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Another Grammy for Orlando?
Photo courtesy of Rebel Rock Photography
It has been 26 years since Orlando last had a Grammy-award winning contemporary music talent within its urban borders. Back in 2000, it was Rob Thomas – lead singer of Matchbox 20 – who picked up three of them for his collaboration with Carlos Santana on the hit single Smooth. True, The City Beautiful has seen the likes of baritone Gabriel Preisser (Best Opera Recording, 2020) and sound engineer Stuart White (Mixing & Recording, 2023 and 2025) among the Grammy honors in recent years, but it’s definitely been a while since a genuine guitar-wielding artist with a strong Orlando connection last lifted any Recording Academy hardware.
Next year could change all that.
Next year, we could well be set to salute Alex Kilroy as Orlando’s latest home-produced Grammy winner, thanks to his debut album, which was released – uniquely – at the Bang & Olufsen store in Winter Park in May, the opening salvo of an engaging musician on the fast track to success.
Pulp City introduced Kilroy to Orlando with two articles earlier this year: a full album review of his Break My Chains, and the remarkable back-story of his journey from Transylvania in Romania to the heart of Central Florida, which he now calls home. And his bandwagon is fast gathering speed as an ongoing musical story that has solid local roots thanks to The Blue Goat live music venue in Maitland.
Kilroy has certainly caught listeners’ attention with his multi-layered debut album, the first full distillation of his 20-plus years of Blues-inspired musings and fine guitar picking. Break My Chains has just been announced as on the ballot for the 2027 Grammys for Best Contemporary Blues Album, an outstanding achievement in such a short space of time.
The Blues is typically a hard genre to crack. It took the legendary B.B. King 15 years from the debut of his first album to earning Grammy recognition, while fellow Blues icon Buddy Guy was 55 (in 1992) before his first win. For a complete newcomer to even gain a nomination in this category is remarkable. The only time a debut album has snagged the Blues crown was in 2012 by the Tedeschi Trucks Band, which means Kilroy faces a steep task just to reach the second ballot.
But his unique blend of Blues, rock, R&B, soul, and Country could well be the key to success in this instance, as he indicated in his latest chat with us. We caught up with him to talk about his prospects, as well as his plans for new material, which include an E.P. to be released this week.
Pulp City: How does it feel to be in the first ballot for the 2027 Grammys?
Alex: This is definitely on my bucket list and it feels great. I was talking with one of my radio promoters, and he’s like, “Man, you’re shooting for the stars. This is your debut album and now you’re going for it.” And I’m like, “Why not? Let’s see what happens.” I understand that it usually takes a long time, but it’s also exciting. So why not [dream]?
Pulp City: How does the process work from here?
Alex: I got talking with my sound engineer, who is also a Grammy member, and he said “Let’s submit [it] and see what happens.” And I’ve learned a lot about how it works. First, I wrote a letter of intent and submitted it. There’s a committee that listens to your work – I submitted Break My Chains for Best Contemporary Blues Album – and they tell you whether or not you’re in the right category and if you actually got on the ballot and so forth.
Pulp City: How did you find out about being on the ballot?
Alex: A week ago, we got the letter that we are in the Contemporary Blues category, which is the one I wanted. And yeah, we’re in the race. And now people are voting, you know, the members are listening, they’re voting, and we’re gonna find out around November 17 [if we have made the second ballot]. It’s a long way to the top, but it’s very exciting. Just to be even in the first phases, I’m very honored and excited about it.
Pulp City: Most Blues artists have their own version of the Blues. How does the Alex Kilroy version fit into this category?
Alex: It definitely pushes [the envelope] as a contemporary album. I think it pushes the boundaries of what the Blues is and can be, and I know some of the purists weren’t very happy with that. But there are other Blues lovers I spoke to that appreciated me pushing the boundaries, kind of like showing how the Blues is the cornerstone of Western music, pretty much.
Pulp City: Was it an important part of the debut album to bring in different elements to enlarge the envelope?
Alex: Oh, yeah, absolutely. It’s the same essential [musical] language, we’re just a little bit different here and there. There are elements of R&B, gospel, rock, and rock and roll, it all comes from the same source, so it’s really all one. That meant creating the album was a lot of fun. I didn’t have [anything specific] in mind when I started writing and creating the songs, but you listen to the music and it will tell you where it wants to go – and this is where it took us.
Pulp City: As regards the Grammys themselves, have you allowed yourself to dream about what it might mean to collect an Award?
Alex: I gotta be honest. I visualized a moment of that happening, and it’s incredible. So in a way, I already lived it in my head!
Pulp City: Tell us about what is next for Alex Kilroy in terms of new music.
Alex: We have a new seven-track E.P. called New Shade of Blue out this month and, this time around, I went deeper into the Blues. This one is more real Blues rock than the first album. It has some traditional songs, like the first single we released, Crossroads On My Mind. It’s pretty much a traditional song, and I went in between the albums and kind of fell in love with the Blues all over again. But this time I also went a little back in time to the Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters era. Of course, Johnson is the Godfather of the style, so I listened to his tapes, and then I listened to him and Eric Clapton quite a bit. And this inspired me to go out and buy a resonator and a slide, which I had never played before, and I think I took around a month of playing every day and learning how to play the slide.
Now on this new record, I do play quite a bit of slide guitar, which is very exciting for me, because it’s a new sound that I don’t have experience with, and so I wrote some songs that are more in this vein of Blues and Blues rock. Crossroads On My Mind is more traditional, but then the title track [of the E.P.] is New Shade of Blue, a song I was inspired to write after I was disqualified from the International Blues Challenge for not being Blues enough. So it’s like I’m feeling the idea. I’m feeling the Blues, but it’s a new shade of Blue.
On his latest Instagram post, Alex made sure to thank the team behind him for putting him in this exciting position. And he concluded: “To all Recording Academy voting members: I humbly invite you to give Break My Chains a spin. Thank you for your time and consideration.”
We can only reiterate those final words. To the Grammy voters – be sure to give this astonishing album a really good spin.
Mike Synan
News | Sports | Politics
- After two decades in news and politics, Mike Synan is returning to his roots to write Sports as “The Sportsaholic”. Mike hosted a talk show for 6 years on WDBO after Magic home games called “Magic Til Midnight”, and spent years working as an in-game correspondent for both ESPN and Fox Sports Radio. His column “Synan Says” has appeared on both www.wdbo.com and www.floridadaily.com. He has a BS in Political Science from Clemson University. You can reach him at msynan@sportsmail.com
