Trio, the collaboration of Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, took home Album of the Year at the Academy of Country Music Awards April 6, 1987. The album was released March 2 of that year and peaked at #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and stayed there for 5 consecutive weeks.
Trio also won a Grammy for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.
The Pointer Sisters win their first Grammy Award, March 1, 1975 for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for Fairytale. The song was written by Anita and Bonnie, who were also nominated for Best Country Song as the songwriters. Later Fairytale was covered by Elvis Presley.
Based on the song's success, the Pointer Sisters were invited to Nashville, and became the first African-American group to perform at the Grand Ol' Opry!
Super country group Alabama won the Grammy for Best Country & Western Performance - Duo or Group with Vocal February 23, 1983 for the song Mountain Music. It is the title track to their top-selling album, Mountain Music, which has been certified 5 x platinum.
Of course, I'm not going to let Black History Month go by without giving a shout out to my girls, the beautiful, talented Pointer Sisters. Not just because they are my favorite group but they also pushed back race barriers through their beautiful music.
October 25, 1974, they became the first African-American vocal group to perform at the Grand Ol' Opry. Charley Pride appeared in 1967. They performed Fairytale, a country song written by Anita and Bonnie which appeared on their album That's a Plenty, released in February 1974. It was a departure from their usual R&B sound, but it paid off. It gave them their first Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for 1974. It was the first Grammy to an all-female vocal group.
Anita and Bonnie were nominated for a Grammy for Best Country Song for writing Fairytale.
They planned to record an album of all C&W songs, but only one song was released, Live Your Life Before You Die. It was a minor hit but it did give them another Grammy nomination for Best Country Group Performance.
A founding member of the Pointer Sisters (my girls!), Anita Pointer was born January 23, 1948, in Oakland, California. Although their music was most R&B, Anita wrote Fairytale, which won the group their first Grammy for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group. The song was also nominated for Best Country Song of the year for 1975.
She returned to the country charts in 1986 with her duet with Earl Thomas Conley Too Many Times which reached #2 on the U.S. Country charts.
My favorite song led by Anita is I'm So Excited from their Break Out album
