Alison Krauss
Krauss has won a record twenty-seven Grammy Awards over the course of her career as a solo artist, as a group with Union Station, as a duet with Robert Plant, and as a record producer. She is currently tied with Quincy Jones as the winner of the second highest number of Grammy Awards. Only the late classical conductor Sir Georg Solti has more overall Grammys (31). She overtook Aretha Franklin for the most female wins at the 46th Grammy Awards, where Krauss won three, bringing her total at the time to seventeen (Franklin won her sixteenth that night). The Recording Academy (which presents the Grammy Awards) presented her with a special musical achievement honor in 2005. She has also won 14 International Bluegrass Music Association Awards, 9 Country Music Association Awards, 2 Gospel Music Association Awards, 2 CMT Music Awards, 2 Academy of Country Music Awards, and 1 Canadian Country Music Award. Country Music Television ranked Krauss 12th on their "40 Greatest Women of Country Music" list in 2002.
Grammy Award for Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album
Beginning in 2001, advocates began lobbying for a Grammy category specifically for cajun and zydeco music. Award recipients, in chronological order, included Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience, BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, Buckwheat Zydeco, and Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band; no artist received the award more than once. Awards were presented to the engineers, mixers, and/or producers in addition to the performing artists. The group Pine Leaf Boys holds the record for the most nominations, with four. Though nominated each year the honor was presented, the group failed to receive an award. Doucet and Cedric Watson each received three nominations. 2009 marked the only year in which a musician received more than one nomination as well as the only time two artists were nominated for works appearing on the same album—Doucet was nominated as a member of BeauSoleil for "Live at the 2008 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival" as well as for his solo album "From Now On", and Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys were also nominated for their contribution to the "New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival" compilation album. Many nominated artists were from Louisiana, specifically Lafayette.