49th Annual Grammy Awards: Carrie Takes the Win

49th Annual Grammy Awards: Carrie Takes the Win
By MATT ELLIOTT World Scene Writer
2/12/2007

'American Idol' champ wins three Grammy awards

Checotah's Carrie Underwood might have to add on to her three-bedroom house to accommodate her awards.

Continuing her winning tear for music awards, Underwood won three Grammys on Sunday in a night that showed the "American Idol" champion performing with Rascal Flatts in front of a national television audience.

Underwood joined Oklahoma acts Vince Gill and The Flaming Lips in picking up the music industry's highest honor.

Norman native Gill won best male country vocal performance for his song with Alison Krauss, "The Reason Why," from his four-CD album "These Days." It was Gill's 18th Grammy.

The Flaming Lips picked up two prizes, for best engineered album for "At War With the Mystics" and for best rock instrumental performance for "The Wizard Turns On . . ."

Underwood won best female country vocal performance for "Jesus, Take the Wheel," also honored as best country song. It is from her multiplatinum first album, "Some Hearts."

With Sunday's awards, Underwood became the winningest "American Idol" champion, beating Kelly Clarkson, who won two Grammys for her 2005 album "Breakaway."

"This is absolutely unbelievable,"
Underwood said in Los Angeles, accepting the award for best new artist.

She thanked "American Idol" creator Simon Fuller, her mother, father, God, her songwriters and "anybody that had anything to do with this album and the blessed year that I've had."

She received four nominations, but lost for song of the year to the Dixie Chicks' defiant number "Not Ready to Make Nice."

The Red Hot Chili Peppers also won four Grammys, the Associated Press reported.

Underwood's Grammy trio adds to awards she won last year from the Academy of Country Music as well as Country Music Association's female vocalist of the year.

Also winning big Sunday were R&B star Mary J. Blige and the Dixie Chicks. Blige won three awards, and the Dixie Chicks won five, including album of the year for "Taking the Long Way."

The night's performers ranged from John Mayer, Justin Timberlake and Earth Wind & Fire to Gnarls Barkley, the Dixie Chicks and The Police, which reunited.

Underwood performed with fiddler Johnny Gimble and Asleep at the Wheel's Ray Benson, paying tribute to Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys with the song "New San Antonio Rose." Wills and his band made Tulsa's Cain's Ballroom their home in the 1930s and 1940s, becoming one of the most popular groups of the era.

Rascal Flatts, with Picher guitarist Joe Don Rooney, received two nominations but did not win, losing to Underwood for best country song and the Dixie Chicks in best country performance by a duo or group.

Matt Elliott 581-8366
matt.elliott@tulsaworld.com