Kathy Griffin, an Oak Park native, won a Grammy for best comedy album. Otherwise, so far, Chicago has not been Grammy’s kind of town.
Griffin is just the third woman in Grammy history to win the honor in the comedy category. Lily Tomlin and Whoopi Goldberg also picked up a gold statue in the past.
Besides Griffin, Chicago jazz writer Neil Tesser won a Grammy for best album notes for a special John Coltrane reissue. And, if Chicago can claim Stephen Colbert as one of its own — he attended Northwestern University and is a Second City alum — he won a Grammy for best spoken word album.
Otherwise, Chicago favorites Jeff Tweedy, Mavis Staples, Kaskade, James Cotton, and Justin Roberts all failed to pick up Grammys this year. Even Kanye West had a bad night, losing the best rap song award to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.
