Grammy Awards: boygenius, Stax, DJ Paul and Bobby Rush among Memphis-area winners

The 66th annual Grammy Awards were handed out Sunday in Los Angeles and Memphis/Mid-South artists had a whole lot to celebrate, with boygenius, DJ Paul, Bobby Rush and Stax Records among the big winners.

Indie rock super group boygenius — featuring Germantown-born, Bartlett-raised Julien Baker — came into the awards with six nominations for its debut LP, “The Record.” boygenius won three Grammys, earning trophies for Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song for "Not Strong Enough," and Best Alternative Music Album.

boygenius — featuring Baker and fellow singer-songwriters Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus — was on hand to accept the awards. An emotional Baker offered a speech after the group notched its second win. "All I ever wanted to do in my life was be in a band," said Baker, fighting back tears. "I feel like music is the language I used to find my family since I was a kid. I just wanted to say thank you to everybody who ever watched me play."

boygenius lost in the Best Alternative Performance category, falling to Franklin, Tennessee, pop-punk combo Paramore. The group also was nominated for Record of the Year and Album of the Year, losing to Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift respectively.

Legendary Memphis soul label Stax Records also was honored with a pair of Grammys for the archival set "Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos" — a seven-CD collection of 146 tracks putting the spotlight on Stax’s legendary roster of songwriters including Bettye Crutcher, Homer Banks and William Bell, among others.

“Written In Their Soul” won the Grammy for Best Album Notes, with the honor going to its co-authors, previous Grammy-winning writer Robert Gordon and veteran Stax publicist and executive Deanie Parker. Parker accepted the award along with Gordon, and noted that the set "shines a light on many of the foremost Stax songwriters."

"We’re grateful to the recording academy," added Gordon, who had previously won a Best Album Notes Grammy in 2011 for his work on Big Star boxed set, "Keep An Eye on the Sky." "We have insured that the songwriters of Stax records will live on through songs written in their soul."

"Written In Their Soul" — which was nearly two decades in the making — was compiled by multiple Grammy-winning producer Cheryl Pawelski. Pawelski shared the award for Best Historical Album along with Gordon and Parker, and fellow producers Mason Williams and Michelle Smith. The Stax set held off competition from the likes of Bob Dylan and Lou Reed, among others.

“Stax founders Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle Axton gave the Stax songwriters a racially integrated paradise, where they were encouraged to discover and develop their authentic talents by Al Bell and they prospered," said Parker in a speech accepting the Best Historical Album honor. "This set highlights some of Stax and America’s most talented rhythm and blues songwriters."

Parker went on to thank the Stax label's current owner, Concord Music, as well as the Stax Music Academy and Stax Museum of American Soul Music.

In the blues category, Mississippi legend and past Grammy winner Bobby Rush won his third award for Best Traditional Blues Album for “All of My Love for You.” The 90-year-old Rush beat out a group of competitors that included Mississippian Mr. Sipp.

Accepting his Grammy, Rush paid homage to a number of his late blues and R&B compatriots. "I'll treasure this in honor of Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Tyrone Davis, Johnnie Taylor, all the guys that come before me that I looked up to," he said. "Thank you, thank you, thank you." (In the Best Contemporary Blues Album category, Mississippian Christone “Kingfish” Ingram missed his shot at a second Grammy in the category, having previously won in 2022, as Nashville-based band Larkin Poe took the award).

Three 6 Mafia co-founder DJ Paul — aka Paul Beauregard — earned a Grammy in the "Best Rap Song" category. DJ Paul was one of the writers on Atlanta rapper Killer Mike's “Scientists & Engineers" which took the honor. Killer Mike's "Michael" album further dominated the Grammy rap categories, winning the Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song awards, and DJ Paul was by his side as he accepted the honors.

Memphis producer and engineer Matt Ross-Spang — already a two-time Grammy winner — earned two trophies during the ceremonies. He co-produced Blind Boys of Alabama's "Echoes of the South" which won in the Best Roots Gospel Album. Ross-Spang also co-engineered Jason Isbell’s “Weathervanes” LP, which won for Best Americana Album, while the track "Cast Iron Skillet" won for Best American Roots Song. Isbell is a former Memphian and recent University of Memphis graduate.

KNOW YOUR 901: Which Memphis artist has won the most Grammys?

Here is a look at the categories in which Memphis and Mid-South artists were nominated. Winners are bolded, and nominees with a local connection are denoted with an asterisk.

Record of the Year

• “Worship,” Jon Batiste

• *“Not Strong Enough,” boygenius

• “Flowers,” Miley Cyrus

• “What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie,” Billie Eilish

• “On My Mama,” Victoria Monét

• “Vampire,” Olivia Rodrigo

• “Anti-Hero,” Taylor Swift

• “Kill Bill,” SZA

Album of the Year

• “World Music Radio,” Jon Batiste

• *“The Record,” boygenius

• “Endless Summer Vacation,” Miley Cyrus

• “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd,” Lana Del Rey

• “The Age of Pleasure,” Janelle Monáe

• “Guts,” Olivia Rodrigo

• “Midnights,” Taylor Swift

• “SOS,” SZA

Best Alternative Music Performance

• “Belinda Says,” Alvvays

• “Body Paint,” Arctic Monkeys

• *“Cool About It,” boygenius

• “A&W,” Lana Del Rey

• “This Is Why,” Paramore

Best Alternative Music Album

• “The Car,” Arctic Monkeys

• *“The Record,” boygenius*

• “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd,” Lana Del Rey

• “Cracker Island,” Gorillaz

• “I Inside the Old Year Dying,” PJ Harvey

Best Rock Performance

• Arctic Monkeys – "Sculptures of Anything Goes"

• Black Pumas – "More Than a Love Song"

• *boygenius – "Not Strong Enough"

• Foo Fighters – "Rescued"

• Metallica – 'Lux Æterna"

Best Rock Song

• *boygenius – "Not Strong Enough"

• Foo Fighters – "Rescued"

• Olivia Rodrigo – "Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl"

• Queens of the Stone Age – "Emotion Sickness"

• The Rolling Stones – "Angry"

Best Rap Song

• Doja Cat – "Attention"

• Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice ft. Aqua – "Barbie World"

• Lil Uzi Vert – "Just Wanna Rock"

• Drake & 21 Savage – "Rich Flex"

• *Killer Mike ft. André 3000, Future, and Eryn Allen Kane – "Scientists & Engineers"

Best American Roots Song

• The War and Treaty – "Blank Page"

• Billy Strings ft. Willie Nelson – "California Sober"

• *Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – "Cast Iron Skillet"

• Brandy Clark ft. Brandi Carlile – "Dear Insecurity"

• Allison Russell – "The Returner"

Best Americana Album

• Brandy Clark – "Brandy Clark"

• Rodney Crowell – "The Chicago Sessions"

• Rhiannon Giddens – "You’re the One"

• *Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – "Weathervanes"

• Allison Russell – "The Returner"

Best Roots Gospel Album

• *The Blackwood Brothers Quartet – "Tribute to the King"

• *Blind Boys of Alabama – "Echoes of the South"

• Becky Isaacs Bowman – "Songs That Pulled Me Through the Tough Times"

• Brian Free & Assurance – "Meet Me at the Cross"

• Gaither Vocal Band – "Shine: The Darker The Night The Brighter The Light"

Best Traditional Blues Album

• Eric Bibb – "Ridin’"

• *Mr. Sipp – "The Soul Side of Sipp"

• Tracy Nelson – "Life Don’t Miss Nobody"

• John Primer – "Teardrops For Magic Slim Live At Rosa’s Lounge"

• *Bobby Rush – "All My Love for You"

Best Contemporary Blues Album

• Samantha Fish And Jesse Dayton – "Death Wish Blues"

• Ruthie Foster – "Healing Time"

• *Christone “Kingfish” Ingram – "Live in London"

• Larkin Poe – "Blood Harmony"

• Bettye LaVette – "LaVette!"

Best Historical Album

• Bob Dylan – Fragments – "Time Out Of Mind Sessions (1996-1997): The Bootleg Series, Vol. 17"

• Various Artists – "The Moaninest Moan of Them All: The Jazz Saxophone of Loren McMurray, 1920-1922"

• Various Artists – "Playing for the Man at the Door: Field Recordings from the Collection of Mack McCormick, 1958-1971"

• Lou Reed – "Words & Music, May 1965 – Deluxe Edition"

• *Various Artists – "Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos"

Best Album Notes

• John Coltrane & Eric Dolphy – "Evenings At The Village Gate: John Coltrane With Eric Dolphy (Live)" (album notes by Ashley Kahn)

• *Howdy Glenn – "I Can Almost See Houston: The Complete Howdy Glenn" (album notes by Scott B. Bomar)

• Iftin Band – "Mogadishu’s Finest: The Al Uruba Sessions" (album notes by Vik Sohonie)

• Various Artists – "Playing for the Man at the Door: Field Recordings from the Collection of Mack McCormick, 1958-1971" (album notes by Jeff Place & John Troutman

• *"Various Artists – Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos" (album notes by Robert Gordon and Deanie Parker

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Grammy winners list: boygenius, Stax, DJ Paul among Memphis winners