ICYMI: Between the Buried and Me at the Grammys

On what many consider to be the biggest night in music, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the performances and the speeches and the get-ups. So you might have missed the bit of Triad representation by metal band Between the Buried and Me at the Grammys this year.

The band, which has been active since 2000, earned its first Grammy nomination this year in the Best Metal Performance category for “Condemned to the Gallows,” off their latest album, Automata I & II.

The band may have formed in Raleigh, but several of its members have ties to the Triad.

Dan Briggs, who plays bass and keyboards, lives in Greensboro, while Dustie Waring, who plays rhythm and lead guitar, went to West Forsyth High School and considers Winston-Salem his hometown. Blake Richardson, the band’s drummer, went to middle school in Winston-Salem and is also an alum of Mt. Tabor High School. He still lives in Winston-Salem.

On an evening of stars and big names, the band’s nomination reinforced the fact that the Triad has and will continue to produce and create music that’s worthy of awards and recognition, whether they win the thing or not.

Since their inception almost 20 years ago, BTBAM has released nine albums and has carved out their own space within the experimental music realm. In a January interview for the Grammys, co-founder and guitarist Paul Waggoner was quoted as saying, “We didn’t really need a Grammy nomination to validate what we’ve done. We’ve always had pretty reasonably good critical acclaim, and it’s hard to have any kind of success being a band like us. So the fact that we’ve had some success has been validating enough, and the fact that we’re still doing it.”

It’s this kind of thinking that creates the best bands. The ones that do it for the love of it, and not necessarily for the glitz and the glam.

And while the band didn’t win the award, being recognized on a stage like the Grammys sheds light not just on the band, but on our little corner of the world just for a bit. 

The band will be back in Winston-Salem for their Automata II North American tour on March 10 at the Ramkat. Find tickets and more info at their website betweentheburiedandme.com.