Bell among six Blue Raider alums up for eight awards at Sunday event
LOS ANGELES — Multiple-winner and nominee Brandon Bell, a 2004 Department of Recording Industry alum from Middle Tennessee State University, captured another Grammy Award during music’s biggest night held Sunday at Crypto.com Arena.
An audio production engineer, Bell was honored among the winners at the 67th annual Grammy Awards for his mixing work on “Billy Strings Live Vol. 1” by artist Billy Strings, which won for Best Bluegrass Album. Strings captured the same award in 2021.
Bell was competing in the same category as fellow alum and singer-songwriter Jaelee Roberts, a first-time nominee who was nominated as part of the group Sister Sadie and their album “No Fear.”
Other MTSU-trained professionals who were nominated for their work this year — six nominees with eight total nominations — included singer-songwriter Jessi Alexander (two nominations) and audio production engineers Jason Hall (two nominations), Bobby Holland and Jimmy Mansfield.
Led by MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee, the university again sent a group of administrators, faculty, staff and students to Southern California to celebrate alumni nominees, network with industry professionals and provide College of Media and Entertainment students opportunities to volunteer, get a behind the scenes look at the industry and make connections.
Several Media and Entertainment students on the trip did volunteer work early Sunday in Los Angeles with Musically Fed, which works with artists, promoters, management and venues nationwide to donate unused backstage and event meals to community organizations that feed people facing homelessness, hunger and food insecurity. Students picked up from legendary music promoter Clive Davis’ pre-Grammy party.
The students included Bailey Brantingham, Ariana Grosh, Asahi Morena Mora, William Howard Price, Mark Lucian Smith Jr. and Susan Sullivan. They were accompanied on the LA trip by Recording Industry Chair Michelle Conceison, assistant professor Denise Shackelford, and Holly Allen, assistant director of MTSU’s Career Development Center, and arrived in Los Angeles earlier in the week.
As a part of this year’s Grammy trip, the university not only celebrated the six former students nominated for Grammys but also showed support for alumni and friends affected by the area’s devastating wildfires.
The university, along with music industry alums and leaders, recognized nominees at a gathering at Mama Shelter hotel in Los Angeles on Saturday, Feb. 1., to draw attention to MusiCares, the Recording Academy’s charitable entity that has already provided millions in fire relief assistance to artists and music workers affected by the wildfires.
McPhee set up a MTSU website link, www.mtsu.edu/LAFireRelief, that takes users directly to the MusiCares online giving portal.
At Saturday’s event, McPhee and Beverly Keel, dean of the College of Media and Entertainment, named Alexander an honorary professor in the Recording Industry Department and recognized Roberts with a special certificate as a first-time nominee.
On Friday, the MTSU students in LA also volunteered to help MusiCares stage its Persons of the Year gala honoring the iconic rock band, the Grateful Dead.
This marked the university’s 11th trip to the Grammys. MTSU alumni, former or current students, and faculty from across the university have been a part of more than 170 Grammy Award nominations in the last two decades.
The number of MTSU-connected Grammy winners since 2001 currently stands at more than 20 people, with nearly 50 Grammys, including nine repeat recipients, in categories from classical to pop to rock to country to gospel and rap.
