I’m surprised we’re all still here the day after the Grammys. I would have thought that getting the egos of Sting, Don Henley and the Dixie Chicks together in one room would have created a tear in the time-space continuum that would have sucked us all in.

The Dixie Chicks did win a few important awards, including album, record (single) and country album of the year. But that’s pretty clearly a result of a protest vote against President Bush. (Here’s my full take on the Chicks from eariler this year.)

There’s no other way to explain the Chicks winning country album of the year for an album that is explicitly not country, and winning record of the year over Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” which is an absolutely perfect single in every way possible.

And there were very few musical highlights in last night’s broadcast. The Police with “Roxanne,” Carrie Underwood with a nice version of Bob Wills’ “San Antonio Rose,” and the delightfully strange reworking of “Crazy” were all nice enough. But Christina Aguilera singing James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” was simply spectacular.

It was also nice to see Bob Wills, Booker T. & the MG’s, Ornette Coleman,and the Grateful Dead get lifetime achievement awards.

If you want to discover some good music of the past year, since there wasn’t much of it last night, check out my favorite 20 albums from 2006 here.

Have PoliticalMavens.com delivered to your inbox in a daily digest by clicking here