The Americana Music Association (AMA) celebrated its 25th anniversary this year with its annual AmericanaFest in Nashville from September 17-21. As usual, there was much discussion of the term “Americana” and how it’s defined. The word was originally coined as a way to establish a chart for records that were too country for rock radio and too rock for country. The organization has been successful at establishing a whole new musical genre. Today there are radio stations, publications, and even Grammy Awards given to Americana artists.
Still, no one really knows what Americana is. It’s a big tent that includes music made way before the term was used. For instance, this year, bluesman Rev. Gary Davis (1896-1972) was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Artists from a host of other styles including blues, folk, singer-songwriter, gospel, jazz, pop, as well as country and rock are often cited and included in Americana forums. This year I heard a discussion that suggested The Beatles were Americana because they sang with American accents (instead of their conversational cockney tones) and originally covered American R&B music by artists like Arthur Alexander, The Isley Brothers, and The Shirelles. The fact that this kind of makes sense reveals how broad the term Americana can be.
According to head honcho (executive director) Jed Tilly, more than 250 acts performed at this year’s fest. There were also panel discussions, lectures, and assemblies on professional topics from how to get publicity for your band, artificial intelligence and music creation, and how to track audiences. There are many reasons why those in the business should attend the conference, but most people were there for the music.
The AMA itself knows how to host a party. Their opening Honors and Awards celebration at the Ryman Theater lasted more than four hours and featured 22 live performances by an all-star roster that included such talents as Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Noah Kahan, and Sierra Ferrell. Ferrell was the big winner at the event and won Artist of the Year and Album of the Year awards. The event also featured performances by the nominated Emerging Acts of the Year Kaitlin Butts, Wyatt Flores, Charles Wesley Godwin, and Jobi Riccio. Each of these acts gave strong showings and were showered with applause. Other established acts such as The War and The Treaty, Hurray for the Riff Raff, The Milk Carton Kids, and Waxahatchee with MJ Lenderman, also wowed the audience.
It should be noted that there seemed to be a subtle change of the guard at the AMA. The original Americana artists from 25 years ago, such as Dwight Yoakam, Shelby Lynne, and Dave Alvin have become elder spokes people receiving Lifetime Achievement Awards. Each of these artists gave heartfelt talks on their pasts, and then kicked butts in their individual performances. Another generation of artists, such as Sarah Jarosz and Brandy Clark, have become the new standard bearers for the existing scene. No doubt younger artists will take over in the future as the AMA continues to grow and expand in influence.
New artists or those that may have been previously overlooked provided many of the events’ highlights. This was my fifth AmericanaFest and my third big music festival of the year, and I was still turned on by artists I had not previously heard. My favorite new artists included Mexico’s Silvana Estrada, Cape Breton’s Elyse Aeryn, and American singer songwriter Christian Lee Hudson. Musically, these three acts have little in common with each other, but they each gave charismatic live performances.
Estrada sang in Spanish with a clear, lush voice accompanied only by herself on a four-string guitar. There was an intentional purity and beauty to her traditional and self-penned compositions. She sang with a smile and a charming confidence. Aeryn is more of a hard rocker who spews out her songs. The Canadian chanteuse dynamically danced and moved about the stage while singing her lyrics about desire, cowboys, and criminals. There’s something dangerously sexual in the undercurrent of her music that recalls the early rock of Elvis Presley and that generation although she is a young woman. Hudson is an indie pop singer songwriter whose introspective lyrics sound familiar without seeming derivative. He keeps things simple melodically while his words sneak up and capture one’s attention.
But focusing on the new acts distorts the fact that what made AmericanaFest so much fun was the renewed presence of past acts that continue to grow and advance, living up to their early promise, and older acts who continue to perform to appreciative audiences long after their initial heyday. Musicians such as Kelsey Waldon, Waxahatchee with MJ Lenderman, Emily Nenni, Leyla McCalla, Bendigo Fletcher, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Shemekia Copeland, Iron & Wine, Emily Scott Robinson, The McCrary Sisters, Courtney Marie Andrews, Margo Cilker, and others offered marvelous sets to full crowds.
And two older acts gave stellar shows worth noting. The 70-year-old Dan Reeder lives in Germany and has not performed in America in a dozen years. His fans packed the Vinyl Tap venue and hung on to every note, knowing the words to his old songs and listening vigilantly to the new ones. Reeder has a gruff vocal style. He was accompanied by his daughter Peg whose sweet voice combined well with his and made his silly diatribes seem profound. For example, his “Work Song” consists of one line sung over and over (“I got all the fuckin’ work I need”). The 82-year-old country soul singer Swamp Dogg vigorously played with a crack band and energetically rocked the house at several shows during the fest. He made everyone feel young again.
The best thing about AmericanaFest was the feeling of connection between the artists and the acts as if we were all part of the same Americana community. We were all there to have a good time and support the concept of a music that promoted life-affirming principles even when singing a sad song. We all share certain social and musical values of inclusiveness and joy. Calling music Americana means more than using the word as a marketing tool to get on the airwaves. The term also implies an American idealism of making the world a better place through the arts and celebrating our individual and collective identities. Or as T Bone Burnett put it during his speech, “Our music is America’s greatest gift to the world.” Amen, brother.