After rolling out six live performances in the first hour, the Grammys shifted into a slightly more relaxed pace for the second and third hours, with songs provided by Sheryl Crow, Moby, Macy Gray and Christina Aguilera, among others.

Armed with only an acoustic guitar, singer/songwriter Crow led into "The Difficult Kind," a track she originally recorded for her 1998 Grammy-winning The Globe Sessions. Crow was joined onstage by Shelby Lynne, the veteran Canadian singer/songwriter who was honored with the evening's Grammy for Best New Artist, even though she issued her first record in 1989.

Backed by a slide guitarist, Crow and Lynne delivered a heart-wrenching, torch song version of "The Difficult Kind," with Lynne providing the vocal harmonies that Sarah McLachlan sang on the version included on Crow's concert album, Sheryl Crow and Friends: Live in Central Park.

Arguably the most intriguing and involved performance of the evening was turned in by the combination of electronica whiz Moby, soul singer Jill Scott and performance art troupe the Blue Man Group, who collaborated on Moby's "Natural Blues."

Even though he wasn't decked out in blue facial make-up to mimic the Blue Man Group, Moby seemed comfortable enough to just pluck his bass guitar and let Scott tear into the gospel-rooted lead vocals.

Using their makeshift percussion assemblages to provide a thumping rhythm track to "Natural Blues," the Blue Man Group took the lead near the end of the production and the song evolved into a performance art piece that seemed more akin to an off-Broadway production of "Stomp."

During "I Try," Gray almost seemed lost among her more than 20-piece backing band and support singers, all of whom were dressed in neon pink wigs, color-coordinated with Gray's leather boots.

Channeling such venerable R&B singers as Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield and Gladys Knight, Gray delivered an impassioned reading of "I Try," a song that later earned her a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Although Britney Spears wasn't in the house, teen singer Christina Aguilera more than carried the torch for both young divas and the Latin pop movement, performing "Pero Me Acuerdo de Ti" and "Falsas Esperanzas," a pair of songs off her Spanish-language Mi Reflejo.

Sporting a beaded-hair look reminiscent of Bo Derek in the 1979 movie "10," Aguilera descended onto the stage in a mechanical ball that seemed like a cross between an oversized Christmas ornament and the infamous lemon U2 used during the Pop tour.

The prop provided one of the evening's most suspenseful (albeit unintentional) moments when Aguilera almost fell 10 feet to the stage after nearly missing the platform she exited onto. After regaining her musical footing, Aguilera closed out her set by demonstrating her Mariah Carey-like vocal range through a series of high-pitched arpeggios.

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