Bonnie Raitt Tributes John Prine With ‘Angel From Montgomery’ at the 2020 Grammy Awards
Bonnie Raitt paid homage to legendary singer-songwriter John Prine during the 2020 Grammy Awards ceremony on Sunday night (Jan. 26), in a special performance that highlighted one of Prine's best-loved songs, "Angel From Montgomery."
The gorgeous acoustic performance didn't stray from what worked for the cover version on Raitt's 1995 live album Road Tested. Or, at least, the one verse Raitt got to perform on the Grammys stage stacked up against her prior work.
Prine originally released "Angel From Montgomery" in 1971, on his self-titled debut album.
In her tribute, Raitt also tipped her hat to Prine's most recent accolade: He was awarded with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020, as one of the Recording Academy's 2020 class of Special Merit Awards honorees.
A Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and Grammy Hall of Fame inductee, Prine released his most recent album, The Tree of Forgiveness, in 2018. That album, along with 2016's For Better, or Worse helped introduce a new generation of fans to Prine's music, and resulted in critical acclaim, especially in the Americana music world.
In addition to Prine, 2020's Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipients are the rock band Chicago; jazz, soul and R&B singer Roberta Flack; soul pioneer Isaac Hayes; punk rocker Iggy Pop; iconic hip-hop group Public Enemy; and gospel and blues legend Sister Rosetta Tharpe. The Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award honor "celebrates performers who have made outstanding contributions of artistic significance to the field of recording," and its recipients are determined by the organization's Board of Trustees.
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