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Every Grammys Best Contemporary Folk Album winner

12 ceremonies, 2000–2011. 9 different winners.

It was awarded for the last time in 2011.

It was called Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album from 2007 to 2009, before Best Americana Album was split off.

From 2012 the Grammys awarded Best Folk Album instead.

Steve Earle ×3Bob Dylan ×2
One band per year, because no winner has gone back-to-back in the years on record. Colored by label; scroll sideways for the full run.
Tom Waits'00
Emmylou Harris'01
Bob Dylan'02
Nickel Creek'03
Warren Zevon'04
Steve Earle'05
John Prine'06
Bob Dylan'07
Steve Earle'08
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss'09
Steve Earle'10
Ray LaMontagne'11
Wins by label
  1. Sony325%
  2. New West217%
  3. Anti-18%
  4. Artemis18%
  5. E-Squared18%
  6. Independent18%
  7. Other325%

Who kept losing

Counting nominations in this category only, 2000–2011. Excludes 1 nominations credited to Various Artists, which names a compilation rather than an act.

Most nominated, never won

  • Patty Griffin3 noms
  • Ry Cooder3 noms
  • Guy Clark2 noms
  • Johnny Cash2 noms
  • Lucinda Williams2 noms
  • Mary Chapin Carpenter2 noms

Most losses

  • Patty Griffin3L · 0W
  • Ry Cooder3L · 0W
  • Emmylou Harris2L · 1W
  • Guy Clark2L · 0W
  • Johnny Cash2L · 0W
  • Lucinda Williams2L · 0W

The full list

YearWinnerLabel
2011Ray LaMontagne (God Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise)
beat 4 others
  • Jackson Browne & David Lindley (Love Is Strange: En Vivo Con Tino)
  • Mary Chapin Carpenter (The Age of Miracles)
  • Guy Clark (Somedays the Song Writes You)
  • Richard Thompson (Dream Attic)
RCA/Stone Dwarf/RED (US)
2010Steve Earle (Townes)
beat 4 others
  • Neko Case (Middle Cyclone)
  • Tracy Chapman (Our Bright Future)
  • Shawn Colvin (Live)
  • Elvis Costello (Secret, Profane & Sugarcane)
New West
2009Robert Plant and Alison Krauss (Raising Sand)
beat 4 others
  • Joan Baez (Day After Tomorrow)
  • Ry Cooder (I, Flathead)
  • Rodney Crowell (Sex & Gasoline)
  • Emmylou Harris (All I Intended to Be)
Rounder/Zoë
2008Steve Earle (Washington Square Serenade)
beat 4 others
  • Mary Chapin Carpenter (The Calling)
  • Ry Cooder (My Name Is Buddy)
  • Patty Griffin (Children Running Through)
  • Tom Waits (Orphans)
New West
2007Bob Dylan (Modern Times)
beat 4 others
  • Jackson Browne (Solo Acoustic, Vol. 1)
  • Rosanne Cash (Black Cadillac)
  • Guy Clark (Workbench Songs)
  • Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris (All the Roadrunning)
Columbia
2006John Prine (Fair & Square)
beat 4 others
  • Ry Cooder (Chávez Ravine)
  • Rodney Crowell (The Outsider)
  • Nickel Creek (Why Should the Fire Die?)
  • Bruce Springsteen (Devils & Dust)
Oh Boy
2005Steve Earle (The Revolution Starts... Now)unverified
beat 4 others
  • Ani DiFranco (Educated Guess)
  • Eliza Gilkyson (Land of Milk and Honey)
  • Patty Griffin (Impossible Dream)
  • John Carter Cash, Various Artists (The Unbroken Circle - The Musical Heritage of the Carter Family)
E-Squared
2004Warren Zevon (The Wind)
beat 4 others
  • Rosanne Cash (Rules of Travel)
  • Emmylou Harris (Stumble into Grace)
  • Tom Paxton (Looking for the Moon)
  • Lucinda Williams (World Without Tears)
Artemis
2003Nickel Creek (This Side)
beat 4 others
  • Johnny Cash (American IV: The Man Comes Around)
  • The Chieftains (Down the Old Plank Road: The Nashville Sessions)
  • Steve Earle (Jerusalem)
  • Patty Griffin (1000 Kisses)
Sugar Hill
2002Bob Dylan (Love and Theft)
beat 4 others
  • Buddy Miller & Julie Miller (Buddy & Julie Miller)
  • Various Artists (Poet: A Tribute to Townes van Zandt)
  • Gillian Welch (Time (The Revelator))
  • Lucinda Williams (Essence)
Columbia
2001Emmylou Harris (Red Dirt Girl)
beat 4 others
  • Billy Bragg & Wilco (Mermaid Avenue Vol. II)
  • Johnny Cash (American III: Solitary Man)
  • Steve Earle (Transcendental Blues)
  • John Hiatt (Crossing Muddy Waters)
Nonesuch
2000Tom Waits (Mule Variations)
beat 4 others
  • BeauSoleil (Cajunization)
  • Ani DiFranco & Utah Phillips (Fellow Workers)
  • John Prine (In Spite of Ourselves)
  • Linda Ronstadt & Emmylou Harris (Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions)
Anti-

More Grammys categories

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