Best Album Notes Grammy Nominees [SPECIAL EDITION]
Best Album Notes Grammy Nominees [SPECIAL EDITION]
I’m Todd L. Burns, and welcome to Music Journalism Insider, a newsletter about music journalism. I highlight some of the best stuff I hear, read, and watch every week; publish news about the industry; and interview writers, scholars, and editors about their work. My goal is to share knowledge, celebrate great work, and expand the idea of what music journalism is—and where it happens. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com. And if you’re not already subscribed to the newsletter, you can do so at musicjournalisminsider.com.
Today in the newsletter: In this week’s special edition, I’m continuing my tradition of interviews with nominees for the Grammy Award for Best Album Notes. With the Awards coming up next weekend, I talked with four nominees. Up first is Gareth Murphy, who earned his nomination for the notes to the important Irish album Andy Irvine Paul Brady. In this excerpt from our interview, Gareth explains why he thinks liner notes are still important.
Gareth Murphy
The fact a Grammy category exists since 1964 says a lot. They became a part of the LP experience, at a time when albums were something of an expensive luxury that kids couldn’t afford. But I suspect this need for explanation follows on from an even older reference that is central to Irish music, and probably to other countries also.
It’s no coincidence that Irish folk singers, even instrumentalists who don’t sing, always introduce each song or tune when performing live. That seems to be the accepted code, dating back to long before the recording age. The performer speaks to the listeners as a friend, as a host, explaining the provenance of a song, its time signature, sometimes with a cryptic riddle or personal anecdote to set the atmosphere. This conversational interlude serves two vital purposes. It makes the listener feel more at home. But it also provides a necessary pause to clear the lingering air of the previous song before a new magic spell can be woven. It steadies the listener. Folk is the music of social gatherings where atmosphere and mutual comprehension is everything. I’ve heard musicians say that the difference between a good and bad performance is, generally, “the quality of the silence.” In other words, how the room is feeling.
But the thing is, the magic of a song generally doesn’t work on listeners without an introduction. People need that talking, that gentle grounding to be able to let go and enter into these frightening places of the soul. On records, artists can’t exactly talk between tracks. That would be silly. Liner notes fulfil that job.
Read the full interview with Gareth here.
Fernando Gonzalez
Fernando Gonzalez is nominated for the notes to Astor Piazzolla: The American Clavé Recordings, a fascinating document of the tango master. In this excerpt from our interview, Fernando explains how he approaches liner notes.
Growing up in Buenos Aires, liner notes were my introductory texts as I was becoming hooked on jazz. Some educated me by putting the particular album in the continuum of the artist’s career and jazz history (which often led me to other artists and recordings). Others gave me insights about personalities and particular pieces. Most importantly, they made me want to hear more of this music.
Naturally, all that is what I have in mind when writing liner notes.
As with all great music, Piazzolla’s New Tango can move and tickle you without much extra information; such is its power and beauty. The hope is that with the notes, listeners might hear more layers and nuance and enjoy the music more. That’s always the goal.
What was the most surprising thing you learned in the process of doing the notes?
I thought I knew Piazzolla’s story. But in writing these notes, I realized that, intentionally or not, Piazzolla closed a significant circle in his life. And it was in New York, of course, the beloved city of his childhood. Carlos Gardel, tango’s greatest singer, was in New York in 1934 to film El Dia Que Me Quieras (The Day You Love Me) for Paramount. Piazzolla was then a tough, 13-year-old New York kid just beginning to play bandoneon. They meet when Piazzolla’s father asks his son to take a gift to his great idol. After the encounter, Piazzolla becomes Gardel’s translator and guide and even performs with him occasionally. Gardel grows fond of the kid and gets him a cameo (a few seconds of screen time) in El Dia Que Me Quieras.
The moment is captured in one of the most iconic pictures in tango’s history: Gardel and Piazzolla, together in the same frame.
Fast forward to 1988. Piazzolla and his New Tango Quintet record their last album, La Camorra, at Master Sound Astoria, in Astoria, New York. The studio is part of the Kaufman Astoria Studios complex where Gardel shot El Dia Que Me Quieras.
Read the full interview with Fernando here.
Trivia Time
What journalist has received the most Grammy Awards in the Best Album Notes category? (Hint: He primarily wrote about jazz.)
Trivia Time Help!
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Bob Mehr
Bob Mehr has been nominated for this year’s Grammy for his work on a Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot reissue. In this excerpt from our interview, Bob explains why he took the gig.
Initially, when Wilco archivist/reissue co-producer Cheryl Pawelski approached me with the offer to do the YHF notes, I was a little reluctant, or at least wary of the challenge this particular record posed from a notes perspective.
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is an album that has been discussed, analyzed, contextualized, talked about and celebrated almost non-stop for the last two decades. Generally, I’ve made a career (however small) focusing on bands and records that are more obscure, lesser known, and not nearly as scrutinized. That clearly wasn’t going to be the case here, and so the trick became finding a new angle, a new approach and a new way into understanding the album and everything that happened during the process of making it.
As it turned out, through a combination of deep research, first hand interviews with the principals involved, and a recalibration of the established narrative—away from the David versus Goliath music biz storyline that was so prominent in 2002 when YHF was released—I feel like I managed to do that.
Read the full interview with Bob here.
Ted Olson
Ted Olson’s nomination comes for Doc’s World: Traditional Plus, a book that accompanies the compilation Doc Watson, Life’s Work: A Retrospective. (Full disclosure: As part of my day job at uDiscover Music, I published an excerpt of these liner notes.) In this excerpt from our interview, Ted explains why he felt the liners were so important for this particular release.
Throughout his long career, the western North Carolina-based Doc Watson toured the world performing a repertoire he referred to as “Traditional Plus,” incorporating traditional ballads, songs, and tunes alongside whatever else Doc wanted to play (gospel, blues, rock, even jazz standards). Doc overcame many obstacles in his life—he was blind from infancy—but he achieved musical immortality through balancing unparalleled technical skill, profound interpretive instincts, with tireless persistence. That said, some purchasers of this album couldn’t fully appreciate the recordings in this album without knowing Doc’s story. And so I wrote that story for inclusion with this album. I also thought that the listener might wish to know more about the material in Doc’s vast repertoire, and so I added individual notes to contextualize all 101 recordings.
Read the full interview with Ted here.
If You Win, Where Are You Going To Display Your Grammy?
Gareth Murphy: We live in a 1930s apartment in Paris that we recently discovered was first bought and designed by an Egyptian prince, seemingly for a mistress. We never did understand the curious mix of Art Deco and Arabian detail. Anyway, there’s two lovely marble plinths with arches above. All our nice vases go there. A Grammy would find a forever home among them. That said, I’m not going to win. Nor am I even thinking of the actual object. The honour itself is all that matters to me, and being nominated is already a huge honour, especially for a niche genre. I’m going to Los Angeles, anyway. A curious outsider, an also-ran. I’ll no doubt be watching from the edges. But that’s okay. I suspect that’s where my own mojo comes from.
Fernando Gonzalez: I’m not thinking about that. This is my second nomination, and I’m happy and grateful that my work has been considered highly by my peers. I didn’t speak English when I arrived in the States to study composition at Berklee. How could I have imagined myself writing music journalism or criticism—in English? It’s a crazy, only-in-America story. I’m just allowing myself to enjoy the moment.
Bob Mehr: I plan on knocking down the existing front wall of our house and creating a special climate controlled glass chamber, clearly visible from the street, where I can display the Grammy beneath the rays of a massive spotlight. I’m kidding… though I did hear that someone in Nashville once did something like that to show off their Grammy trophy. In truth, I would place it next to or in proximity to the other Grammy I won in 2021, somewhere on my office bookshelf.
Ted Olson: Having been nominated for seven previous Grammy Awards without winning, I don’t count on winning. As someone who has spent a lifetime promoting and studying Appalachian musical culture, it is always an honor to witness a documentary album of Appalachian music receiving recognition from a national audience.
The Closing Credits
Thanks for reading! In case you’ve missed any special features, I’ve published a number of them in the newsletter, including articles about music journalism history, what music journalism will be like in 2221, and much more. You can check out all of that here.
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Trivia Time Answer
Jazz historian Dan Morgenstern has won 8 Grammy Awards in the Best Liner Notes category.
A Final Note
Thanks for reading! I make playlists from time to time. Check them out if you’re interested. And full disclosure: my day job is at uDiscover Music, a branded content online magazine owned by Universal Music. This newsletter is not affiliated or sponsored in any way by Universal, and any links that relate to the work of my department will be clearly marked.
Feel free to reach out to me via email at music.journalism.insider@gmail.com. On Twitter, it’s @JournalismMusic. Until next time…