Lloyd Sachs, in a column for NoDepression.com waggishly ponders the ever puzzling ways of the Grammy Awards. He talks about Robert Plant and Alison Krauss being nominated while T-Bone Burnett was passed over:

Because the Grammys operate in a peculiar time bracket – to be eligible, a record has to be released between Columbus Day and, I believe, the first day of Rosh Hashanah – one of our favorite 2007 releases is up for multiple 2008 trophies. Raising Sand was nominated for Best Album, and three songs from it are also nominees: “Please Read The Letter” for Best Record, “Rich Woman” for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, and “Killing The Blues” for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals.

This is all good. We’re sure to see the leonine Bob and the regal Alison on the show, perhaps playing battle of the bands with fellow pop collaborators Rihanna & Maroon 5. What’s bad is that, bizarrely, T Bone Burnett, the brains behind Raising Sand, was not nominated for best producer, in a year in which he also produced terrific albums by B.B. King and John Mellencamp. He was squeezed out by the immortal likes of Nigel Godrich and Johnny K.