NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill, Maren Morris and Kesha took the stage in New York for the “All For The Hall” benefit concert for the Country Music Hall of Fame in Feb. 13 and not all were on board with the recent criticism of the Recording Academy.
The Grammy Awards, held recently in New York, were criticized for not awarding enough trophies to women – a criticism that was heightened by an unfortunate comment by Recording Academy President Neil Portnow who said women needed to “step up” for next year’s awards.
The four musicians spoke before the benefit concert with Gill, who has 21 Grammys, saying it was impossible to not leave a person off the list in any given year.
“I look at it kind of trying to see the whole field, you know. And I think the Grammys will go on and the country artists will feel slighted. Or maybe the classical people will feel slighted,” Gill said, according to the Associated Press. “It’s impossible to pull something off like that and not leave a few people by the wayside.
“You’re looking at three really open-minded musical people. We don’t care about genres, of color of skin, or gender, or anything. We just love playing music with great people and that’s all.”
Morris agreed, saying Grammy history can back it up. “I think the person that’s won the most Grammys is Alison Krauss so I don’t know. I mean, there’s obviously some things that need to be looked at, I think, and maybe it’s just voting members. Maybe we need to like expand on that.”
The Associated Press noted that the all-time Grammy winner is Hungarian composer Georg Sorti with 31 wins but Krauss is tied for second with Quincy Jones with 27 – and nominated 44 times.
“I was really proud of Alessia Cara that she won best new artist. I think she really deserved that,” Morris added. “But I think there’s always improvement that needs to be had.”
“I haven’t run into a lot of the problems that I know are out there. But my path has been pretty unfettered with those kinds of things,” Harris said, acknowledging women in the recording industry do indeed face sexual misconduct and unfair treatment.
Gill sang his song “Forever Changed,” about sexual assault, at the benefit.
