Billy Strings, John Prine, The Highwomen, Toots Hibbert and More Win at 63rd Grammy Awards

March 15, 2021
Billy Strings, John Prine, The Highwomen, Toots Hibbert and More Win at 63rd Grammy Awards


The 63rd Grammy Awards aired this past Sunday, March 14. Billy Strings, John Prine, The Highwomen, Chick Corea, Toots Hibbert, Brittany Howard and more won awards over the course of the evening.

Strings took home his first career Grammy award during the 2021 “premiere ceremony.” The bluegrass phenom won the award for Best Bluegrass Album for his record Home. The record was released in 2019 to much acclaim. It topped the Billboard 2020 year-end chart for Bluegrass albums, and Strings himself ended 2020 at the top of the year end ‘Top Bluegrass Artists’ chart. Strings discussed the songs on the album in a Track By Track feature for Relix.

Several legendary artists won awards posthumously. The late John Prine received recognition for his song “I Remember Everything,” taking home both Best American Roots Performance and Best American Roots Song. The late Toots Hibbert also won an award, along with his band Toots & The Maytals; they won Best Reggae Album for Got to Be Tough. Chick Corea was also honored, winning Best Improvised Jazz Solo for “All Blues.”

Other notable winners included The Highwomen (Best Country Song, “Crowded Table”), Christian McBride & Brian Blade (Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Trilogy 2), Brittany Howard (Best Rock Song, “Stay High”), Anderson .Paak (Best Melodic Rap Performance, “Lockdown”), Gillian Welch & David Rawlings (Best Folk Album, All the Good Times), Fantastic Negrito (Best Contemporary Blues Album, Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?) and the New Orleans Nightcrawlers (Best Regional Roots Music Album, Atmosphere).

Album of the year went to Taylor Swift for folklore. She accepted the award along with two of her collaborators on the record, The National’s Aaron Dessner and Bleachers/Steel Train/fun.’s Jack Antonoff. The trio also performed a medley of songs they worked on together during the broadcast.

Another performance highlight came with John Mayer joined Maren Morris for a performance of her song “The Bones.” “The feeling of playing guitar is amazing. The feeling of playing guitar inside of a brilliant song is something I can’t quite describe,” Mayer wrote in an Instagram post after the event. “Thank you @marenmorris for the invite to play along with you at the Grammys. You’re as good as they get.” Watch Mayer and Morris perform “The Bones” here.

Finally, history was made during the 63rd Grammys. Beyoncé became the winningest woman in Grammy history with 28 awards, passing Alison Krauss’ previous record of 27. She is also now tied with Quincy Jones as the living person with the most Grammy Awards.