WILLIE MITCHELL 1928-2010

Willie Mitchell, who produced all of Al Green's classic albums, died today. It's weird, I wrote about him yesterday: he was supposed to be working on Solomon Burke's next album.

He did some of his own music in the '60s, and also worked with other R&B artists like O.V. Wright and Ann Peebles, but his main legacy is the string of albums he made with Al Green: 1970's Green Is Blues, 1971's Al Green Gets Next To You, 1972's I'm Still In Love With You, 1972's Let's Stay Together, 1973's Call Me, 1974's Al Green Explores Your Mind and 1975's Al Green Is Love. They worked on and off over the years, and reunited this decade for two solid albums, 2003's I Can't Stop and 2005's Everything's OK.

Al Green's '70s albums offer some of the very best music I have ever heard in my life. And a lot of that is down to Al, whose voice is just gorgeous. But there is something magical about the music he did with Willie (vs. the music that he did with other producers). Willie created a more laid back funk that stopped short of being lite music (or "quiet storm"), it still had some grit to it, and it suited Al's singing perfectly. As great as Al is, I think working with Willie Mitchell at Hi Records is what allowed him to thrive in a way that he may not have, had he signed to Stax or Motown or Chess. Thank you for the music Willie.

THE GRAMMYS: "NOT A BAD WAY TO SPEND A SUNDAY NIGHT"

It's the easiest thing in the world to complain that the Grammy Awards is a boring show. But I tend to like it, and I think this year's show was really well done. For the most part.

I was glad that Al Green performed, but I wish he got to do something from his new album, which got a bunch of nominations and won him two Grammys tonight. I like Justin Timberlake, but it would have been more appropriate for Al to have been backed by ?uestlove and the guys who played on his album, and maybe performed with Anthony Hamilton and John Legend. That said, I liked his performance. It turns out that it was a last minute addition to the show: two performances were cancelled: Chris Brown and Rihanna both pulled out the show right before it started. You can read about that all over the web at this point.

On a similar note, if Neil Diamond's new album is so great, why didn't he perform a new song instead of "Sweet Caroline." That was cheesy as hell, I don't know if a new song would have been any better though.

I don't listen to Carrie Underwood that much, but I liked her performance, and ditto for Taylor Swift (whose performance would have been better without Miley Cyrus). And how could you not be moved by Jennifer Hudson's performance. The Jonas Brothers looked a bit out of their league with Stevie Wonder. It was sort of cute that he played with them, though. U2 was great as always, that goes without saying. Kid Rock was good, I like that "All Summer Long" song. Am I the only person who never heard that Katy Perry song? I never did; it was pretty good. It sounds like her biggest influences are Gwen Stefani and P!nk.

I loved the Four Tops tribute with Jamie Foxx, Ne-Yo, Smokey Robinson and Top Duke Fakir. The Bo Diddley tribute with B.B. King, Buddy Guy, John Mayer and Keith Urban was a bit messy.

Hip-Hop provided some of the best moments of the night: the "Swagga Like Us" performance with Jay-Z, T.I., Lil' Wayne, Kanye West and a very pregnant M.I.A. (who may have been lip-synching); T.I.'s performance with Justin Timberlake was great, and so was Lil' Wayne's. I didn't like Kanye and Estelle's as much, and Jay-Z joining Coldplay onstage was a bit goofy.

I liked seeing Paul McCartney, but again, "I Saw Her Standing There"? I think he should have done a new song. It was fun to see Dave Grohl playing drums for him though. Radiohead 's performance was interesting, and probably confusing to most of the crowd. Was the whole band there, or was it just Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood and the huge marching band?

My favorite performance was Robert Plant & Alison Krauss' medley of "Rich Woman" and "Gone Gone Gone," and I was glad to see them go five for five, winning all of their nominations, including Record and Album Of The Year. I loved Robert's comment that in the "old days," being at the Grammys would have seemed like "selling out," but "It's not a bad way to spend a Sunday night." I'm sure there's going to be a lot of bitching about "old" artists beating out the likes of Lil Wayne and Coldplay, and that the album wasn't as ubiquitous in the culture. Whatever: it was a mature but totally credible album that didn't pander that was released on an indie label. It deserved all the accolades it won (it also won a Grammy last year) and more. That's my final word!

BONNAROO: SPRINGSTEEN, PHISH, BEASTIES AND NINE INCH NAILS

I did a search for "Bruce Springsteen" on a well known mainstream web site and the latest headline I found was "Springsteen, Phish, Beasties, NIN Set For Bonnaroo" and the first few lines included mentinons of Wilco, Al Green, Snoop Dogg and Elvis Costello. But when I clicked to see the story, it was "no article found." But the Bonnaroo site says the announcement will be tomorrow. Seeing how Bruce and Phish have been heavily rumored to be playing the festival, and it definitely fits into Bruce's tour schedule, this makes sense.

BEST OF '08: AL GREEN'S LAY IT DOWN

One of the disappointments of 2008 was that more people didn't notice the new Al Green album, Lay It Down, which was produced by ?uestlove from The Roots. It is a really great album, and the best R&B record of the year in my opinion (edging out Raphael Saadiq's The Way I See It). ?uest really did an amazing job with this one. With The Roots moving from being a constantly touring band to being a New York based group (since they are going to be Jimmy Fallon's band on his upcoming late-night show), I wonder if ?uest will be doing more work as a producer.

I wish this album got more mainstream Grammy nods. I think the Grammys got a lot right this year: particularly all the nods for Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, and also exposing artists like M.I.A. and Adele to bigger audiences via high profile nominations: but the dissing of Bruce Springsteen's "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" and Reverend Al's Lay It Down from the big categories was a big bummer. Anyway, you should check out this album.

Al's last two albums which reunited him with producer Willie Mitchell, were good, but this one is great, you should check it out.

NARAS DISSES SPRINGSTEEN AGAIN

OK, I'm going to sound like a middle aged New Jerseyite here, but for the second year in a row, the Grammy nominations have dissed Bruce Springsteen big time. There were some really good nominations: Robert Plant & Alison Krauss' Raising Sand did really well, and the nominations will likely expose even more people to a classic album. And all the nominations for R&B singer Jazmine Sullivan will no doubt expose her to new fans, regardless of whether or not she wins anything (I downloaded two of her songs on iTunes tonight and liked them a lot). I am glad to see Adele do so well (I was shocked that she got more nominations than Duffy). I won't even complain about Lil' Wayne getting more nominations than anyone else - he isn't for me (although "Swagga Like Us," featuring Wayne, Kanye West, Jay-Z and T.I. is probably the best hip-hop song of the year, even I can admit that).

But "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" is a classic. I like Sara Barielles' "Love Song," but it is really that good? Is Jason Mraz's song "I'm Yours"? Who decides this stuff? Both were nominated for Song of the Year. "Girls..." is also an incredible production. But apparently not as good as Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love." "Girls..." did get two nominations in the rock category. I also felt that Al Green's Lay It Down should have gotten more nominations than it did, and in the top three categories (all of his were in R&B).

Ah well, Bruce will be fine, so will the Reverend Al. And I'm glad for Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, they have my vote in every category they're nominated in.

AL GREEN, ROOTS, BOTH HAVE RELEASE DATES

I've already written about Al Green's upcoming album, which was produced by ?uestlove of The Roots. Now the album has a date: it's called Lay It Down, and it's due on May 27, according to Billboard. I actually liked Al's last two albums, both of which were produced by Willie Mitchell, who produced his classic '70s stuff. But I think ?uestlove will be able to update his sound a bit, without being pandering about it.

Meanwhile, The Roots' own album, Rising Down, comes out on April 29. Here's hoping that they can do some shows together. ?uestlove once told me that he studied Phish, and would like to see The Roots become the Phish of hip-hop. Meaning a band that doesn't need to cater to a scene, can tour regardless of whether or not they have radio hits, etc. I think they're on their way. But I can also see ?uestlove as a Rick Rubin-esque great producer in the future as well.

?UESTLOVE PRODUCES AL GREEN

Al Green is one of the greatest singers of all time. I just love the sound of his voice - and back in the '70s, his music was, like, perfect. He wrote great songs. He chose the perfect songs to cover. Willie Mitchell was the perfect producer for him. Check out Let's Stay Together, as well as I'm Still In Love With You, Call Me and even Al Green Gets Next To You.

I've been hearing for months that ?uestlove - the drummer for The Roots - is going to produce his next album, and "bring him back to 1974." Besides being an incredible drummer, I think ?uestlove is a solid producer, having done albums for D'Angelo and Common. He says D'Angelo will appear on this album, as will Corinne Bailey Rae and Anthony Hamilton -in short, some of the best talent in R&B today. I think that this will be a cool album.

The only thing that bugs me is ?uest's comment that he's bringing Al back to 1974. That sort of ignores the fact that Al reunited with Willie Mitchell a few years back, and they recently did two albums together - 2003's I Can't Stop and 2005's Everything's OK. But I'm a big fan of

?uestlove's, and I look forward to hearing this.