The Grammys are at it again - with some interesting categorization rules ... weeks after Kacey Musgraves was deemed ineligible for inclusion in the best country album - Brandi Carlile's single “Right On Time” was accepted as a Pop song and not into any of the American roots categories for the 2022 awards.
The song was submitted for Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, Best American Roots Song, Best American Roots Performance, and Best Music Video, Short Form. (The album In These Silent Days, as opposed to “Right On Time,” will be eligible for Grammy consideration next year, due to it being released in October.)
Like Musgraves - Carlile took to social media to express her feelings, posting:
“Americana/American Roots music is more than a genre to me. It represents my community, my family, my friends and my beautiful island of misfits. I am also proud that it represents a great number of people actively WORKING to platform marginalized people – LGBTQIA, women, and people of color (who, of course, actually built the genre).
The importance of staying and working within Americana is greater than just me. There is not a moment where I don’t view my role as something larger. I feel great responsibility in representing marginalized queer people in rural America who are raised on country and roots music but are repeatedly and systematically rejected by the correlating culture. Every rung I can sling my gay sequined boot up on top of gets queer people a little higher on the ladder to being seen as just a bit more human in the great American roots landscape
I am very proud to be the Americana Association’s Artist of the Year two years in a row and to have debuted at number one on the Billboard Americana chart! It was an honor to have made my album at the same place I made my last one….and with all the same folks! Same producers and band. I cut every song live with acoustic guitars, vintage electrics plugged into old fender amps, beautifully aged pianos and with my fog horn vocals bleeding into every mic.
While I’m incredibly flattered to be considered “pop” as a 40-year-old crooning lesbian mother, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit surprised and disappointed to learn the Recording Academy decided to move “Right On Time” out of the American Roots genre and into the pop category.
Being recognized by the Grammys — in any form — is a great honor. I just want folks to know this wasn’t my decision. Regardless, it doesn’t change who I am or what my Americana community continues to mean to me.
Carlile has already won six Grammys awards in the Country, Americana, and Roots categories.
