Grammy

AUSTIN, Texas - Pinetop Perkins, one of the last old-school bluesmen who played with Muddy Waters and became the oldest Grammy winner this year, died yesterday at his home. He was 97. The piano man played with an aggressive style and sang with a distinctive gravelly voice. He accompanied Sonny Boy Williamson on the popular King Biscuit Time radio show broadcast on KFFA in Helena, Ark., in the 1940s. He toured with Ike Turner in the 1950s and joined Waters' band in 1969. Perkins won a Grammy in February for best traditional blues album for "Joined at the Hip: Pinetop Perkins & Willie 'Big Eyes' Smith.

AUSTIN, Texas - Pinetop Perkins, 97, one of the last old-school bluesmen who played with Muddy Waters and became the oldest Grammy winner this year, died Monday at his home of cardiac arrest. Mr. Perkins was having chest pains when he went to take a nap and paramedics could not revive him, said his agent, Hugh Southard. The piano man played with an aggressive style and sang with a distinctive gravelly voice. He accompanied Sonny Boy Williamson on the popular King Biscuit Time radio show broadcast on KFFA in Helena, Ark., in the 1940s.

So: Lady Antebellum wins five Grammys and sends Eminem home scowling with only two. How did that happen? Here's how: Lady Antebellum is the Nixonland candidate; part of the not-so-silent majority; this year's stealth Taylor Swift; the voice of Middle America with a pretty, de-twanged sound that's all about harking back to a "simpler" time. How far back? Well, the Nashville country-pop trio's name evokes nostalgia for a pre-Civil War, Gone With the Wind era, with romantic images of Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara, white-columned plantation houses, and, oh yeah, black slaves laboring in the cotton fields.

Canadian indie-rock group Arcade Fire, country trio Lady Antebellum, and jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding all pulled off major upsets at the 53d annual Grammy Awards Sunday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Arcade Fire took home album of the year honors for The Suburbs , topping favorite Eminem, who led all contenders with 10 nominations but walked away with only two trophies, and who was shut out of the major categories. "Thank you," Arcade Fire's beaming singer Win Butler said, closing the show.

Canadian indie-rock group Arcade Fire, country trio Lady Antebellum, and jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding all pulled off major upsets at the 53d annual Grammy Awards Sunday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Arcade Fire took home album of the year honors for The Suburbs , topping favorite Eminem, who led all contenders with 10 nominations but walked away with only two trophies, and who was shut out of the major categories. "Thank you," Arcade Fire's beaming singer Win Butler said, closing the show.

WITH THE likes of Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Eminem scheduled to perform at last night's Grammy Awards wing-ding at Los Angeles' Staples Center, it's understandable that Mick Jagger's first live performance at the music industry's annual orgy of self-congratulation may not have meant much to younger fans. But for devotees of classic rhythm and blues, the scheduled turn by The Most Stoned Roller of Them All (as the late Daily News gossiptista Larry Fields would have written) and Raphael Saadiq was probably the show's highlight.

It's all about Eminem, Cee Lo, and Bieber fever. That's the way I'm breaking down the four major categories - Album, Record, and Song of the Year, plus Best New Artist - at the 2011 Grammy Awards, which will be broadcast at 8 p.m. Sunday on CBS, live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Of course, those are only four of the 108 awards that will be given out by the Recording Academy (one short of the 109 categories, because fewer acts than the minimum of 10 entered the Mexican Regional album category)

When the Grammy Awards are presented Sunday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles in a ceremony broadcast on CBS, a naughtily infectious song by soul man Cee Lo Green has an excellent chance of being named both song and record of the year. But if it wins, you won't hear the song's correct name. That's because it contains an obscenity. The devilishly catchy pop tune, which is up for four awards, is about a heartbroken guy moved to shout out the two words that best express his frustration at losing the girl he loves to a well-heeled rival.

LOCAL DRUMMER George "Spanky" McCurdy will back Lady Gaga when she performs Sunday night at the Grammy Awards. McCurdy is Gaga's touring drummer, but he's not the only local connection to the Grammys. Soulful songbird Jill Scott 's "Love," with Chuck Brown and Marcus Miller , is up for best R&B group performance. Philly hip-hop heroes The Roots are up for several awards: best rap album for their "How I Got Over," and best R&B album, best rap/sung collaboration and best traditional R&B vocal performance for their collaboration with Penn grad John Legend in "Wake Up!

The region's newest soap-opera actor is a kindergartner. Plymouth Meeting's Patrick Gibbons Jr. , 5, premieres Dec. 22 on ABC's One Life to Live as Sam Manning. Through plot twists that only daytime writers can muster, Sam is the son of Todd Manning ( Trevor St. John ) and was adopted by Blair Cramer ( Kassie DePaiva ). From birth, Sam had been played by sets of twins. Patrick was discovered by Barbara Kline , manager of his teen sister Anna-Marie , a model-actress.