Gotye, Mumford & Sons, Adele — it seems like a lot of Grammy Awards were taken home to locales out of the country. If Gotye wasn’t Australian, we’d see headlines about another British invasion. (I guess we always have Fun., right?)
One non-imported band that left the Grammy ceremonies feeling pretty good about itself was the Black Keys. The duo brought home three awards — pretty significant in a year when a lot of the statues were spread out among many different acts, instead of one sweep-it-all winner — including Best Rock Song, Best Rock Performance, and Best Rock Album.
The Black Keys come from Akron, Ohio, but a little bit of their Grammy success belongs to some homegrown talent. Brian Burton (you may know him by his stage name Danger Mouse) was a producer on the album, and he shared the award for Best Rock Song. Burton is not a fellow Buckeye; he was actually born in White Plains and raised in Spring Valley.
Here’s a slightly hazy video of the Black Keys performing the Grammy-winning “Lonely Boy,” produced by Danger Mouse. Though normally a stripped-down duo, the band is joined by Dr. John and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band:
Jimmy Fallon, a Saugerties native, won the Best Comedy Album award for Blow Your Pants Off, and Ulster County producer Dean Jones’s kids’ record, Can You Canoe? by the Okee Dokee Brothers, won Best Children’s Album.
The Grammy winners weren’t the only Hudson Valleyites honored. The late Levon Helm earned a moving — and star-studded — tribute from his fellow musicians. Check out Elton John, Mavis Staples, Mumford & Sons, Zac Brown, and others perform “The Weight” in his memory:
You can see the complete list of Grammy winners here.
