Grateful Dead To Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at 49th Annual Grammys

From the Recording Academy press release (at grammy.com):

Recipients of the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award, Trustees Award and Technical GRAMMY® Award were announced today by The Recording Academy®. Joan Baez, Booker T. & The MG's, Maria Callas, Ornette Coleman, the Doors, the Grateful Dead and Bob Wills will receive The Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award.

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"This year's group of accomplished honorees are as diverse as they are influential as creators of the most renowned and prominent recordings in the world," said Recording Academy President Neil Portnow. "Their contributions exemplify the highest artistic and technical standards that have positively affected the music industry and music fans."

The Lifetime Achievement Award honors lifelong artistic contributions to the recording medium while the Trustees Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the industry in a non-performing capacity. Both awards are decided by vote of The Recording Academy's National Board of Trustees. Technical GRAMMY Award recipients are determined by The Academy's Producers & Engineers Wing members and The Academy's Trustees. The award is presented to individuals and companies who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field.

Formal acknowledgment of these special merit awards will be made at an invitation-only ceremony during GRAMMY Week, as well as during the 49th Annual GRAMMY Awards, which will be held at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 11, 2007, and broadcast live at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the CBS Television Network.

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The Grateful Dead (*Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, and Bob Weir) — The Grateful Dead were the psychedelic era's most beloved musical ambassadors as well as its most enduring survivors, spreading their message of peace, love and harmony across the globe for more than four decades. The ultimate cult band, the Dead were known for their unique and eclectic songwriting style, fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, country, jazz, psychedelia, and gospel, and for live performances, featuring long jams. The band released more than 50 albums, and was music's top-grossing live act year after year. As strong and passionate supporters of numerous educational and humanitarian charities, they established the Rex Foundation. Today, more than 10 years after Jerry Garcia's death, the legions of fans — called Dead Heads —have only grown larger and stronger.