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Mississippi bluesman may be the most unlikely Grammy nominee
Last Updated Mar 12, 2021 7:15 PM EST
About 2,000 miles from Los Angeles, where the red carpet turns to dust, we found this year s most unlikely Grammy nominee. Every day, 73-year-old Jimmy Duck Holmes welcomes customers to his Blue Front Cafe and juke joint in Bentonia, Mississippi.
Holmes doesn t read music. He doesn t write music. He doesn t write lyrics. Yet he s up for a Grammy Award. I mean, I guess it s a divine thing. I don t know, Holmes said.
Holmes is the last of the old Bentonia bluesmen a brand of blues known for its haunting, hypnotic style. For decades he has played mostly at Blue Front Cafe at events like the annual Bentonia Blues Festival. But a couple years ago, his friend and manager planned a trip to Tennessee, for what Holmes thought was a sightseeing tour.
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Jhené Aiko Is the Alchemist of Her Own Spiritual Healing on Album of the Year Contender Chilombo
Ellise Shafer, provided by
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For Jhené Aiko, a Grammy nominee in three categories, songwriting and healing are cosmically connected. No, really: For her album of the year contender “Chilombo,” the 32-year-old singer-songwriter incorporated crystal sound bowls or “singing bowls” a Tibetan tradition in which the round vessels, when played, vibrate at a certain frequency connected to a chakra into each of its 20 tracks.
Buddhist monks have used sound bowls for centuries to aid in relaxation and meditation. Aiko discovered them when she was a teenager. “I was really using them for myself like therapy an alternative to self-medicating and not dealing with how I’m feeling,” she recalls. “I just found them very relaxing and soothing, and even addictive to play, like literally the motion of playing the sound bowls felt