Grammy Awards love North Texas

Don’t look now, but the National Recording Academy of Arts and Sciences is feeling a little sweet on Texas this year.

The California-based organization saw fit to nominate several North Texas artists for the awards it doles out on an annual basis: the Grammys.

From first-time contenders to veteran collectors of golden gramophones, this year’s crop of Grammy nominees showcases the diversity of the Lone Star State’s sound — everything from Top 40 pop to R&B to gospel and classical has been recognized — demonstrating that Texas can do much, much more than serve up good ol’ country music (although it does a darn fine job of that, too).

But the roster of musicians with North Texas roots competing for Grammy glory inspires reflection on another love story, this one between the audiences crammed into clubs and arenas, enthusiastically supporting these acts when few know their names, and sticking around even after the whole world has started to swoon. (We’ll see who goes home with the hardware when the 58th annual Grammys are handed out live Monday from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.)

In short, these are homegrown talents very much worth crushing on. Texas has a long history of nurturing and fiercely championing its own, and while taking home a trophy would be nice, there is probably not a single name on this list that wouldn’t love getting up to perform before a sold-out DFW audience just as much.

That is true love, folks.

For an interactive map on where the Texans are from, click here.

Leon Bridges

Bridges caps his whirlwind 2015 by vying for his first-ever Grammy, in the best R&B album category. (One major-label album and a Grammy nomination — not bad for a guy who, two years ago, was probably watching the Grammys on TV after a shift at Del Frisco’s.)

Competition is fierce in Bridges’ category — he’s up against D’Angelo, Andra Day, Jazmine Sullivan and Charlie Wilson — but still, there’s a chance the 26-year-old singer-songwriter could return to Cowtown with a golden gramophone.

Kelly Clarkson

The Fort Worth-born, Burleson-bred pop superstar is competing for two Grammys this year: best pop solo performance (for Heartbeat Song) and best pop vocal album (for Piece by Piece).

The original American Idol, who will be returning to the reality TV competition that started it all for her as a guest judge later this year, has already bagged three Grammys, most recently for best pop vocal album in 2012. Clarkson is taking it easy at the moment — she’s expecting her second child, due in May, with husband Brandon Blackstock, and her doctor advised against her traveling to Los Angeles for the ceremony — so if she does win, she’ll be celebrating at home.

Pentatonix

The Arlington-formed a cappella group, fresh from making history last year as the first a cappella group to ever top the Billboard 200 chart, is competing for its second Grammy, after winning its first in 2014 for best arrangement, instrumental or a cappella. Pentatonix is up for best arrangement, instrumental or a cappella again, this time for its arrangement of Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy on That’s Christmas to Me.

As Scott Hoying told me last year, a cappella’s enduring popularity is understandable: “It’s just singing. I think in a world where everything is really produced, and there’s all these crazy tracks ... it’s just kind of refreshing and different.”

Kacey Musgraves

The “Dimestore Cowgirl” rides into the Grammys, having spent much of the past 12 months on the road, doling out effortless, sophisticated showcases like the sort just witnessed at Dallas’ Majestic Theatre in January.

Musgraves has been touring behind Pageant Material, the same record up for best country album. There’s a chance Musgraves may run straight into the Chris Stapleton buzz saw — his much-lauded Traveller is in the same category — but if anyone could fend off the hirsute troubadour, it’s the girl from Golden.

Kirk Franklin

Fort Worth-born gospel superstar Kirk Franklin has amassed six Grammy awards over the past decade (two in 2006, two in 2008, two in 2011), and this year, the 46-year-old singer, producer and author is vying for another trophy, competing in the best gospel performance/song category for Wanna Be Happy? The track is culled from Franklin’s most recent studio album, Losing My Religion, his first in four years.

Snarky Puppy

The Denton-formed jazz-funk collective Snarky Puppy is having a bit of a moment. The Michael League-led (and David Crosby-endorsed) outfit received a glowing write-up in The New York Times last week, on the eve of the release of its new album, Family Dinner Volume Two.

The band is up for a Grammy in the best contemporary instrumental album category (Sylva, its collaboration with Metropole Orkest, has been nominated). Winning would bring home the second Grammy in two years for Snarky Puppy — it took home a Grammy for 2013’s best R&B performance, an honor it shared with vocalist Lalah Hathaway.

Don Henley

The pride of Linden is competing in a category that might seem a bit unexpected: American roots. But such a classification is part and parcel of Don Henley’s intentional shift away from rock and toward a more rustic sensibility. Henley is competing in the best American roots song category, which is awarded to the song’s writers, with the tune The Cost of Living, co-written with country legend Merle Haggard.

The track is taken from Henley’s most recent LP, Cass County, so titled for the area where he grew up in East Texas.

Rich DeRosa of the University of North Texas College of Music

Rich DeRosa, the director of jazz composition and arranging studies for the University of North Texas College of Music, is further burnishing the school’s formidable reputation with a Grammy nomination this year.

DeRosa’s Neil is among the nominees in the best instrumental category — if he wins, he’d join a distinguished group of faculty and alumni who have earned Grammy gold over the years. (As the Denton-based school itself notes, it’s a good year for UNT alums, with Snarky Puppy and Don Henley, among others, also competing.)

Liz Rose

Dallas native Liz Rose, who has a long, successful history authoring songs for some of Nashville’s biggest names, is back in the Grammy mix this year, thanks to her contributions to Little Big Town’s smash hit Girl Crush (Rose co-wrote the song with Hillary Lindsey and Lori McKenna).

The tune is competing for song of the year, as well as best country song and best country duo/group performance (Pain Killer, the album containing Girl Crush, is also up for best country album). Rose is contending for her second Grammy, having won her first for 2009’s White Horse, which she co-wrote with Taylor Swift.

Lee Ann Womack

The Jacksonville native is competing in the best country solo performance category, her first Grammy nomination in five years, since her trio of 2010 nominations for Call Me Crazy (and 14 years since her win for 2002’s best country collaboration with vocals). Womack’s 2016 nod comes for Chances Are, the Hayes Carll-penned track from her back-to-basics LP The Way I’m Livin’ (Carll’s song is competing in the best country song category).

Sometimes, it takes the establishment awhile to really understand the virtues of going your own way.

This story was originally published February 10, 2016 at 12:29 PM with the headline "Grammy Awards love North Texas."