Annal:2001 Grammy Award for Best Country Album
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Grammy Award in the year 2001. For a ranked list of albums, try an honor roll:
Timeless: The Songs of Hank Williams
- 2001 Grammy-Country winner
- Score: 10.51
Like 1999’s tribute to Gram Parsons, Timeless: The Songs of Hank Williams revives the tired “tribute” concept and applies it in homage to a key figure in country music. Interpreting songs from across Hank Williams’s short and troubled career, a range of high-profile artists use different approaches with equally gratifying results. Tom Petty, Sheryl Crow and Hank Williams III play familiar songs with traditional arrangements (Ms Crow’s yodel is an eye opener); Beck, Mark Knopfler and Keb’ Mo’ stay closer to their own idioms. Keith Richards’ reedy vocal…
- 2001 Grammy-Country nominee
- Score: 6.51
Diamond Rio’s first big hit was called “Meet in the Middle,” but “caught in the middle” more accurately describes One More Day: they sound trapped between cookie-cutter pop-country material and the irrepressible individuality of their instrumental and vocal personalities. Jimmy Olander’s unique guitar style and Gene Johnson’s down-home mandolin do their best to fight through NutraSweet tunes like “’Til the Heartache’s Gone” and “The Love of a Woman”; but, like Marty Roe’s honest vocals and the group’s high-lonesome harmonies, they reside more comfortably…
- 2001 Grammy-Country nominee
- Score: 6.51
As a singer who has parlayed boyish charm and modest talent into a multiplatinum career, Tim McGraw seems like the guy next door who got incredibly lucky—and not just with his marriage to Faith Hill. This easy-listening collection features a generous 14 cuts, heavy on power ballads (“You Get Used to Somebody,” “Take Me Away from Here,” “Why We Said Goodbye”) with soaring choruses and frothy sentiments, but light on soulful substance. For variety, McGraw proves a dead-on Springsteen mimic with “Forget About You,” dubiously links himself to Hank Williams and Elvis…
- 2001 Grammy-Country nominee
- Score: 6.51
This charming, super-casual collection began as a children’s record and later became a “family” record—a designation that reflects the contributions of Nelson’s daughter Amy as well as the inclusion of more “adult” material. It’s difficult to think of another artist who’d pull together such a unique selection of songs. Nelson tackles odd kid-friendly little ditties from country’s past such as “I’m My Own Grandpa” (a 1948 hit for Lonzo & Oscar), the Western swing favorite “Won’t You Ride in My Little Red Wagon,” and Jimmie Dolan’s boogie “Playin’ Dominoes and…
- 2001 Grammy-Country nominee
- Score: 6.51
After establishing herself as “the Linda Ronstadt of the ‘90s,” Trisha Yearwood seems to be suffering from the sort of hackneyed production that undermined Ronstadt’s career. Despite her impeccable vocal control, she barely finds room to breathe amid coproducer Mark Wright’s cheesy bombast on the album-opening “Love Alone.” The following cut and first single, “I Would’ve Loved You Anyway,” sounds like a Celine Dion ballad that got lost on the way to a movie soundtrack. Fortunately, Yearwood loosens up with the playful bite of Matraca Berg’s “For a While”…
