Beloved singer/songwriter John Prine has won two Grammys for “I Remember Everything,” his last recorded song. It came out a few months after his passing on April 7, 2020. The awards were for Best American Roots Song and Best American Roots Performance.
Prine had won two Best Contemporary Folk Album Grammys in the past for his albums The Missing Years (1991) and Fair & Square (2006). He had also won a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020.
In the Best American Roots Song category, Prine’s competition was Laura Rogers and Lydia Rogers’ “Cabin,” Sierra Hull and Kai Welch’s “Ceiling to the Floor,” Sarah Jarosz’s “Hometown” and Tom Overby and Lucinda Williams’ “Man Without a Soul.” The other nominees for the Best American Roots Performance category were Black Pumas’ “Colors,” Bonny Light Horseman’s “Deep in Love, Brittany Howard’s “Short and Sweet” and Norah Jones with Mavis Staples’ “I’ll be Gone.”
”I Remember Everything” came out in June 2020 during a tribute show and made it onto mxdwn’s Top 50 Best Songs of 2020 list. Prine’s music connected with a lot of people, including many major musicians who were saddened to hear of the legend’s death.
While Prine has just been awarded two new posthumous Grammys, the Country Music Association had failed to honor the late singer/songwriter at their 2020 ceremony. Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires left the association following the snub and noted that the CMAs hadn’t honored Jerry Jeff Walker and Billy Joe Shaver either.