Northwest Musicians Pick Up Nine Grammy Nominations

The Seattle music community netted nine Grammy nominations on Monday Dec. 7, including a first-time nod to singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile for “The Firewatcher’s Daughter” — produced by Rick Rubin — in the Americana album category. Death Cab For Cutie, which has been nominated for five Grammy Awards but has never won, is up for best rock album with their “Kintsugi.”

Carlile is up against the Punch Brothers, The Mavericks, Jason Isbell and the duo of Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell. The nominees for best rock album are James Bay (“Chaos and the Calm”), Highly Suspect (“Mister Asylum”), Muse (“Drones”) and Slipknot (“The Gray Chapter”).

The Seattle Symphony received three nominations this year, all of them associated with the second album in its series devoted to French composer Henri Dutilleux (1916-2013), “Dutilleux: Métaboles; L’Arbre Des Songes; Symphony No. 2, ‘Le Double.’” Last year’s Dutilleux effort also snagged three nominations.

The orchestra was nominated for best orchestral performance, Dmitriy Lipay received a nod for best engineered album and violinist Augustin Hadelich was nominated for best classical instrumental solo for his work on “L’Arbre Des Songes.”

“It’s becoming clear that our recordings of Dutilleux’s orchestral music are making a huge impact,” said Simon Woods, Seattle Symphony president and CEO.

Also in the classical field, Seattle conductor Stephen Stubbs was recognized in the best opera recording category for his work with the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra on “Steffani: Niobe, Regina Di Tebe.”

The other Northwest nominees are guitarist Bill Frisell, for best contemporary instrumental album (“Guitar in the Space Age”), and country singer-songwriter Brandy Clark, for best country song (“Hold My Hand,” written with Mark Stephen Jones).

Seattle’s Sub Pop Records was also nominated for best boxed or special limited edition package, for the deluxe vinyl album by Father John Misty, “I Love You, Honeybear.”