THE 35TH ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS : COUNTRY : An Emphasis on Youth

The balloting in the country categories echoed the country-music industry’s exiling of a generation of singers who established their careers before about 1985.

In the quest for ever younger, more photogenic performers, the industry has turned its back on such country kings and queens as George Jones, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard and Emmylou Harris, despite excellent work from each in recent years.

Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson get more exposure nowadays from their Taco Bell TV commercials than from country radio.

Lorrie Morgan acknowledged the trend when introducing the nominees for male vocal performance on the Grammy telecast: “They’re all young, successful, handsome and very sexy.”

Harris and her band the Nash Ramblers received the lone award given to a veteran in key categories, for performance by a group with vocal, for their exquisite “At the Ryman” live album.

The biggest country showdown of the evening was in the male vocal category. The sheer vocal prowess of Vince Gill’s “I Still Believe in You” album upstaged both the mega-sales of Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Achy Breaky Heart” single and the combination of artistic ambition and mega-sales of Garth Brooks’ “The Chase” album.

Gill’s win also left Brooks empty-handed in the two country categories in which he was nominated (the other, with Chris LeDoux, was in the duo/group category).

Voters wisely passed over Don Von Tress’ tedious “Achy Breaky Heart” in selecting “I Still Believe in You” as country song of the year. The academy could have gone one better, however, by picking an even more gripping song from the same album, “Love Never Broke Anyone’s Heart.”

By refusing to even nominate Stephanie Davis and Brooks’ “We Shall Be Free” as best song, the academy missed a chance to rebuke country radio for spurning the deftly written call for racial and sexual tolerance.

Mary-Chapin Carpenter’s “I Feel Lucky,” winner of female country vocal, extends Grammy voters’ inclination to stick with previous winners (she won last year with her infectious “Down at the Twist and Shout”).

This spunky single has vocal sass, but lacks the emotional reach that should define this category.