Music’s biggest night was Taylor Swift’s impossible dream come true, as the 20-year-old singer-songwriter won four trophies, including the all-genre album of the year prize, at Sunday’s 52nd annual Grammy Awards. “I just hope that you know how much this means to me and to Nathan (Chapman) my producer, and to all these musicians you see on this stage, that we get to take this back to Nashville,” Swift said. “This is for my dad: Thank you for all those times you said I could do whatever I wanted in life.

“All of us, when we’re 80 years old and we’re telling the same stories again and again to our grandkids… this is the story we’ll be telling,” she said, as her self-penned (with Nashville song-scribe Liz Rose) “You Belong With Me” began playing as outro music and TV credits rolled.

Beyonce Knowles grabbed a night-topping six Grammys, including best song and best female pop vocal performance. Hers is the biggest one-night haul for any female artist in Grammy history. But in the end, the top prize went to Swift, whose win made her the third Nashville-based best album Grammy winner in the past eight years.

The Fearless win was far from the evening’s only major Guitar Town triumph: Kings of Leon won three Grammys and became the first Music City rock band to win an all-genre best record prize. Overall, Middle Tennesseans triumphed in 18 separate categories at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards.

The Staples Center audience rose to applaud brothers Caleb, Nathan and Jared Followill and cousin Matthew Followill as the Kings’ “Use Somebody” — a song that topped four separate Billboard charts and spurred numerous cover versions in 2009 — won the top record award. Produced by Jacquire King and Angelo Petraglia at Blackbird Studios in Berry Hill, “Use Somebody” is the second straight record of the year Grammy winner from Nashville: Last year’s Alison Krauss and Robert Plant duet “Please Read The Letter” was the first-ever top record winner to come from Nashville.

“I’m not going to lie, we’re all a little drunk, but we’re happy drunk,” said Caleb Followill at the podium.

Kings of Leon won three Grammys on the night, and Middle Tennesseans triumphed in 18 separate categories. Swift received the most significant airtime on the telecast, performing new single “Today Was A Fairytale” and a mini-medley with Stevie Nicks on “Rhiannon” and “You Belong With Me.”

The Beyonce smash “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” dashed Swift’s and Kings of Leon’s hopes in the best song category, announced at the show’s outset. Swift was able to take her first walk up to the Staples Center podium a few minutes later, though, as Fearless won the country album category over works by the Zac Brown Band, George Strait, Keith Urban and Lee Ann Womack.

“I feel like I’m standing here accepting an impossible dream here,” she told the audience, holding one of what would, by night’s end, be four Grammys: best album, country female vocal performance, country album and country song.
'I mean, this is a Grammy'

Swift arrived at the Los Angeles Convention Center, adjacent to Staples Center, in time to take her seat for the 1 p.m. “pre-telecast.” Beyonce, Kings of Leon, Lady GaGa and other major category favorites skipped the pre-tel, but Swift wanted to be there in case she won a Grammy. In fact, she won two during the early show, bounding to the stage both times to accept.

“I mean, this is a Grammy,” she exclaimed, holding a trophy that signified her win for country female vocal performance.

The members of Georgia-based Zac Brown Band, a breakout act on country radio in 2009, were thrilled enough to be performing on the show with Leon Russell. Things turned more thrilling, though, when the band won an all-genre best new artist Grammy. “Best new artist,” after 13 years of touring.

“To be able to perform here today is one of the greatest pleasures of my life, for sure,” Brown said. “We did not think we were going to win, at all. We didn’t win on other awards shows, but we got to show what we do. Getting a Grammy and being able to perform, that is the top.”

Kings of Leon busted down another Grammy wall during the pre-telecast, becoming the first-ever Nashville-based winners of a best rock song Grammy when “Use Somebody” bested songs from Bruce Springsteen, Green Day, U2 and Pearl Jam to win the award.

Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum and the teaming of Carrie Underwood and Randy Travis won country Grammy awards, and two of Nashville’s late men of song, Chet Atkins and Townes Van Zandt, figured into the evening: Steve Wariner’s “Producer’s Medley,” from his album-length tribute to Atkins, won a country instrumental performance prize. It was Wariner’s fourth career Grammy win.

“I’ve been nominated 11 times, and some of those were actually against Chet,” said Wariner, who considered Atkins a prime mentor. “He’d call and leave messages saying, ‘I’m voting for you, Stevie. I’ve got 16 Grammys already, all over my house.’”

Part-time Tennessean Steve Earle’s tribute to Van Zandt, Townes, won the contemporary folk album trophy. And Kings of Leon’ Caleb Followill has lately been talking about Van Zandt as a favorite and as an influence.

Bela Fleck’s Throw Down Your Heart: Tales From The Acoustic Planet, Vol. 3 – The Africa Sessions was something of an ordeal in the making. Fleck traveled to Africa to research the roots of the banjo, and the music he made with African musicians was recorded in fields, hotels, houses and streets.

“Sometimes, some of the hardest things you do end up being the most rewarding,” said Fleck, whose album won the contemporary world music Grammy. The title song also gave Fleck a pop instrumental performance win. Always a genre-leaper, Fleck has won Grammys in more categories than anyone else.

“I wish I could say I was too cool to care, but I do care,” he said.
Album wins across multiple categories

Nashville’s Bill Miller was the first Music City nominee to win a Grammy in 2010. His Spirit Wind North, released through Cool Springs Music Group, triumphed as the best Native American album. It was the second time that one of Miller’s solo albums won in that category. His Cedar Dream Songs won in 2005.

“This album wasn’t about hits or pop culture, it was about a heritage that preceded the Europeans,” Miller said. “Nashville is a great place to spread my wings and fly into the business. And the Grammys are one of the greatest platforms for native music. It means America is listening.”

For the first time, the Grammy folks saw fit to include an Americana category, much to the delight of the Nashville-based Americana Music Association. Levon Helm’s Electric Dirt won the prize. Steve Martin’s banjo-centric album The Crow, which featured numerous Nashville musicians and production from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s John McEuen, won the bluegrass album award.

Jason Crabb won a best Southern, country or bluegrass gospel album Grammy for his self-titled Spring Hill Music Group album.

“I grew up in Southern gospel music,” said Crabb, a Kentucky-reared singer who broke in to the business with the Crabb Family. “This record actually leans a little to country. I think country and Southern gospel go hand in hand.”

Nashville powerhouse manager Ken Levitan won a Grammy for his work as a co-producer of Oh Happy Day, an EMI Gospel/Vector Records release that won the best traditional gospel album award. The gospel Grammy was part of a big day for Levitan, whose company also manages Grammy winner Kings of Leon and presenter Ke$ha. The album’s conception came when Levitan had lunch at the now-shuttered Radius10 in Nashville with EMI Christian Music Group chief Bill Hearn. They decided to match big-name artists with some of America’s top choirs.

“One of my favorite tracks is the collaboration between (guitar wizard) Jonny Lang and the Fisk Jubilee Singers,” Hearn said. “It was about matching artists with great gospel music.”

Steven Epstein won classical producer of the year for five recordings, including A Dylan Thomas Trilogy, recording with Leonard Slatkin, the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and the Nashville Symphony Orchestra Chorus.

“We recorded that at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, which is a very, very fine hall,” Epstein said.

Staples Center can’t match the Schermerhorn’s pristine acoustics. Then again, it’s harder to play basketball and hockey at the Schermerhorn. In any case, the cavernous arena felt like a very, very fine hall to Kings of Leon, Swift and other Grammy winners Sunday night.