LOS ANGELES, Feb. 11 — After death threats, boycotts and a cold shoulder from the country music establishment, the Dixie Chicks gained sweet vindication Sunday night at the 49th annual Grammy Awards, capturing honors in all five of the categories in which they were nominated.
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Mary J. Blige won the award for best female R&B vocal performance for "Be Without You." More Photos »
They were the top winners during a night when the Recording Academy spread the wealth, even handing out ties in two categories, as it bestowed four awards on the Red Hot Chili Peppers and three on Mary J. Blige. Carrie Underwood, Justin Timberlake, Tony Bennett, John Mayer, Ludacris and the late jazz musician Michael Brecker were among those who also received multiple awards.
The Dixie Chicks took home Grammys for the top three awards: record, song and album of the year. Their “Taking the Long Way” (Open Wide/Columbia) won best country album and “Not Ready to Make Nice” also captured best country performance by a duo or group with vocal. That song is an unapologetic response to the furor set off in 2003 when the band’s lead singer, Natalie Maines, made an off-the-cuff antiwar remark to London concertgoers: “Just so you know, we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.”
But Sunday’s awards were the Recording Academy’s rejoinder to the country music radio establishment, which ignored the album. Accepting the award for song of the year, Ms. Maines joked, “For the first time in my life, I’m speechless.” But she found her voice on later trips to the stage. “I’m very humbled and I think people were using their voice the same way this loudmouth did,” she said, self-referentially, after “Taking the Long Way” was named album of the year. The Dixie Chicks’ sweep of the major Grammy categories served as a sharp counterpoint to their shut-out at the Country Music Association awards in November. The Recording Academy consists of members across the nation who work in all genres of music. The Country Music Association’s membership is concentrated among artists, engineers and executives tied to the Nashville establishment.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers, whose enduring punk-funk hybrid has recently captured critical acclaim to go along with its longstanding commercial success, took three Grammys before the nationally broadcast show began at the Staples Center (97 of the 108 awards were not televised). It was an auspicious beginning on a night when the band was up for as many as six awards. “Dani California,” set like many of the band’s songs in Los Angeles and its environs, won for best rock performance by a duo or group with vocal and best rock song. The band’s double album “Stadium Arcadium,” the first of that veteran group’s albums to reach No. 1, won best boxed or special limited edition. And on the televised portion of the proceedings, right after it performed, the band captured the Grammy for best rock album.
Soon after the live telecast began on CBS, Ms. Blige’s album “The Breakthrough” (Geffen) won for best R&B album and best female R&B vocal performance, complementing the Grammy for best R&B song that she and three co-writers won before the broadcast (“Be Without You”).
While most of the acceptance speeches paid tribute to the usual managers, producers and family, one winner, the rap star Ludacris, veered off the beaten track when his “Release Therapy” (Disturbing tha Peace/Def Jam) was named best rap album. In addition to a litany of music executives, Ludacris thanked the Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly and Oprah Winfrey, who have criticized him in the past.
Mr. Timberlake, whose album “FutureSex/LoveSounds” (Jive/Zomba) was nominated for the most prestigious category of album of the year, won best rap/sung collaboration with T. I. for “My Love,” while he and Timbaland, the go-to producer of the moment, won for best dance song. T. I. also captured the Grammy for best rap solo performance for “What You Know.”
Mr. Dylan’s “Modern Times” (Columbia) picked up the award for best contemporary folk/Americana album, while Bruce Springsteen’s “We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions” (Columbia) won best traditional folk album.
Another music-industry veteran, Mr. Bennett, won two early awards, including one for his duet with Stevie Wonder (“For Once in My Life”) in the category of best pop collaboration with vocals.
And Mr. Brecker, who died last month, also received two Grammys, for jazz instrumental solo and large jazz ensemble album on his brother Randy’s album, “Some Skunk Funk” (Telarc Jazz/BHM).
The country category offered up at least one more surprising twist, as the New Jersey arena rock band Bon Jovi won best country collaboration with vocals for “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” with Jennifer Nettles. Less surprising were the awards to Ms. Underwood, an “American Idol” victor turned commercial superstar, who won for female country vocal performance with “Jesus, Take the Wheel.” (That song, which she did not write, received the best country song award.) Ms. Underwood also won for best new artist.
Continuing a Grammy tradition, the polkameisters Jimmy Sturr and His Orchestra won for best polka album, “Polka in Paradise” (Rounder). It was their 16th Grammy. And former president Jimmy Carter, whose recent book, “Palestine Peace Not Apartheid,” has encountered a storm of opposition, won for a less contentious but as pointed production. His “Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis” (Simon & Schuster Audio) tied in the best spoken word category with Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee’s “With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together” (Time Warner).
This year’s nominations had a heavy R&B and neo-soul flavor, with a dash of topical antiwar sentiment.
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