Although it may seem like a shoo-in, Treme will not be eligible for any music-related Emmys this year, despite being the most music-oriented show on television that doesn’t involve increasingly silly caricatures of teenagers. Treme’s earworm-you-want-to-dig-out-of your-brainpan theme song was not composed for the show—you can find it on John Boutte’s 2003 album, Jambalaya—and there’s not much in the way of dramatic underscore, plus it doesn’t qualify for music direction. In fact, the only thing it might qualify for would be some sort of “music supervision” Emmy for Blake Leyh’s work overseeing all the many, many New Orleans musicians who have contributed live performances to the show. Unfortunately, that’s a category the Academy doesn’t recognize. Leyh, who's no doubt used to being ignored after five years of The Wire, shrugs off the fact that he won’t be coming home with any awards, telling Variety, “If winning Emmys was what we were focused on, we’d all be working on a different show.”
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