Featured Photo Courtesy of CBS
Story by Stephanie Hall
The 65th Annual Grammy Awards occurred on Sunday, February 6th, 2023. It was a night for honoring the best of the music industry.
MTSU, often ranked as one of the top schools for Audio Production and Music Business, had 5 MTSU alumni nominated for a Grammy.
Rob Williford, a former Music Business Major, was nominated as a co-writer for the category of ‘Best Country Song’ with country artist Luke Combes. He is a frequent song-writing partner for Combs. The Grammy went to Ben Stennis and Matt Rogers instead.
For Tony Castle, he is a multi-Grammy Winner. And this year, the former Recording Industry Grad worked on the recording and mixing of Wille Nelson’s newest album, which was nominated for Best Country Album.
Also in the category for ‘Best Country Album,’ is Ashley McBryde’s album. Aaron Raitiere, who got his master’s in fine arts in Recording Arts and Technologies, worked on her album. He is a past Grammy winner.
Unfortunately for Raitiere, the Grammy went to Willie Nelson’s album.
Hilary Scott, who has won in the past with her group Lady A and as a solo artist, is nominated for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song with group for ‘KING & COUNTRY’. She unfortunately did not win, as the Grammy went to Kirk Franklin and Maverick City Music.
Former Recording Industry major Brandon Bell is also a past Grammy winner. He did mixing work for Brandi Carlile’s “In These Silent Days,” which has received nominations for ‘Album of the Year’ and ‘Best Americana Album.’ The song “You and Me On The Rock” received nomination for ‘Record of the Year.’ Bell was also recently reconized by MTSU for his amazing career.
Brandi Carlile won ‘Best Americana Album.’ However, ‘Record of the Year’ went to Lizzo For ‘About Damn Time” and ‘Album of the Year’ went to Harry Styles’ ‘Harry’s House.’
Along with all these alumni, a professor of MTSU Daniel Rowland was the mastering engineer on Nashville Native Gayle’s “abcdefu,” which was up for Song of the Year. He is an Oscar-winning, Grammy-nominated Audio Engineer/Producer. The Grammy went to Bonnie Raitt for her song ‘Just Like That.’
All of these Blue Raiders worked extremely hard, and we hope to see more True Blue on the nominee list next year.
Stephanie Hall is the Assistant Lifestyles Editor for MTSU Sidelines.
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