RollnSmokeRecords on The 2009 Grammys

The kick-off award at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards went to Jennifer Hudson (for Best R&B Album) who was composed and gracious, thanking her family “up in heaven” as well as those who joined her at The Staples Center tonight. Then there was Justin Timberlake, unapologetically white and from Memphis, pairing up with Soul legend Al Green (and later with T.I.) to sing “Let’s Stay Together” as a duet – how do you not sing along? -- even if Al was off-tune. But kudos to Al, who stepped-in at the last minute for Rihanna who was scheduled to sing a “Live Your Life/Disturbia” medley. Rihanna, along with boyfriend and fellow R&B star Chris Brown, were no-shows as scheduled Grammy performers tonight due to sudden and scandalous assault charges levied against Brown by a woman -- some believe to be Rihanna -- in Los Angeles earlier today.

Off tune did you say? Why you must have heard Coldplay performing their Disney-like-song “Viva La Vida,” which was way out of Chris Martin‘s range. Straining, he was out of breath and sweating like a pig. Real boy scouts, the lot of them.
Then there was Carrie Underwood, vampy, with those sick pipes and those long, Malibu-Barbie legs. And all night long there were big horns – trumpets, saxophones, trombones – backing up song after song.

Brave girls, Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus! Not to mention big, pregnant M.I.A. – due to have her baby – today!! -- who looked like a huge bumble bee on stage with Kanye, Jay Z and ‘Lil Wayne as they performed the “Rap Pack” track “Swagger Like Us.”

Thankfully, The Jonas Brothers did not win any awards, but they did perform with Stevie Wonder, and if one of them yelled out “Come on, Stevie” or “Take it, Stevie” one more time, RollnSmoke might have had to pull the plug on the whole business. It was too much, all that swarming Stevie at his keyboards like a pack of gnats. Katy Perry was also awful, singing her (overplayed) hit “I Kissed I Girl and I Liked it” though her props – namely descending to the stage dressed like the Fruit of the Loom Lady inside a huge sparkling banana -- were fun.
Winner of Best Rap Album, Lil Wayne, performed (with Robin Thicke) a surprisingly melodic and un-synthed tribute to his home, a still-recovering New Orleans. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss nailed their spooky blues rendition of “Rich Woman” with T-Bone groovin’ the bass guitar, even if their Album of the Year award was an anti-climactic end to the evening.