Dolly Parton, Ramones, Kingston Trio among Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award Winners

The Recording Academy announced the recipients of their 2011 Special Merit Awards on Wednesday, including those receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award, Trustees Award and Technical Grammys. The awards will be presented on Saturday, February 12 at a special ceremony the day before the Grammy Awards.

The Lifetime Achievement Award, given to artists in recognition of their lifelong artistic contributions to the recording medium will go to Broadway and film actress Julie Andrews, jazz drummer Roy Haynes, the Julliard String Quartet, folk giants The Kingston Trio, country great Dolly Parton, punk rockers the Ramones and gospel singer and composer George Beverly Shea.

The Trustees Award goes to those with a significant contribution to the industry in a non-performing capacity. This year's recipients are Al Bell who was a key player at Stax, a former president of Motown and the founder of Bellmark Records, classical music producer Wilma Cozart Fine and Bruce Lundvall who built Columbia Records jazz roster, was a president of Elektra and revived the Blue Note label.

The Technical Grammy recipients are selected by the Academy's Producers & Engineers Wing Advisory Council and Chapter Committees as well as The Academy's Trustees and salutes those who have made contributions to the technical end of the industry. Honored this year are Roger Linn, who invented the LM-1 Drum Computer and Waves Audio who developed software "plug-ins" for their Q10 Paragraphic equalizer.

VVN Music