MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- MTSU alumni gave Grammy gold a True Blue tint Sunday, Jan. 26, when two graduates' talents took them straight to the Staples Center stage in Los Angeles to accept Grammy Awards as this year's best in music engineering and songwriting.
And Aaron Raitiere, a 2009 Master of Fine Arts alumnus, won his first Grammy for co-writing "I'll Never Love Again" for "A Star is Born" in the best song for visual media category.
They were two of nine MTSU graduates nominated for their work at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards. Their wins bring MTSU's Grammy numbers to 11 winners with a total of 32 Grammys, including seven repeat recipients, since 2001 in multiple categories and genres.
Shippen, who's now won five Grammys since 2001 and been a part of multiple other Grammy-winning projects and Country Music Award winners during his career, also brought home the Academy of Country Music's 2019 audio engineer of the year honor in August.
He's a mixer, producer and engineer as well as a multi-faceted entrepreneur, consultant and business owner. His credits range from Kelsea Ballerini and India. Arie to the Backstreet Boys and Robert Randolph and the Family Band.
A member of the College of Media and Entertainment's Wall of Fame since 2017, Shippen has served as co-chair of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences' Producers & Engineers Wing. He owns and operates Robot Lemon, a private Nashville studio with a unique hybrid analog/digital studio setup.
Raitiere released a few albums of his own before earning his MFA in recording arts and technologies from MTSU, then headed full-tilt into getting songs on multiple artists' CDs.
His credits include songwriting for fellow MTSU alumnus and Grammy nominee Michael Anderson, a 2010 audio production grad known professionally as Anderson East, as well as Randolph and his band, Miranda Lambert, the Oak Ridge Boys and Ashley Monroe.
You can watch his acceptance video with co-writers Natalie Hemby and Hillary Lindsey at https://bit.ly/2tStZ62.
This year's MTSU Grammy nominees included:
• John Baldwin, a 2002 Department of Recording Industry graduate who mastered and engineered Kankyo Ongaku's "Japanese Ambient, Environmental and New Age Music 1980-1990," earning him a second career nomination in the best historical album category.
• Multi-Grammy winner Tony Castle, a 1995 MTSU recording industry production and technology alumnus, who was nominated for engineering Reba McEntire's best country album.
• Multi-Grammy winner Torrance "Street Symphony" Esmond, a 2003 music business alumnus who returned to the nominees' list with his clients the Alphabet Rockers and their best children's album candidate.
• Repeat Grammy nominees Jason A. Hall, a 2000 recording industry alumnus and prior winner, and 2014 audio production gradJimmy Mansfield, who were saluted for engineering Eric Church's best country album.
• Billy Hickey, a 2006 recording industry production and technology alumnus who was nominated for two Grammys for his work with Ariana Grande. He was part of the team recognized for record of the year for Grande's "7 Rings" single and earned a second engineering nomination for Grande's best pop vocal album candidate, "thank u, next."
• Jeff Hyde, a 2003 marketing grad from the Jones College of Business, who was nominated for the best country song Grammy for co-writing "Some of It" with -- and for -- Church.
The nominees also were honored during MTSU's seventh annual Grammy weekend gatherings, where alumni and former students are saluted and current students travel with faculty and staff to learn firsthand about the awards in both backstage and pre-show events.
MTSU recognized its alumni at a Jan. 25 brunch in downtown Los Angeles that also celebrated the appointment of alumna Beverly Keel as dean of the College of Media and Entertainment. That same night, the university partnered with the Americana Music Association for a pre-Grammy concert event at The Troubadour celebrating the music of Willie Nelson.
You can learn more about those events at https://mtsunews.com/grammys-troubadour-recap-2020. Details about more MTSU alumni contributions to this year's Grammy nominees are available at https://mtsunews.com/mtsu-grammys-2020, and a complete list of this year's Grammy winners is available at https://www.grammy.com/grammys/awards.
In 2019, MTSU's recording industry department made Billboard's annual list of America's top music business schools for a sixth year, joining its counterparts across the country once again as top producers of ready-to-work music industry pros.
For more information about the Department of Recording Industry in MTSU's College of Media and Entertainment, visit http://mtsu.edu/recording-industry.
