Drewcifer's Tone Zone

Country had a bigger Grammy night than you might think.

Country music may not have owned the night, but it confidently carved out it’s share.

With much of the the 54th Grammy Awards attention being refocused on the death of Whitney Houston, along with multiple ringing endorsements of Adele, and over-the-top performances by Chris Brown, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj and others, it was almost subversive how Country music quietly gathered hardware by-the-pound. You had a classic rock tribute to the The Beach Boys and two performances by Sir Paul; not exactly twangy stuff. But inside all that, Lady Antebellum, Taylor Swift (who really won me over with her performance) and The Civil Wars moved through smoothly the night, picking up golden statues. Of course the night’s most gripping and memorable moment was when Jennifer Hudson performed “I Will Always Love You” in tribute to Whitney. It’s easy to forget that the song was written by Dolly Parton. 

Click here for CMT’s roundup of Country’s Grammy-winners…

METAL ROCKER TURNED COUNTRY GYPSY: I know little to nothing about the band Tesla. I know that the historical Nikola Tesla was a pioneer in electricity and radio, inventing the vacuum tube. Apparently, that’s where the ’90s metal outfit got it’s name. Recently I discovered that Tesla’s former leader, Frank Hannon, has ventured in to a country-rock thing. His sound has more in-common with an acoustic Lynyrd Skynyrd (or when Kid Rock does Lynyrd Skynyrd) than it does with Merle Haggard, but I kinda like it. At least I like this song, “Gypsy Highway.” Reminds me of a tune I would have liked during my southern rock-loving heyday, and I tip my hat to Frank for dropping the pointy guitar and shred-ly riffs in favor of a bottleneck slide. (Plus, the kid’s got a major mane!)