THOUGHTS ON THE 48TH ANNUAL GRAMMYS

Last night, the Grammys were passed out for recordings released during the Eligibility Year of October 1, 2004 through September 30, 2005. As usual, there were some hits and misses.

Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" beat out Gwen Stefani, Kanye West, Gorillaz, and Mariah Carey for Record of the Year. Maybe it's just me, but I think Green Day have been more than a little over-exposed this year. Personally, I would've picked Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together," simply because this record put an exclamation point on one of this year's greatest comebacks, and musically it was much more sound than the winner. Kudos to Mariah, though, for an outstanding performance of this song, though.

Album of the Year went to U2's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb." I thought this was a travesty. "Bomb," in my opinion is one of the most over-rated albums of the year, and it's nowhere near the level of other U2 efforts. Personally, I would've picked Mariah Carey's "The Emanicipation of Mimi" or Gwen Stefani's "Love Music Angel Baby."

Song of the Year went to U2 as well for "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own." Again, I must firmly disagree. I like Bono and the Edge, but I do believe that Rascal Flatts' "Bless the Broken Road," John Legend's "Ordinary People," and Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together" are much better choices. My personal pick would have been "Ordinary People."

Best New Artist was awarded to John Legend. I think this was the right call, although Ciara, Keane, Fall Out Boy, and Sugarland are no doubt very hefty competition.

In the pop category, I was proud to see Kelly Clarkson pick up the Best Female Pop Performance for "Since U Been Gone." And without a doubt, it was nice to see Stevie Wonder win Best Male Pop Performance for "From the Bottom of My Heart."

Maroon 5 won Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal. I think that Los Lonely Boys should've won for "More Than Love." I do agree though that Gorillaz were the Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals of all nominated.

Les Paul won for Best Pop Instrumental Performance, and Burt Bacharach won for Best Pop Instrumental Album.

It was a no-brainer for Kelly Clarkson to win Best Pop Vocal Album. What a fantastic year she has had!

The Chemical Brothers picked up a Grammy for Best Dance Recording and Best Electronic/Dance Album. I was sort of hoping for Kylie Minogue or Daft Punk to win, but I'm not that disappointed.

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album went to Tony Bennett for "The Art of Romance," though I thought it should have gone to Michael Buble or Johnny Mathis.

Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance went to Bruce Springsteen, and Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals went to U2, proving once and for all that the Academy knows NOTHING about what rock is. I didn't agree with any of the nominees.

System of a Down won Best Hard Rock Performance for "B.Y.O.B." I would've picked "Doesn't Remind Me" by Audioslave. Slipknot won Best Metal Performance which makes sense, considering the other nominees represent absolutely none of those which I would've nominated.

Les Paul won for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Of the other nominees, I was glad to see Adrian Belew, Joe Perry and Steve Vai get nominated.

Cementing the fact that the Grammy committee has no clue about rock music, U2 won Best Rock Song for "City of Blinding Lights." What a joke. Unfortunately, none of the other nominees are worth mentioning. That they also won Best Rock Album for "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" is further proof of bias within the judges. I would've picked Foo Fighters' "In Your Honor," The Rolling Stones' "A Bigger Bang" or Coldplay's "X & Y."

The White Stripes picked up a well-deserved award for Best Alternative Music Album for "Get Behind Me Satan."

Best Female R&B Vocal Performance went to Mariah Carey for "We Belong Together. No argument here! Best Male R&B Vocal Performance went to John Legend for "Ordinary People," which I might add is one of the most brilliant songs ever.

Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals went to Beyoncé & Stevie Wonder for "So Amazing." Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance went to Aretha Franklin for "A House Is Not a Home," which is great, but I thought Alicia Keys' "If I Was Your Woman" was pretty good too.

Damian Marley won Best Urban/Alternative Performance for "Welcome to Jamrock," although I thought "Supastar" by Floetry was a better choice.

"We Belong Together" won for Best R&B Song, which is great, however, I do think that "Ordinary People" was a good choice as well. John Legend did pick up Best R&B Album for "Get Lifted." I wish there could be a tie, because I absolutely loved "Unplugged" by Alicia Keys.

Best Contemporary R&B Album went to Mariah Carey for "Emancipation of Mimi." Good job, Mariah!

If you didn't see this one coming from a mile away, "Gold Digger" by Kanye West won Best Rap Solo Performance.

On a worse note, The Black Eyed Peas won Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group for "Don't Phunk With My Heart." Eminem's "Encore," or The Game's "Hate It or Love It" were much better choices.

Jay-Z and Linkin Park won for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "Numb/Encore." A close second would have been Ciara and Missy Elliott's "1,2 Step."

Kanye West took home Best Rap Song for "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" and Best Rap Album for "Late Registration."

Best Female Country Vocal Performance went to Emmylou Harris for "The Connection." The winner SHOULD have been "Georgia Rain" by Trisha Yearwood. Best Male Country Vocal Performance went to Keith Urban for "You'll Think of Me."

Alison Krauss and Union Station took home Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal for "Restless," which is a great song. Best Country Collaboration With Vocals went to Faith Hill and Tim McGraw's umpteenth collaboration "Like We Never Loved at All." Best Country Instrumental Performance went to Alison Krauss and Union Station for "Unionhouse Branch."

Rascal Flatts picked up top honors for Best Country Song with "Bless the Broken Road." You'll hear no arguments from me about this!

Best Country Album went to Alison Krauss and Union Station for "Lonely Runs Both Ways." The Del McCoury Band won Best Bluegrass Album for "The Company We Keep."

Best New Age Album went to Paul Winter Consort for "Silver Solstice."

Pat Metheny Group took home Best Contemporary Jazz Album for "The Way Up." Dianne Reeves won Best Jazz Vocal Album for "Good Night and Good Luck." Sonny Rollins won Best Jazz Instrumental Solo for "Why Was I Born?" Wayne Shorter Quartet won Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group for "Beyond the Sound Barrier," though I sense stiff competition from Wynton Marsalis. Dave Holland Big Band won Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for "Overtime." Eddie Palmieri won Best Latin Jazz Album for "Listen Here!"

In the Gospel field, Best Gospel Performance went to CeCe Winans for "Pray," though she faced worthy opponents in Donnie McClurkin and Yolanda Adams. Yolanda Adams won Best Gospel Song, though I personally would've rather seen J. Moss win for "We Must Praise."

Best Rock Gospel Album went to Audio Adrenaline for "Until My Heart Caves In," which was absolutely inferior to Day of Fire's self-titled CD, which did not win. Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album was undoubtedly Casting Crowns' "Lifesong."

Amy Grant took home yet another Grammy for Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album with "Rock of Ages...Hymns of Faith." Donnie McClurkin took home Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album for "Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs." CeCe Winans' "Purified" won Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album. Gladys Knight won Best Gospel Choir Or Chorus Album with "One Voice."

Laura Pausini won Best Latin Pop Album. Shakira walked off with Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album. Bebo Valdés won Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album. Willy Chirino won Best Salsa/Merengue Album. Luis Miguel won Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album. Little Joe Y La Familia won Best Tejano Album.

I'm proud to say B.B. King won for Best Traditional Blues Album. Delbert McClinton edged out the North Mississippi All-Stars for Best Contemporary Blues Album.

Tim O'Brien took home Best Traditional Folk Album. John Prine won Best Contemporary Folk Album. Jim Wilson won Best Native American Music Album. Daniel Ho, Paul Konwiser & Wayne Wong won Best Hawaiian Music Album.

Damian Marley won Best Reggae Album for "Welcome to Jamrock."

Best Traditional World Music Album went to Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté. Gilberto Gil won Best Contemporary World Music Album.

Best Polka Album (yes, they still have that category) went to Jimmy Sturr And His Orchestra.

Best Musical Album For Children went to "Songs From The Neighborhood - The Music Of Mister Rogers." This may have been the best pick of the night. Best Spoken Word Album For Children went to "Marlo Thomas & Friends: Thanks & Giving All Year Long."

Best Spoken Word Album went to "Dreams From My Father (Senator Barack Obama)"

Best Comedy Album went to Chris Rock for "Never Scared," which was a truly hilarious album. I would've picked, as close second, "The Right to Bare Arms" by Larry the Cable Guy.

Monty Python's "Spamalot" won Best Musical Show Album. And there was much rejoicing.

The soundtrack for "Ray" beat out "Napoleon Dynamite" for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media. It also picked up Best Score Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media. Glen Ballard & Alan Silvestri's "Believe," from the movie "The Polar Express" won Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media. John Williams was nominated twice, but even his "Star Wars" music could not win him Best Instrumental Composition in the face of stiff competition like winner Billy Childs. Gordon Goodwin won Best Instrumental Arrangement for "The Incredits" from Pixar's "The Incredibles." Billy Childs won again for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s).

Missy Elliott won Best Short Form Music Video, though I think that Sarah McLachlan's "World on Fire," Martina McBride's "God's Will," and Gorillaz "Feel Good Inc" were much better choices.

Bob Dylan edged out R. Kelly for Best Long Form Music Video.

There are lots of other production awards, but to spare the space here, just go look them up on Grammy's website if you really want to know!