'O BROTHER' BRINGS SHOW BACK TO ROOTS.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Staff Writer

T Bone Burnett summed up the mood of the pre-telecast Grammy Awards ceremony pretty succinctly.

``Things have changed,'' Burnett said, using the name of the Oscar- winning Bob Dylan song to capsulize the sweep of traditional country music in a number of important categories.

Burnett won for producer of the year for his work on the ``O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' soundtrack, a roots-oriented country album that has sold more than 4 million copies. Grammy voters obviously noticed the album's success, honoring it with three awards and recognizing many of its participants in other categories.

``I think people have been waiting for something for a while,'' said 75-year-old Ralph Stanley, the bluegrass legend who won a Grammy for best male country vocal. ``When we put this music out for the world and people could hear it, they found it. And I think it's going to be around for a while.''

In addition to Stanley's win, bluegrass singer (and ``O Brother'' contributor) Alison Krauss took two awards, and her song ``The Lucky One'' won for best country song. Ancient banjo artist Earl Scruggs won best country instrumental, while the best country album went to a Hank Williams tribute record.

``Forty-nine years ago, 'Your Cheatin' Heart' went No. 1, and Hank had been in the ground already for a couple of months,'' said Luke Lewis, president of Lost Highway records, which distributed the Williams record. ``To me, it's the most country album to come out of Nashville this year.''

Other roots-oriented winners: Lucinda Williams took female rock performance for a Delta-blues song (``Get Right With God''); the bluesy Blind Boys of Alabama won for traditional soul gospel album, and the soundtrack from ``Down From the Mountain,'' the film chronicling a concert featuring ``O Brother'' artists, won best traditional folk album.

The success of the various roots projects wasn't lost on other winners.

``That 'O Brother' record really brought back an art form that had been lost for a while, and that's very significant,'' said Jimmy Jam, who, with longtime producing partner Terry Lewis, won for best dance recording. Jam and Lewis lost to Burnett for producer-of-the-year honors.

``He deserved it,'' Lewis said graciously.

Burnett, for one, said he wasn't surprised over the commercial success of ``O Brother.'' And he wasn't trying to sound immodest.

``I had produced the Wallflowers and Counting Crows, and it seemed like one of those,'' Burnett said. ``Except, rather than have one good singer, we had 15.''

More than 89 awards were handed out in about 85 minutes before the prime-time telecast. Other pre-show winners who wandered backstage included the youngsters from Linkin Park, the rap-rock band from Los Angeles that won for best hard-rock performance. (``It's pretty much a fans' award,'' said the group's lead singer, Chester Bennington. ``They're the ones who put out the word about this record.'')

On the other end of the age spectrum were the Blind Boys, winning their first Grammy after singing together for 58 years.

``It's good, real good,'' said the group's leader, Clarence Fountain, who, like his band mates, stood out in a gold lame suit. ``You don't expect this kind of thing.''

The guys from They Might Be Giants were also surprised to win a Grammy for their theme song ``Boss of Me'' from the Fox sitcom ``Malcolm in the Middle.'' And co-leader John Flansburgh had a little advice backstage: ``Any band who's on a major label and dissatisfied, we recommend leaving. Nothing but good things have happened since we did that.''

Good things happened Wednesday night to a number of other Grammy winners: James Taylor (male pop vocal); Eric Clapton (pop instrumental); Sade (pop vocal album); Lenny Kravitz (rock vocal); Jeff Beck (rock instrumental), Coldplay (alternative music album) and Bob Dylan (folk album).

In the classical category, Cecilia Bartoli won for best vocal performance, and the best crossover classical album was ``Perpetual Motion (Scarlatti, Bach, Debussy, Chopin, etc.)'' with Bela Fleck on banjo.

And for those who have been dying to know: Jimmy Sturr's ``Gone Polka'' won for best polka album.

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Photo:

(color) T-Bone Burnett displays his Grammys for producer of the year and album of the year for the ``O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' soundtrack during the 44th annual Grammy Awards.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer