MISSISSIPPI COUNTRY MUSIC AND THE GRAMMYS

Mississippi’s profound contributions to the country genre are reflected in the many GRAMMY® Awards and nominations presented to its native artists. Those who have received multiple trophies include Tammy Wynette, Marty Stuart, Faith Hill, Charley Pride, Bobbie Gentry, LeAnn Rimes, Carl Jackson and Paul Overstreet. The Recording Academy® has also presented Lifetime Achievement Awards to Pride, country-influenced rock and roll pioneers Elvis Presley
and Jerry Lee Lewis, and Jimmie Rodgers, widely recognized as the “Father of Country Music.”

Country music has been recognized by the GRAMMY Awards since its inception in 1958, and the genre’s continued legacy is celebrated at the GRAMMY Museum® Mississippi, which opened its doors in 2016. In the late 1950s, the country music world was being transformed by the rockabilly style of artists like Tupelo native Elvis Presley, Conway Twitty (Harold Jenkins) from Friars Point, and longtime Mississippi resident Jerry Lee Lewis. In the latter ‘50s, Presley and Lewis were charting hits simultaneously on the country, pop and rhythm and blues charts, revealing the centrality of country to America’s musical traditions.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, legendary Mississippi artists like Bobbie Gentry of Chickasaw County/Greenwood were particularly prominent at the GRAMMY Awards. Gentry has won three Awards including Best New Artist; Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn took home Best Country Vocal Performance By A Duo Or Group for “After the Fire is Gone;” and Tammy Wynette of Tremont, a Lifetime Achievement Award winner, won the Best Country & Western Solo Vocal
Performance, Female Award for “I Don’t Wanna Play House” and the Best Country Vocal Performance, Female Award for “Stand By Your Man.” In 1972, Sledge native Charley Pride won GRAMMY Awards for Best Gospel Performance (Other Than Soul Gospel) and Best Sacred Performance, and the following year took home the Award for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male for his album Charley Pride Sings Heart Songs. It featured the No. 1 hit “Kiss An Angel Good  ornin’,” for which Hollandale-based songwriter Ben Peters received a Best Country Song Award.

Guitar and mandolin master Marty Stuart of Philadelphia won multiple awards for his instrumental prowess, as well as for collaborations including his 1991 hit with Travis Tritt, “The Whiskey Ain’t Workin’.” Fellow child prodigy, Carl Jackson from Louisville, a banjo master, also won multiple GRAMMYs, including Best Bluegrass Album for Spring Training, a collaboration with John Starling. In 1997, Jackson native LeAnn Rimes won Best New Artist and Best Female Country Vocal Performance for “Blue,” and in 2001, Faith Hill, born in Ridgeland, received Best Country Album for Breathe. Its title track won Best Female Country Vocal Performance, an award Hill also received two years later for “Cry.” The Jackson area also produced The Band Perry, whose take on Glen Campbell’s classic “Gentle on My Mind” received an Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance in 2015.

GRAMMY Hall Of Fame®, which honors recordings of historical significance, has presented Awards to Jimmie Rodgers for his 1928 “Blue Yodel (T For Texas)” and his 1930 collaboration with Louis Armstrong, “Blue Yodel #9 (Standing on the Corner);” Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe;” Twitty’s “Hello Darlin’;” Pride’s “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’;” Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man;” and Pascagoula native Jimmy Buffet’s signature “Margaritaville,” which reached No. 13 on the country charts in 1977.

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