By Lynne Margolis

(LSM March/April 2014/vol. 7 – Issue 2)

The 56th annual Grammy Awards delivered quite a bonanza to Texas artists, with Lone Star nominees taking awards in several key categories, and a Lifetime Achievement Award going to Brownsville-born Kris Kristofferson. First-time nominees Kacey Musgraves, a Mineola native, and Austinite Gary Clark Jr. made their hometowns happy with big wins, and beloved singer-songwriter Guy Clark, born in Monahans, won his first golden gramophone at age 72. His Best Folk Album win came for My Favorite Picture of You. (Fellow nominees included Wimberley’s Sarah Jarosz and Austin’s Greencards.) Musgraves took both Best Country Song, for “Merry Go ’Round,” and Best Country Album, for Same Trailer, Different Park. Clark earned the Best Traditional R&B Performance Grammy for “Please Come Home,” from his Blak & Blu album. Edie Brickell, originally of Dallas, and Steve Martin, born in Waco, shared Best American Roots Song honors for “Love Has Come for You,” the title track of their Peter Asher-produced album. Houston kid Rodney Crowell and longtime pal Emmylou Harris won Best Americana Album for Old Yellow Moon, beating out Martin and Brickell and one-time Austinite Buddy Miller (with Jim Lauderdale). And sisters Sarah and Shauna Dodds won Best Recording Package for their design work on Reckless Kelly’s Long Night Moon album; they were nominated two years ago in the same category for another Reckless Kelly album, Good Luck & True Love.