk about them regardless of if I have anything I can actually add, and this one is one I’ve actually already heard since I watched the MTV EMAs and he performed it. I thought nothing of it initially, but this is the Irishman from One Direction’s comeback single after his debut studio album Flicker. This is Horan’s third UK Top 40 hit and first since 2017’s “Too Much to Ask” which peaked at #24, and I did not expect this shift to late 90s and early 2000s dance-rock, but I am definitely not complaining. It starts with a catchy piano line that’s pretty Robbie Williams-esque, then the drop comes in and it is killer. The sleek synths decorating the rock drums in a lot of slickness that you wouldn’t expect out of such a meek stage presence add to the chorus pretty well, but the best part of that chorus is the distant pitch-shifted vocal sample yelling in the background, making it feel even more industrial which again is out of character for Niall, the quiet, shy folk boy, but he definitely has the charisma to pull off this type of swaggering, stomping pop rock anthem, and he proves that in the sing-along bridge, where even his murmuring hums stand out, and while he’s drowned out by the cool bassline and drum pattern most of the time, his vocal delivery really is the highlight of the song, even if that is equally vintage and in a way, pretty nostalgic for the era it replicates. Funnily enough, it has the same lack of care for organised structure that “Lights Up” by Harry Styles had just two weeks ago, but the careless, reckless groove of this song works a lot more in Horan’s favour than Styles’. Just saying.

#27 – “Orphans” – Coldplay

Produced by Rik Simpson, Dan Green, Bill Rahko, Max Martin, Angel Lopez and Federico Vindver – Peaked at #14 in Scotland

Coldplay, with their most recent upcoming album Everyday Life, are getting pretty experimental. It’s an hour-long double-album kept a secret until a month before it is set to release featuring a track list full of songs that have odd stylisations like “BrokEn” and share song names with Arabic poems. “Arabesque”, the B-side to “Orphans”, is a storm of nu-jazz trumpets with a Fela Kuti-inspired breakdown and uncredited guest vocals from Stromae, as well as profanity, which is a first for the band. I’m not surprised at all that one didn’t kick off but we are instead left with their 24th UK Top 40 hit and first since “Something Just Like This” with the Chainsmokers peaked at #2 in 2017, “Orphans”, which is a lot tamer of a track to say the least. That doesn’t mean it’s any worse though. It starts with a kids’ choir singing before we get into a tropical rock jam with a funky bassline that I wouldn’t be surprised if Flea wrote, it’s that tight. Chris Martin sounds as focused on Christianity as he did on the Avicii album earlier this year, directly name-dropping Heaven in the first verse, and then joining in with the nonsense words that the vocal samples had been repeating prior to the verse. The chorus is pretty reminiscent of arena rock, specifically “Paradise” I feel as it has that same nasal falsetto but in a lot more palatable fashion, mostly because this actually has groove and you know, a pulse. Yeah, this is pretty great, and I love the bridge of purely the mythical guitar and Chris Martin’s ethereal vocals. Something I didn’t notice on initial listen is how that the song is about a girl, Rosaleem, during the Damascus bombing in Syria from last year (That’s what the nonsense words and sound effects are all about), who is greeted by angels who talk to her about what Heaven will be like, which is “almond and peach trees in bloom” but also a place for her dad to get drunk and talk with his friends so he can feel young again. That’s actually pretty deep subject matter, and together with Niall Horan, I’m glad we can have some fantastic rock on the charts again. “Arabesque” is the better of the two Coldplay songs though.

#26 – “Look at Her Now” – Selena Gomez

Produced by Ian Kirkpatrick – Peaked at #7 in Slovakia and #27 in the US

Man, those last two songs were so powerful and organic, I almost want some disposable garbage to review next. It’ll just be easier. Oh, we have two Selena Gomez songs and a new AJ Tracey single to cover? Perfect, that’s just what I asked for! Yeah, this is Selena Gomez’s 14th UK Top 40 hit and it is awful, but not even close to as offensively bad “Closed on Sunday” or “Follow God” are. It’s just a mistake on all fronts. The passionless vocal samples drowned out in the background that peters out by the verse and the nothingness of the synths and a glitchy beat that abruptly kicks itself out of the mix every other second, as well as Selena Gomez’s weak, whispery vocals don’t exactly scream “passionate, boasting kiss-off” to me. The chorus is absolutely PATHETIC, if it even exists at all – I mean, it’s just a bunch of different sound effects Selena Gomez made pretty much, with her rhythmically humming as if that’s an excuse for an actual chorus with some unintelligible, stuttering and sometimes whispered repetitions of the song title as well as several “W-w-w-w-wow”s that add very little to the song and seem pretty pointless. This is mixed well for the most part, despite the synths clipping at times and Selena’s vocoder-ed ad-libs in the second chorus being way louder than anything else in the mix, but I have no idea what the composers of this song were thinking. What a trainwreck. It almost sounds like glitch-pop to be honest, it’s chaos, and if it were marketed as that maybe I’d appreciate it more, but if this is supposed to be a genuine brag to Justin Bieber asking him to see what he’s missing, he might as well have dated a robot. I think a RateYourMusic user summed it up best: “This is so monumentally mediocre that it barely even exists.”

#22 – “Floss” – AJ Tracey featuring MoStack and Not3s

Produced by The Elements and AJ Tracey

AJ Tracey is a British rapper who had his break out this year and he released his self-titled debut studio album back in February, but it now has a deluxe edition, with five extra songs, this being one of them. I wasn’t exactly impressed with the album as it’s mostly pretty bland Americanised trap fluff with only some promising elements of dancehall (“Butterflies” with Not3s and remixed by Popcaan), grime (“Horror Flick”) and UK garage (“Ladbroke Grove”, one of my favourite songs of the year) propping up whenever AJ sees fit, but it’s 48 minutes so these moments can’t carry the whole track listing. Lucky for us, he’s increased that runtime to just over an hour and included a couple more boring trap songs to listen to. Joy. This is AJ’s seventh UK Top 40 hit, MoStack’s eighth and Not3’s sixth. This song relies on a pretty sweet falsetto vocal sample under a surprisingly energetic trap beat, with some pretty nice steel pans and cowbells in addition to the skittering hi-hats and 808s. AJ Tracey is pretty okay here, but I feel with these lyrics and beat he could have gone for a faster and more impressive flow than what he brings out here. I’m still in love with his “bling-blaow” ad-lib though. MoStack is embarrassing as always, with an oddly-mixed verse and sometimes off-beat flow, with the most obvious difference between him and AJ being that there aren’t any ad-libs or multi-tracked vocals, which is mostly the same with Not3s’ non-existent and actually pretty unnecessary bridge (He should have just added to the final chorus, though his last few bars sound nice). Mo does have a pretty funny line about how you wouldn’t be able to notice him on CCTV and would confuse him with Dave though. This is better than I expected, but still nothing of interest to me. Sorry.

#3 – “Lose You to Love Me” – Selena Gomez

Produced by Mattman & Robin and FINNEAS – Peaked at #1 in the US

Now, much like Coldplay, Selena Gomez also released two lead singles, however both charted and they are drastically different to Coldplay’s, quality-wise at least. This is supposed to be the big massive smash ballad hit that hit #1 in the US, becoming her first ever song to reach that peak, but I can’t bring myself to care, because honestly, this is one of her least interesting singles she’s ever released. Out of all of her songs, including some I actually like such as “It Ain’t Me” and “Same Old Love”, this seems like one of the most unlikely #1s yet it tugs at our heartstrings with the pianos from FINNEAS, Billie Eilish’s brother and producer, and it’s about how Justin Bieber dumped her with wordplay revolving around “purpose” – wow, it’s almost like she’s talking about Justin Bieber’s ALBUM, Purpose! Ugh, her mind! Okay, I’ll stop mocking her fanbase and the general public, because this really isn’t a bad song. Selena Gomez can’t sing, so through thinly-veiled Auto-Tune, the producers cleverly multi-track her vocals to create a grand, powerhouse chorus out of the repetition of “To love, to love, yeah” and because it’s a pop ballad, the vocals can be breathy and untrained and it’s fine, right? It’s a ballad, it doesn’t need to be perfect, and hence we can take advantage of the complete lack of singing talent this person has. I don’t know, it just seems so cliché and predictable to me. You can only tell it’s a FINNEAS beat once the second verse hits and the synths get jerkier with the bass wobbles, and he usually has a pretty signature sound, so yeah, that’s the best way to put it. Or, perhaps, this song is also so monumentally mediocre that it barely even exists.

Conclusion

Again, I’m sorry this is out so late but it was a big ordeal to write, especially due to all the Kanye songs. I’ll try and get the next one out a lot sooner, I assure you, but there’s an album bomb this week too, so we’ll see about that. Anyways, the Best of the Week is going to Coldplay for “Orphans”, who just barely edged out Niall Horan, who gets the Honourable Mention, with “Nice to Meet Ya”. Worst of the Week should be obvious, in fact, it’s not going to a song, it’s going to three songs, all by Kanye West. “Saleh” isn’t all that bad, but JESUS IS KING was such an immense disappointment that I think he should be crowned Worst of the Week based on not only “Closed on Sunday” or God forbid “Follow God”, but also on principle alone. The Dishonourable Mention is going to Selena Gomez for “Look at Her Now” for being hilariously misguided in the production area, Jesus. I’m going to wrap this week up with a Top 40 ranking of the whole chart on Twitter, which I’ll try to do bi-weekly, no guarantee, so follow me there @cactusinthebank for more musical ramblings and shoddy attempts at humour, and I’ll be seeing you here again next week. Peace!

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Grammy Awards 2019 : complete list of winners announced

The 61st Grammy Awards 2019 at the Staples Center, Los Angeles. The evening saw artists like Childish Gambino, Lady Gaga, Kacey Musgraves and Brandi Carlile picked up multiple awards in the top categories.

The late Chris Cornell was honored with a posthumous Grammy Awards 2019 as ‘When Bad Does Good’ achieved Best Rock Performance. His two children, Toni and Christopher, accepted the award on his behalf.

Ariana Grande may be boycotting tonight’s festivities, but she was still victorious in the category of Best Pop Vocal Album for her 2018 LP, Sweetener. It marked the pop diva’s first-ever Grammy.

Here’s the complete list of winners announced at the Grammy Awards 2019 by The Recording Academy.

Record of the Year: This Is America – Childish Gambino

Album Of The Year: Golden Hour -Kacey Musgraves

Song Of The Year: This is America – Childish Gambino

Best Rap Album: Invasion Of Privacy – Cardi B

Best R&B Album: H.E.R. – H.E.R.

Best Country Album: Golden Hour – Kacey Musgraves

Best New Artist: Dua Lipa

Best Pop Solo Performance: Joanne (Where Do You Think You’re Goin’?) – Lady Gaga

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance: Shallow – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album: My Way – Willie Nelson

Best Pop Vocal Album: Sweetener – Ariana Grande

Best Dance Recording: Electricity – Silk City & Dua Lipa Featuring Diplo & Mark Ronson

Best Dance/Electronic Album: Woman Worldwide – Justice

Best Contemporary Instrumental Album: Steve Gadd Band – Steve Gadd Band

Best Rock Performance: When Bad Does Good – Chris Cornell

Best Metal Performance: Electric Messiah – High On Fire

Best Rock Song: Masseduction – St. Vincent

Best Rock Album: From The Fires – Greta Van Fleet

Best Alternative Music Album: Colors – Beck

Best R&B Performance: Best Part – H.E.R. Featuring Daniel Caesar

Best Traditional R&B Performance: Bet Ain’t Worth The Hand – Leon Bridges (TIED WITH) How Deep Is Your Love – PJ Morton Featuring Yebba

Best R&B Song: Boo’d Up – Ella Mai

Best Urban Contemporary Album: Everything Is Love – The Carters

Best Rap Performance: King’s Dead – Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock, Future & James Blake (TIED WITH) Bubblin – Anderson .Paak

Best Rap/Sung Performance: This Is America – Childish Gambino

Best Country Solo Performance: Butterflies – Kacey Musgraves

Best Country Duo/Group Performance: Tequila – Dan + Shay

Best Country Song: Space Cowboy – Kacey Musgraves

Best New Age Album: Opium Moon – Opium Moon

Best Improvised Jazz Solo: Don’t Fence Me In – John Daversa Big Band Featuring DACA Artists

Best Jazz Vocal Album: The Window – Cécile McLorin Salvant

Best Jazz Instrumental Album: Emanon – The Wayne Shorter Quartet

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album: American Dreamers: Voices Of Hope, Music Of Freedom – John Daversa Big Band Featuring DACA Artists

Best Latin Jazz Album: Back To The Sunset – Dafnis Prieto Big Band

Best Gospel Performance/Song: Never Alone – Tori Kelly Featuring Kirk Franklin; Kirk Franklin & Victoria Kelly, songwriters

Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song: You Say – Lauren Daigle; Lauren Daigle, Jason Ingram & Paul Mabury, songwriters

Best Gospel Album: Hiding Place – Tori Kelly

Best Contemporary Christian Music Album: Look Up Child – Lauren Daigle

Best Roots Gospel Album: Unexpected – Jason Crabb

Best Latin Pop Album: Sincera – Claudia Brant

Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album: Aztlán – Zoé

Best Regional Mexican Music Album (Including Tejano): ¡México Por Siempre! – Luis Miguel

Best Tropical Latin Album: Anniversary – Spanish Harlem Orchestra

Best American Roots Performance: The Joke – Brandi Carlile

Best American Roots Song: The Joke – Brandi Carlile

Best Americana Album: By The Way, I Forgive You – Brandi Carlile

Best Bluegrass Album: The Travelin’ Mccourys – The Travelin’ McCourys

Best Traditional Blues Album: The Blues Is Alive And Well – Buddy Guy

Best Music Film: Quincy – Quincy Jones, Alan Hicks & Rashida Jones

Best Music Video: This is America – Childish Gambino

Best Spoken Word Album: Faith – A Journey For All: Jimmy Carter

Best Comedy Album: Equanimity & The Bird Revelation – Dave Chappelle

Best Children’s Album: All The Sounds – Lucy Kalantari & The Jazz Cats

Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media: The Greatest Showman – Hugh Jackman (& Various Artists)

Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media: Black Panther – Ludwig Göransson

Best Song Written For Visual Media: Shallow – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper

Best Contemporary Blues Album: Please Don’t Be Dead – Fantastic Negrito

Best Folk Album: All Ashore – Punch Brothers

Best Regional Roots Music Album: No ‘Ane’I Kalani Pe’a

Best Reggae Album: 44/876Sting & Shaggy

Best World Music Album: Freedom – Soweto Gospel Choir

Best Musical Theater Album: The Band’s Visit – Etai Benson, Adam Kantor, Katrina Lenk & Ari’el Stachel

Best Instrumental Composition: Blut Und Boden (Blood And Soil) – Terence Blanchard

Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella: Stars And Stripes Forever – John Daversa

Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals: Spiderman Theme – Mark Kibble, Randy Waldman & Justin Wilson

Best Recording Package: Masseduction – Willo Perron, art director (St. Vincent)

Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package: Squeeze Box: The Complete Works Of “Weird Al” Yankovic – Meghan Foley, Annie Stoll & Al Yankovic

Best Historical Album: Voices Of Mississippi: Artists And Musicians Documented By William Ferris

Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical: Colors – Beck

Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical: Pharrell Williams

Best Immersive Audio Album: Eye In The Sky – 35th Anniversary Edition – Alan Parsons

Best Remixed Recording: Walking Away (Mura Masa Remix) – Alex Crossan, remixer (Haim)

Best Album Note: Voices Of Mississippi: Artists And Musicians Documented By William Ferris – David Evans

Best Contemporary Classical Composition: Kernis: Violin Concerto – Aaron Jay Kernis

Best Classical Compendium: Fuchs: Piano Concerto ‘Spiritualist’; Poems Of Life; Glacier; Rush – JoAnn Falletta

Best Classical Solo Vocal Album: Songs Of Orpheus – Monteverdi, Caccini, D’india & Landi – Karim Sulayman; Jeannette Sorrell

Best Classical Instrumental Solo:Kernis: Violin Concerto – James Ehnes, Ludovic Morlot, conductor (Seattle Symphony)

Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance: Anderson, Laurie: Landfall – Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet

Best Choral Performance: Mcloskey: Zealot Canticles – Donald Nally

Best Opera Recording: Bates: The (R)Evolution Of Steve Jobs – Michael Christie

Best Orchestral Performance: Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 11 – Andris Nelsons

Producer Of The Year, Classical: Blanton Alspaugh

Best Engineered Album, Classical: Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 11 – Shawn Murphy & Nick Squire.

Read more : News Readers

[catholicartistsnyc]

Meet: Stephen Lyons

STEPHEN LYONS is an actor and musician living in NYC. (www.StephenLyons.net)

Catholic Artist Connection (CAC): What brought you to NYC, and where did you come from?

Stephen Lyons (SL): I am originally from West Chester, PA.  In summer 2013 I made the decision to move back to New York after being inspired by Once, A New Musical.  I was very much excited by that type of show and the storytelling.  I was living in Philadelphia at the time when I saw a friend of mine in the Broadway production.  I moved to the city and met one of my bandmates at an open mic who happened to be working on 'Once' and knew our mutual friend and we formed the band Bonfire Falls.

CAC: How do understand your vocation as a Catholic artist? What do you see as your personal mission as a Catholic working in the arts?

SL: "Give beauty, give beauty back to God" (Gerard Manley Hopkins).  This was the mantra ingrained in my experience at DeSales University by my dear mentor, the late Rev Gerard Schubert, founder of the DeSales University Theatre Department.  To me, it is the responsibility artists have in using their gifts to bring light, refreshment, revelation and hope to the human experience. 

Bono of the Irish rock band U2 has also played a huge impact in my understanding of the responsibility of Christian artists have in advocacy. Oftentimes, especially in this hyper sensitive culture, there is this enticement for despair.  Bono encapsulates it in U2's song "Every Breaking Wave": 

"baby every dog on the street / knows that we're in love with defeat / are we ready to be swept off our feet / and stop chasing every breaking wave."  

To me, that line is about the journey toward faith, hardwired hope under the strata of despair circulating in the frequencies of social media.  

Faith is a garden.  It is a quiet place in an inner city neighborhood waiting for discovery, for someone to walk in, connect and lend a hand.  It is a response to beauty waiting for us to cultivate and reflect back to God.   

CAC: Where have you found support in the Church for your vocation as an artist?

SL: Through the Catholic Artists Connection network.  The daily postings, reflections, opportunities and encouragement have been helpful in understanding your relationship to your work and the greater community of Catholic artists.

CAC: Where have you found support among your fellow artists for your Catholic faith?

SL: The Our Lady of Harlem Artist House has allowed me the ability to pursue my music and acting career.  Without this community, without this support, I'm not sure I'd be here.  I had gone through a personal hardship which effected me both financially, emotionally and spiritually.  The support network of my housemates has given me the strength to get through a very difficult time and help me get on my feet again.  Our unique house of artists of different disciplines has been a special grace.  

I would also like to draw special attention to Cole Matson who has a very special gift of vision.  He blends that unique skillset of an academic, intellectual, humanist and love for artists that defines what should be the model for New Evangelization, a kind soul who is always positive, and encouraging artists.  He himself as an artist and visionary is a tremendous gift to the New York City Catholic Artist Community.  

CAC: Where in NYC do you regularly find spiritual fulfillment?

SL: I attend St. Malachy's, The Actor's Chapel.  Candlelight is an important aspect to prayer and meditation.  I have a very strong memory of votive candles and colors from a young age.  It is a quiet, peaceful important part of meditation and prayer.  "Be still and see that I am God." Ps 46:10  The smell the look of flickering fire (the Holy Fire) which has a simple power.  

Also minor rant: can I just say I like St. Malachy's because they use REAL candles and not those fake push button jobs!  Completely defeats the purpose. 

CAC: Where in NYC do you regularly find artistic fulfillment?

SL: As far as artistic fulfillment, I belong to the Writer's Room (Open Mic) which is an extremely supportive and nurturing space to showcase new music and network with other musicians.  I also belong to Actor's Launchpad which provides monthly coaching for film / tv / networking and they also offer free self-taping for auditions.  

Harlem is a huge place of inspiration for me right now creatively.  It is going through a complex change.  The African American experience has informed my faith in a powerful way. There is such a deep music and cultural history here that resonates with me both on a spiritual and creative level.  There is a lot of complexity here as well as soul.  

I also get inspired by our community garden, Mandela Garden.  It is the only wildflower garden in Manhattan and boasts 30 different species of wildflower no longer found in the city.  People underestimate the power of gardens, of working with the earth.  There is both a physiological and psychological thing that happens when you work in a Garden.  It causes you to think differently about the World around you and how you think.  It’s also a nexus in this neighborhood where the community can come together.  Sadly, our garden is in danger of being developed, but we are fighting in court.  

CAC: How have you found or built community as a Catholic artist living in NYC?

SL: Participating in monthly Mass, activity with members of Our Lady of Harlem House, and attending events through Catholic Artist Connection.

CAC: What is your daily spiritual practice? Where do you like to go on retreat?

SL: In my morning prayer, I thank God for the gift of life, the gift of the day.  I pray for the loved ones in my life and the Grace to be attentive to their needs.   I'm also focused on direct intentions, what I hope to achieve through God's Grace praying an 'Our Father,' 'Hail Mary,' and then speaking the intention 10 times. I pray 'Jesus I trust in you' 10 times as well, surrendering all to God and concluding with a Glory Be.   

During the course of the day I pray for people I meet along the way.  If i see someone in despair or homeless for example I will say an 'Our Father' or 'Hail Mary.’  I try to be conscious of seeing Christ in everyone I come in contact with.

In the evening I may pray rosary or recite the Chaplet of Divine Mercy which is one of my favorite prayers.  I pray for family and friends and I remember the souls of family and friends who've died.  

Honestly, I have not done a whole lot of retreats because of budget.  I tend to go to quiet beautiful places.  There are some beautiful hiking trails and spots in Pennsylvania where I grew up I like to go to.  Landscape informs my songwriting a great deal.  I generally like to get lost in the country.

CAC: What is your daily artistic practice? And what are your recommendations to other artists for practicing their craft daily?

SL: Generally I try to carve out 1 - 2 hours a day of songwriting.  I understand some artists force themselves to write at such and such a time each and every day, but that's never worked for me.  Often, it comes unexpectedly.  

To quote Martha Graham: 

It is not your business to determine how good it (your creative expression) is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. 

I try to be present to the World around me, to look for God in the face of His children every day in the World, to see where injustice or acts of courage are happening.  Creativity most be allowed to flow it is your response to your daily existence.  Journaling sometimes helps.  For me I also will record melodic or lyric ideas on my voice memos or notes on my iPhone during the day. Oftentimes in my songwriting I'm searching for a vocal line.  It begins with a vocal improvisation with 'non-sense' words until the feeling of the vocal and the chord structure starts to drive a narrative.  

CAC: Describe a recent day in which you were most completely living out your vocation as an artist.

SL: Every time I get to rehearse with my bandmates (Bonfire Falls).  I've never been part of a group of incredible, giving, supportive group of musicians and songwriters in my life.  Each time we are in the room, there is an incredible energy of diversity in thinking, feeling and creative expression.  It is the ultimate example of how a band can create outcomes you never thought possible.  Each one of us contributes in powerful ways.  There is a 'Yes And' mindset always present.  There is a flow that happens, an almost heightened intuition.  

CAC: You actually live in NYC? How!?

SL: I had been sublet hopping for about a year when Emily Snyder (Turn to Flesh Productions) introduced me to Cole Matson, who was looking to pull together a group of Catholic artists.  Cole had asked me to check out an apartment in Harlem.  When I got out of the 125th Station at Lenox Ave there was a teen gospel choir singing on the corner.  It was a group from Vy Higgensen's Gospel For Teens which focuses on preserving the art form of Gospel to young people.  I had been going through a very difficult year and when I saw that it was a kind of grace that this was the right place at the right time.  Catholic Artist Connection also provides a great network for finding housing. 

CAC: But seriously, how do you make a living in NYC?

SL: This is the pain for every artist.  I had been working in a full time job when I moved back to New York in 2013.  I have a background in sales and marketing, and leadership development, but it was taking up too much of my time and energy.  I had made the decision to leave that company and go back to my music and acting career. 

Resources for actors I've found very helpful: Actors Access, Backstage, Playbill, Casting Networks, Casting Frontier to name a few.  

I do a lot of catering because it’s flexible work. JitJatJo is a great new staffing app for people in food service.  Gigmor.com is great for gigging musicians.

CAC: What are your top pieces of advice for Catholic artists moving to NYC?

SL: I wish I had the Catholic Artist Connection when I first graduated college and moved to New York.  Your faith is what sustains you, knowing that you have a community of fellow Catholic artists is so important to learning and dealing with the city.  If you are deeply sensitive or highly intuitive you need to be aware of how the city will affect you.  I'm one of those types and for many years I didn't quite understand how to handle it.  Highly intuitive or feeling people experience the world in a much more deeper level than many.  It’s what makes us powerful artists.  It is a strength, not a weakness, but sometimes you need to protect that sensitivity.  New York will give you skin, but you have to be patient. 

It is important to stay grounded in your faith and connecting with a support network.  Seek out spiritual direction and understand that the city will push you to grow.  Look to volunteer or help those in need.  Find a garden.  

Be patient with yourself and give it at least a year.  That first year can be brutal.

Second piece of advice I'd share is find flexible work that won't drive you INSANE.  Too much sitting at a desk will sap your energy and your creative spirit.  If you can teach something on the side DO THAT!  

Also catering is fantastic.  It keeps you moving and they feed you. It’s flexible. Great way to save money and also network with other artists.  Did I mention networking?  Take classes.  Networking is so so so important!!  Actor's Connection, Actor's Launchpad, The Growing Studio, check Backstage for other resources.  

Remember to Love God through the work you do by loving humanity - be conscious of becoming too in the World.  If you're an actor pray to St. Genesius.  Align your intentions with the One who made you out of Love.  

"Give beauty back, beauty, beauty, beauty, back to God beauty's self and beauty's giver."

[rosigreer-blog]

Another Rev choir drawing

[thesinglesjukebox]

KESHA FT. BIG FREEDIA - RAISING HELL

[6.38]

Kesha with Big Freedia Energy

Leah Isobel: Kesha has been saddled with one of the heaviest narratives of 2010s pop music, which combines uneasily with her career-long interest in more grounded country and rock signifiers. Now when she works with those impulses, as she did on Rainbow, the effect is one of refutation; Animal becomes an outlier that she made against her will, one that doesn't represent the Real Kesha. To work her way back to the party music that made her reputation, she has to adapt it to the new narrative frame that surrounds everything she does. If she's having fun, she's having fun in spite of what she experienced; partying is no longer an end into itself, but an escape from something else. Hence, "Raising Hell" deploys one of the hackiest pop tropes - gospel choirs used as a shortcut for sincere emotion - married to a pretty decent Big Freedia drop. It's not awful, but I miss the actual, honest-to-god trashiness that she made her stock in trade. In 2019, I guess I'm the only one. [6]

Thomas Inskeep: Finally, an uptempo Kesha record that a) isn't touched by the evil Dr. Luke, and b) doesn't sound like the result of a three-day vodka-and-Red Bull bender, and c) is actually fun. I'm not a fan of the EDM horns in the chorus, but apart from those, this works. I'm a bigger fan of Big Freedia in theory than practice, and accordingly prefer her in small doses; she's quite effective here as a kind of DJ Khaled-esque hype-person. And Kesha sounds free and happy, which makes me happy. [7]

Kayla Beardslee: I'm glad Kesha got her balls back and all, but I'm not enthused that that means a return to honking 2012 pop-drops. I will admit, though -- the combined Kesha/Freedia "drop it down low" hook grows on me with every listen. The rest of the song is fine: it invites singing along and is fun in a hedonistic Ke$ha way, but it's also very, very noisy (lots of erratic shouts and claps in the background that, to me, lean more messy than energetic). My favorite part is the final chorus ("Can I get an amen"), which is a pleasantly melodic contrast to the rest of the track, a close second being the thrilling "aaugh!" Kesha does right before the second chorus. [6]

Alex Clifton: High Road appears to take the party-all-day spirit from Kesha's earlier work but mixed with the rawer, more down-to-earth material from Rainbow. In theory this is a dream come true, and there's so much about "Raising Hell" that makes it a joy to experience. The post-chorus is godawful, though. Tonally it doesn't fit and stalls the song from its natural flow. I'm also longing for the day that Big Freedia gets the feature she deserves: her appearance is mostly limited to drop-it-drop-it-drop-it-drop-it which is delivered well but also literally one-note. Kesha's trying to have it all ways she can--country and gospel and dance and bounce--which, as someone who likes a good genreproof song, I really respect. Unfortunately the whole package doesn't come together as fully as it could. [6]

Stephen Eisermann: "The best possible Andy Grammer single" is not what Kesha and Big Freedia should be collaborating on. This is a waste of time and talent and no amount of conviction from either participant can convince me otherwise. [4]

Alfred Soto: This sounds sacrilegious: instead of defiling a religion, it defiles my idea of Kesha. After proving herself up to thumbing her nose at any genre she experimented with, she acquiesces to gospel cliches. She's earned the right to want salvation in them, lord knows, but she needn't sound as if Julia Michaels was her pastor. [4]

Josh Buck: How do you have a hook like "I don't wanna go to heaven without raising hell" and video centered around prosperity gospel preachers and NOT make it a country song?? At this point, Kesha has proven that she can tackle a variety of genres, but this bounce effort just feels scattered instead of celebratory. I realize this a loaded statement and not at all meant to be a defense or endorsement of the man, but judging by Kim Petras' endless recent string of bangers, Dr. Luke may have been an irreplaceable ingredient in Kesha's more crowd pleasing, debauched pop efforts. In recent years, she's sound much stronger on her Struts and Eagles of Death Metal rock cuts, and i'd love to see her spend more time in that arena. This one reminds me a bit of the final album by The Donnas in terms of we-might-be-too-old-for-this vibes. [3]

Katherine St Asaph: The narrative, inevitable and damning, around Kesha was that in severing her ties to Dr. Luke, she lost her source of a signature sound. Rainbow, with its grabs at musical styles and Kesha's required-for-optics but personality-dampening show of penitence, didn't do much to dislodge it. Which is why "Raising Hell" is such a triumph: it's evidence that she was the source of her signature sound. The song feels massive; if sound alone determines a hit, this would be No. 1 everywhere. The hook is recognizably hers: a melody that's kin to "We R Who We R" and also to hymns. The drops r what they r; the interpolations are canny and nostalgia: an interlude of "My Neck, My Back" filtered through "Hollaback Girl," an interlude of preaching filtered through Prince. Freedia is incapable of sounding like she's phoning it in even when she is (I'm sure she'll do a lot of that in the next few years), and unlike Iggy Pop or the Eagles of Death Metal, she's an actually exciting guest pick, rather than one mostly exciting on paper to boomers. And throughout, Kesha recaptures the anarchic glee that made her career. [8]

Jonathan Bogart: Maybe it was my naïveté in 2010 that made her sound so recklessly out of step with the rest of pop; but her post-Luke music, however much better it has been for her soul, still sounds faintly like capitulation. The secular-gospel structure and chantalong melody followed by jump around breakdowns sound like every pseudo-celebration on the market: the saving grace is Freedia's booming authoritativeness (surely the angel Gabriel, when he tells the roll up yonder to drop it down low, sounds like her) and Kesha's impish use of language, dancing on the borders between sacrilege and piety, hooks it up to the great stream of American song, where there is no Sunday morning without a Saturday night. [8]

Kylo Nocom: Of all things, this reminds me of Vacation Bible School theme songs and the "Cheerleader" remix. I have scored this accordingly. [7]

Michael Hong: The bombast of early 2010s Ke$ha meets the soulful Kesha of Rainbow racing down that same road to self-empowerment. Ke$ha's talk-singing, a choir that makes a line like "bitch, I'm blessed" all the more enjoyable, drops mixed with the gospel influences, and Big Freedia's bounce make for a hell of a maximalist fantasy. [7]

Jackie Powell: When "Raising Hell" begins, it fools the listener. When the piano chords and Kesha's introductory vocalization grace my ears during the song's first five seconds, I'm convinced that a power ballad or at best a mid-tempo track is in store. But Kesha quickly changes direction. An explosion of camp from collaborator Big Freedia, a blaring saxophone in the chorus, the return of talk-singing in the verses and an epic build in the pre-chorus: it sounds very familiar. That's what Kesha wants. She wants us to feel like we are once again at a 21-century hoedown. (But without Pitbull this time.) On this track, Kesha proves that both she and her fans can be "animals" while simultaneously being people with "fantastic souls", which might have been something missing from the pre-Rainbow eras. Here, however, Kesha desires fun and a rebellion that are a rejection of evil behavior and suffocating authority figures. She's not just sticking it to the man without a purpose. That's the difference between Kesha of 2019 and Ke$ha of 2009. "Kesha got her balls back and they're bigger than ever," she said in the album trailer for High Road. But I don't agree with that. She's had them since her inception. Her evolution has been honest, which is something that not all artists can say. [7]

Isabel Cole: MY! GIRL! Having proven herself an actual musician to every idiot man in the country, Kesha (perhaps sick of being so serious) gleefully returns to her favorite stomping ground of, well, glee. Raising Hell makes text what has always been the implicit mission of the Kesha project: a commitment to the fundamental sacredness of joy. It's hard to imagine a more succinct encapsulation of her ethos than "I'm all fucked up in my Sunday best / no walk of shame cuz I love this dress": it's not that she takes no pleasure in the transgression of elevating ass-shaking to the level of the divine, but it's a gentle mischief born of the deep belief in the holiness of enjoying our corporeal gifts while we still can. Feeling good is a form of worship, and a killer beat is no less legitimate an access point than a hymn. When she combines markers of religiosity with artifacts of base delights (my favorite is "Solo cup full of holy spirits," although I also adore the the vulgarity of "bounce it up and down where the good Lord split it"), the point is not to revel in contradiction but to toast to the fact that there is no contradiction; and when she opens her scope in the coda, dedicating her preaching or perhaps this round of shots to the misfits of creation, there's a (frankly Piscean) generosity to it. Also, (1) it slaps (2) biiiiiiiiiiiiiitch I'm blessed (3) her voice sounds just wonderful, as dextrous with an implicit smirk as ever and with a thrilling power on the places she gets to soar; I love the bit of grit we get in the chorus, like she's singing this after a night out (4) it FUCKING slaps (5) "I'm still here still, still bringing it to ya": ten years since TiK ToK this month, and the party still don't start till she walks in. [10]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[bharatiyamedia-blog]

Stormzy turns into first UK rapper to headline Glastonbury

http://tinyurl.com/y2f26h96 GLASTONBURY, England (Reuters) – Stormzy made historical past as the primary British rapper to headline Glastonbury on Friday, bringing his expertise of black city life to the world’s greatest greenfield music pageant in a efficiency that had the capability crowd leaping. British rapper Stormzy performs the headline slot on the Pyramid stage throughout Glastonbury Competition in Somerset, Britain, June 28, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls The 25-year-old Londoner, whose debut album was launched solely two years in the past, advised the viewers: “That is the best night time of my complete life.” He was joined mid-performance by Coldplay entrance man Chris Martin to duet on “Blinded By Your Grace Pt 1”, and later by fellow English rappers Dave and Fredo, who carried out their hit “Funky Friday” with the headliner. Subsequent got here Stormzy’s personal primary report, “Vossi Bop”, the title of a viral dance transfer. Drenched in sweat, Stormzy completed by “taking it to church” with “Blinded By Your Grace Pt 2”, full with gospel choir, and eventually “Large For Your Boots”, the lead single from his debut album “Gang Indicators & Prayer”. Stormzy’s efficiency ended the primary day of music on the pageant, held on Worthy Farm in southwest England and a daily fixture of the British summer time calendar because the 1970s. Revelers basked in scorching sunshine, prompting organizers to inform them to placed on sunscreen and drink loads of water. The climate meant few individuals donned the rubber boots which can be usually important at Glastonbury, which turns right into a mud-bath in heavy rain. George Ezra, the deep-voiced English singer-songwriter, had earlier introduced alongside his personal rug and stool to make the well-known Pyramid Stage really feel like residence. The 26-year-old’s set included “Budapest”, “Paradise”, and his ubiquitous 2018 hit “Shotgun”. Lauryn Hill preceded Ezra on the identical stage, igniting the group on the finish of her set with “Doo-Wop (That Factor)” from her 1998 solo album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”, and “Killing Me Softly”, the hit she sang as a member of the Fugees. The Pyramid Stage opened on Friday with Abba tribute act Bjorn Once more main a singalong to “Waterloo”, “Tremendous Trouper”, and “Dancing Queen”, whereas English indie rock band the Vaccines had been first on The Different Stage – the second greatest of the pageant’s 11 essential levels. Greater than 130,000 ticket holders had been on web site on Friday morning, organizers stated. The pageant runs till Monday. Reporting by Paul Sandle, Modifying by Raissa Kasolowsky and Rosalba O’Brien Our Requirements:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Source link

[trapangeles]

And the 61st Annual Grammy Award Winners Are…

Childish Gambino didn’t show up, but Drake did.  And so did Michelle Obama.  Here are winners list for the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, which wrapped up Sunday night.

Record of the Year

“This Is America” — Childish Gambino

Album of the Year

“Golden Hour” — Kacey Musgraves

Song of the Year

“This Is America” — Donald Glover and Ludwig Goransson, songwriters (Childish Gambino)

Best New Artist

Dua Lipa

Best Pop Solo Performance

“Joanne (Where Do You Think You’re Goin’?)” — Lady Gaga

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance

“Shallow” — Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper

Best Pop Vocal Album

“Sweetener” — Ariana Grande

Best Rock Performance

“When Bad Does Good” — Chris Cornell

Best Rock Song

“Masseduction” — Jack Antonoff and Annie Clark, songwriters (St. Vincent)

Best Rock Album

“From the Fires” — Greta Van Fleet

Best Alternative Music Album

“Colors” — Beck

Best R&B Performance

“Best Part” — H.E.R. featuring Daniel Caesar

Best Urban Contemporary Album

“Everything Is Love” — The Carters

Best R&B Album

“H.E.R.” — H.E.R.

Best Rap Performance

“King’s Dead” — Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock, Future and James Blake and “Bubblin” — Anderson .Paak

Best Rap Song

“God’s Plan” — Aubrey Graham, Daveon Jackson, Brock Korsan, Ron LaTour, Matthew Samuels and Noah Shebib, songwriters (Drake)

Best Rap Album

“Invasion of Privacy” — Cardi B

Best Country Solo Performance

“Butterflies” — Kacey Musgraves

Best Country Album

“Golden Hour” — Kacey Musgraves

Best Jazz Instrumental Album

“Emanon” — The Wayne Shorter Quartet

Best Latin Pop Album

“Sincera” — Claudia Brant

Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album

“Aztlán” — Zoé

Best Americana Album

“By the Way, I Forgive You” — Brandi Carlile

Best Song Written for Visual Media

“Shallow” — Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt, songwriters (Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper)

Producer of the Year, Non-Classical

Pharrell Williams

Best Music Video

“This Is America” — Childish Gambino

Best Comedy Album

“Equanimity & the Bird Revelation” — Dave Chappelle

Best Musical Theater Album

“The Band’s Visit” — Etai Benson, Adam Kantor, Katrina Lenk and Ari’el Stachel, principal soloists; Dean Sharenow and David Yazbek, producers; David Yazbek, composer and lyricist

Best Instrumental Composition

“Blut Und Boden (Blood and Soil)” — Terence Blanchard

Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella

“Stars and Stripes Forever” — John Daversa

Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals

“Spiderman Theme” — Mark Kibble, Randy Waldman and Justin Wilson, arrangers

Best Recording Package

“Masseduction” — Willo Perron, art director

Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package

“Squeeze Box: The Complete Works of ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic” — Meghan Foley, Annie Stoll and Al Yankovic, art directors

Best Album Notes

“Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris” — David Evans, album notes writer

Best Historical Album

“Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris” — William Ferris, April Ledbetter and Steven Lance Ledbetter, compilation producers; Michael Graves, mastering engineer

Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical

“Colors” — Julian Burg, Serban Ghenea, David “Elevator” Greenbaum, John Hanes, Beck Hansen, Greg Kurstin, Florian Lagatta, Cole M.G.N., Alex Pasco, Jesse Shatkin, Darrell Thorp and Cassidy Turbin, engineers; Chris Bellman, Tom Coyne, Emily Lazar and Randy Merrill, mastering engineers

Best Remixed Recording

“Walking Away (Mura Masa remix)” — Alex Crossan, remixer

Best Immersive Audio Album

“Eye in the Sky – 35th Anniversary Edition” — Alan Parsons, surround mix engineer; Dave Donnelly, P.J. Olsson and Alan Parsons, surround mastering engineers; Alan Parsons, surround producer

Best Contemporary Instrumental Album

“Steve Gadd Band” — Steve Gadd

Band Best Gospel Performance/Song

“Never Alone” — Tori Kelly featuring Kirk Franklin; Kirk Franklin and Victoria Kelly, songwriters

Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song

“You Say” — Lauren Daigle; Lauren Daigle, Jason Ingram and Paul Mabury, songwriters

Best Gospel Album

“Hiding Place” — Tori Kelly

Best Contemporary Christian Music Album

“Look Up Child” — Lauren Daigle

Best Roots Gospel Album

“Unexpected” — Jason Crabb

Best World Music Album

“Freedom” — Soweto Gospel Choir

Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media

“The Greatest Showman” — Hugh Jackman (and Various Artists); Alex Lacamoire, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Greg Wells, compilation producers

Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media

“Black Panther” — Ludwig Göransson, composer

Best New Age Album

“Opium Moon” — Opium Moon

Best American Roots Performance

“The Joke” — Brandi Carlile

Best American Roots Song

“The Joke” — Brandi Carlile, Dave Cobb, Phil Hanseroth and Tim Hanseroth, songwriters

Best Bluegrass Album

“The Travelin’ Mccourys” — The Travelin’ Mccourys

Best Traditional Blues Album

“The Blues Is Alive and Well” — Buddy Guy

Best Contemporary Blues Album

“Please Don’t Be Dead” — Fantastic Negrito

Best Folk Album

“All Ashore” — Punch Brothers

Best Children’s Album

“All the Sounds” — Lucy Kalantari & the Jazz Cats

Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books and Storytelling)

“Faith – A Journey for All” — Jimmy Carter

Best Regional Mexican Music Album (Including Tejano)

“¡México Por Siempre!” — Luis Miguel

Best Tropical Latin Album

“Anniversary” — Spanish Harlem Orchestra

Best Regional Roots Music Album

“No ‘Ane’i” — Kalani Pe’a

Best Music Film

“Quincy” — Quincy Jones; Alan Hicks and Rashida Jones, video directors; Paula Dupré Pesmen, video producer

Best Country Duo/Group Performance

“Tequila” — Dan + Shay

Best Country Song

“Space Cowboy” — Luke Laird, Shane Mcanally and Kacey Musgraves, songwriters

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album

“My Way” — Willie Nelson

“Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 11” — Shawn Murphy and Nick Squire, engineers; Tim Martyn, mastering engineer

Producer of the Year, Classical

Blanton Alspaugh

Best Orchestral Performance

“Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 11” — Andris Nelsons, conductor

Best Opera Recording

“Bates: The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs” — Michael Christie, conductor; Sasha Cooke, Jessica E. Jones, Edward Parks, Garrett Sorenson and Wei Wu; Elizabeth Ostrow, producer

Best Choral Performance

“Mcloskey: Zealot Canticles” — Donald Nally, conductor

Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance

“Anderson, Laurie: Landfall” — Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet

Best Classical Instrumental Solo

“Kernis: Violin Concerto” — James Ehnes; Ludovic Morlot, conductor

Best Classical Solo Vocal Album

“Songs of Orpheus – Monteverdi, Caccini, D’india & Landi” — Karim Sulayman; Jeannette Sorrell, conductor; Apollo’s Fire, ensembles

Best Classical Compendium

“Fuchs: Piano Concerto ‘spiritualist’; Poems of Life; Glacier; Rush” — Joann Falletta, conductor; Tim Handley, producer

Best Contemporary Classical Composition

“Kernis: Violin Concerto” — Aaron Jay Kernis, composer

Best Dance Recording

“Electricity” — Silk City and Dua Lipa featuring Diplo and Mark Ronson

Best Dance/Electronic Album

“Woman Worldwide” — Justice

Best Reggae Album

“44/876” — Sting and Shaggy

Best Improvised Jazz Solo

“Don’t Fence Me In” — John Daversa, soloist. Track from: “American Dreamers: Voices of Hope, Music of Freedom”

Best Jazz Vocal Album

“The Window” — Cécile Mclorin Salvant

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album

“American Dreamers: Voices of Hope, Music of Freedom” — John Daversa Big Band featuring DACA Artists

Best Latin Jazz Album

“Back to the Sunset” — Dafnis Prieto Big Band

Best Traditional R&B Performance

“Bet Ain’t Worth the Hand” — Leon Bridges and “How Deep Is Your Love” — PJ Morton featuring Yebba

Best R&B Song

“Boo’d Up” — Larrance Dopson, Joelle James, Ella Mai and Dijon Mcfarlane, songwriters

Best Metal Performance

“Electric Messiah” — High on Fire

Best Rap/Sung Performance

“This Is America” — Childish Gambino

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2019 GRAMMY Awards: Complete Winners List

As music's biggest night draws to a close, here's the complete list of winners: Album of the year: "Golden Hour" — Kacey Musgraves Record of the year (goes to artist, engineers, mixers): "This Is America" — Childish Gambino Best new artist: Dua Lipa Rap album: "Invasion of Privacy" — Cardi B R&B album: "H.E.R." — H.E.R. Rap song (goes to songwriters): "God's Plan” — Aubrey Graham, Daveon Jackson, Brock Korsan, Ron LaTour, Matthew Samuels & Noah Shebib, songwriters (Drake) Country album: "Golden Hour" — Kacey Musgraves Song of the year (goes to writers): "This Is America" — Donald Glover & Ludwig Goransson, songwriters (Childish Gambino) Pop duo/group performance: "Shallow" — Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper Rap performance (single or track): The award was tied between "King's Dead" — Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock, Future & James Blake and "Bubblin" — Anderson .Paak Rock album: "The Fires" — Greta Van Fleet Rock song (goes to songwriters): "Masseduction" — Jack Antonoff & Annie Clark, songwriters (St. Vincent) Metal performance: "Electric Messiah" — High On Fire Rock performance (single or track): "When Bad Does Good" — Chris Cornell Urban contemporary album: "Everything Is Love" — The Carters R&B song (goes to songwriters): “Boo'd Up” — Larrance Dopson, Joelle James, Ella Mai & Dijon McFarlane, songwriters (Ella Mai) R&B performance: "Best Part" — H.E.R. Featuring Daniel Caesar Traditional R&B performance: Tied between “Bet Ain't Worth the Hand” — Leon Bridges and “How Deep Is Your Love” — PJ Morton Featuring Yebba Jazz intrumental album: "Emanon" — The Wayne Shorter Quartet Dance/electronic album: "Woman Worldwide" — Justice Dance recording: "Electricity" — Silk City & Dua Lipa Featuring Diplo & Mark Ronson; Jarami, Alex Metric, Riton & Silk City, producers; Josh Gudwin, mixer Pop vocal album: "Sweetener" — Ariana Grande Pop solo performance: "Joanne (Where Do You Think You're Goin'?)" — Lady Gaga Country song (goes to songwriters): "Space Cowboy" — Luke Laird, Shane McAnally & Kacey Musgraves, songwriters (Kacey Musgraves) Country duo/group performance: "Tequila" — Dan + Shay Country solo performance: "Butterflies" — Kacey Musgraves Music film: "Quincy" — Quincy Jones; Alan Hicks & Rashida Jones, video directors; Paula DuPré Pesmen, video producer Music video: "This is America" — Childish Gambino; Hiro Murai, video director; Ibra Ake, Jason Cole & Fam Rothstein, video producers Latin pop album: "Sincera" — Claudia Brant Spoken word album: "Faith, A Journey for All" — Jimmy Carter American roots song: “The Joke” — Brandi Carlile, Dave Cobb, Phil Hanseroth & Tim Hanseroth, songwriters (Brandi Carlile) American roots performance: “The Joke” — Brandi Carlile Americana album: "By the Way, I Forgive You" — Brandi Carlile Folk album: "All Ashore" — Punch Brothers Reggae album: "44/876" — Sting & Shaggy New age album: "Opium Moon" — Opium Moon Best traditional pop vocal album: "My Way" — Willie Nelson Best jazz vocal album: "The Window" — Cécile McLorin Salvant Best Latin jazz album: "Back to the Sunset" — Dafnis Prieto Big Band Best roots gospel album: "Unexpected" — Jason Crabb Latin rock, urban or alternative album: "Aztlan" — Zoe Bluegrass album: "The Travelin' McCourys" — The Travelin' McCourys Traditional blues album: "The Blues is Alive and Well" — Buddy Guy World music album: "Freedom" — Soweto Gospel Choir Children's album: "All the Sounds" — Lucy Kalantari & The Jazz Cats Song written for visual media: "Shallow" — Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper, written by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando & Andrew Wyatt; Track from: "A Star Is Born" Score soundtrack for visual media: "Black Panther" — Ludwig Goransson, composer Compilation soundtrack for visual media: "The Greatest Showman" Contemporary Christian album: "Look Up Child" — Lauren Daigle Gospel album: "Hiding Place" — Tori Kelly Contemporary instrumental album: "Steve Gadd Band" — Steve Gadd Band Alternative music album: "Colors" — Beck Musical theater album: "The Band's Visit" Comedy album: "Equanimity & The Bird Revelation" — Dave Chappelle