Kelly Clarkson, Levon Helm tribute among Grammy 2013 highlights

As it turned out, much of the cast for Sunday's 55th Grammy Awards had spent quality time in New Orleans recently during the Super Bowl. Beyonce, Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, Alicia Keys, Flo Rida and actor Michael Patrick Harris, among others, worked both events. Timberlakes Grammy gig -- broadcast in part in retro black-and-white -- was a sample of the show he staged at DIRECTVs Super Bowl party.

In between host LL Cool Js many Twitter plugs, some awards were handed out and some musicians played and sang. Observations on Grammy Night 2013:

If Kelly Clarkson seemed a little loopier than usual during the Grammy Awards, she can blame Mardi Gras. Less than 24 hours after riding in Endymion and headlining the parades Extravaganza at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, she walked the red carpet at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

And she didnt just sit, sip and snooze in the audience at the Grammys. She sang a tribute to Carole King and Patti Page quite effectively and presented an award. She also delivered the nights most unabashedly authentic acceptance speech, in which she said of fellow Grammy performer Miguel, "I don't know who the hell you are, but we need to sing together.

As a bonus, she photo-bombed Ellen DeGeneres and Portia Del Rossi in a snapshot released via Twitter. All in all, Clarkson seemed none the worse for wear following her Carnival trip. Or maybe she just wears the wear well.

Frank Ocean, known as Christopher Breaux when he attended John Ehret High School, won for best urban contemporary album. But he did himself no favors later in the show with a lukewarm performance of Forrest Gump. A clever video effect was not enough to compensate for a shaky vocal outing. Tellingly, much of the standing ovation-prone audience remained seated when he finished.

Adele, the big Grammy winner in 2012 and a new mom, returned to pick up yet another Gold gramophone. One Twitter commentator noted that the ample, ever-sunny Adele, clad in a floral print dress, looked like everybodys favorite kindergarten teacher, the one who gave out the best hugs. While presenting album of the year, she stated winners of the award generally go on to even more success and huge global tours, or get knocked up, like last years winner, i.e. herself.

Katy Perry, sporting a cutaway dress that revealed considerable cleavage, consoled the losers in the best new artist category. I was never nominated in this category, and I have my own eyelash line, she joked. Take that, Bon Iver.

The boys in fun. lived up to their name. Giddy from multiple wins -- and possibly from considerable refreshments they were delightfully unguarded. Speaking of the bands song of the year, We Are Young, vocalist Nate Ruess quipped that anyone watching the Grammys in high-definition realized that the bandmembers were not, in fact, young. On a later trip to the podium, Ruess ceded the microphone to his bandmates because I gotta pee so bad.

Prince emerged from whatever Bat Cave he normally inhabits to present the record of the year Grammy. He managed to look simultaneously cool and uncomfortable as a presenter. Upon opening the envelope that declared Gotyes Somebody That I Used to Know the winner, he ad-libbed, I love this song. Upon arriving onstage, Gotye and vocalist Kimbra Lee Johnson seemed as thrilled to be in the presence of Prince as they were to win one of the nights big awards. Gotye admitted that he was blown away to receive a Grammy from the man standing behind us with a cane.

The Bob Marley tribute was perhaps the shows strangest segment, both for its arbitrariness was it pegged to what would have been the late reggae legends 68th birthday on Feb. 6? and execution. The first part of the tribute featured Bruno Mars performing one of his own song! s with hi! s band, then backing Sting on the Police hit Walking on the Moon. They sounded great together, but how that amounted to a Bob Marley tribute wasnt clear. A couple of Marleys sons, and Rihanna, eventually joined in, but still.

Far more effective was the tribute to Levon Helm, the late drummer and vocalist of The Band. The Zac Brown Band, Mumford & Sons, Elton John, Mavis Staples and Alabama Shakes singer Brittany Howard joined forces to lift The Weight. There wasnt a weak link as they traded verses. Perhaps the shows best musical moment.

None of the album of the year nominees struck me as an obvious winner; there was no watershed album, as was Adeles 21 last year. But Jack Whites Blunderbuss is very listenable, much moreso than his bring-the-noise Grammy set.

Hunter Hayes, the south Louisiana Cajun music prodigy he was playing festivals, armed with a tiny accordion, by age 4 turned country-pop rising star was shut out of the three awards for which he was nominated. Hayes still received considerable air-time, forcing tight, Im-happy-for-the-winners smiles and playing a completely unnecessary introduction to a Carrie Underwood song.

Relative to their place in the commercial pop music landscape, heritage New Orleans musicians tend to receive more than their share of Grammy airtime. This is due in part to Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich being a fan of New Orleans music and a regular attendee of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival presented by Shell; Jazz Fest producer Quint Davis is a longtime friend of Ehrlichs, and helps connect the dots.

Case in point: Dr. John in full Night Tripper regalia and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band joining the Black Keys for a raucous take on the Keys Lonely Boy.

Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach produced Dr. Johns 2012 release Locked Down, which won a Grammy for best blues album even though its not really a blues album on Sunday. Auerbach also was named the non-classical producer of the year, in part for his work on Locked Down.

Dr. John set down the electric keyboard intro for Lonely Boy; the Preservation Hall horns jazzed up the entire arrangement. Heres hoping we see a similar collaboration when the Black Keys perform at Jazz Fest on May 5.