Mike Farris News
Mike Farris Receives First Grammy Award
Wednesday, February 11th, 2015 10:22:09 PM
Mike Farris become the first artist to receive a Grammy Award for Best Roots Gospel Album, for his Shine for All the People. Farris was presented the award by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences at the 57th annual Grammy Awards ceremony held on February 8, 2015 in Los Angeles.
Best Roots Gospel Album is a new Grammy Award category that recognizes ‘roots’ gospel albums, the heritage of this music, and the growing interest and support of these genres. Farris has made history as the first recipient for this prestigious award in addition to it being the first Grammy win for the artist.
“This is a unique musical heritage here in America,” he said. “And this is my mission to shine a light on it, to show the world this music, and to bring it out of the attic. There are two basic seeds of western music: old Black spirituals, where it all began, and old Appalachian music.”
“I’m from Tennessee,” he continued. “I was born and raised with it. That is the beauty of being raised in the South, it is so fertile. This ground is so rich with all this music we all know. Blues, rock, jazz, R&B – we wouldn’t have had any of that without the ground that I walk on.”
Asked what the impact of winning this Grammy would have on his career, he said, “You have a Grammy- winning Mike Farris forever and ever, and you carry it with you for the rest of your life. It brings more people to the table, and opens more doors, opens more hearts, more ears. It is not easy for a white guy to do this music. And it’s true the word ‘Gospel’ is a wall that stops a lot of people. So anything I can do to show music has no boundaries, music breaks down all walls, that matters.”
