The 2011 Americana Music Festival awards show will be aired on Austin City Limits beginning Nov. 19. Here’s one of the evening’s highlights, a riveting performance of “Barton Hollow” by the Civil Wars.
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The Civil Wars “Barton Hollow” from Austin City Limits on Vimeo.
The national television debut of the Americana Music Festival is scheduled for Nov. 19 on Austin City Limits, which has released this show setlist, beginning with Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Buddy Miller, Jerry Douglas and Don Was singing “I’ll Fly Away.”
It captures the best moments of the evening, although we wish Hayes Carll had made the cut. Nashville area viewers were able to watch the full version live and in a couple of early morning repeats.
As we’ve noted, national television exposure is critical to the future growth of Americana music and there’s arguable no better showcase than Austin City Limits. Check your local PBS station for show times.
The Avett Brothers at the Americana Awards show
By Ken Paulson
Television is a very big deal to the Americana music community.
For years, the Americana Music Association has worked to establish the genre with the general public, and TV is the key.
Any medium that can make Snooki a household name should do wonders for Buddy Miller.
That’s why news that WNPT, Nashville’s public television station, would broadcast the 2011 Americana Music Festival Honors and Awards show , and that Austin City Limits would do a show of highlights, was so welcome. A broader audience would finally see what Americana music was all about.
Yet the early results were discouraging. That initial live broadcast from the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville showed large expanses of empty seats early on, due to a late-arriving crowd. Unbelievably, the opening graphic noted that the evening was dedicated to the memory of “Jim” Hartford rather than John Hartford. And then early in the show, transmission difficulties meant audio and video drop-outs during performances by Justin Townes Earle and Elizabeth Cook. Ouch.
Things were better for a rebroadcast two days later, although the length of the show was apparently longer than the original estimate. If you have a TiVo, you didn’t see a dazzling finale.
But the good news is that the music overall was stunning, the performances passionate and even the presentations were well-paced. Austin City Limits should find it relatively easy to mine the two-plus hour show for an hour’s worth of great music, drawing on performances by Robert Plant, the Avett Brothers, Jim Lauderdale, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Miller, Cook, Earle and more.
That kind of quality exposure will build awareness of Americana, but will also amplify the sales pitch to prospective music festival sponsors.
My guess is that Austin City Limits, scheduled for Nov. 19, will edit out acceptance speeches, which may be just as well. The message relayed by Mumford and Sons thanked “the Nashville community,” which is exactly what the Americana Music Association doesn’t need. Americana needs to be seen as a vibrant worldwide genre, which just happens to have an office in Nashville. National television exposure is critical to making that happen.
The 2011 Americana Music Festival and Conference featured four full days of performances. Here’s a sampling of photos from the Honors and Awards show at the Ryman, showcase events and some special events at other Nashville venues.
(Photos copyright Ken Paulson, 2011)
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Thirty Tigers threw a closing night party at the Americana Music Festival in Nashville, showcasing a remarkable line-up.
After a strong opening set by Amy Speace, Nikki Lane, a retro country singer with a rock edge, followed, previewing songs from her new “Walk of Shame” album. You just know Lee Hazelwood would have loved to produce her.
Then came the highlight for the record geeks in the audience (and I am one.) In the mid-’70s, Garland Jeffreys was a fresh new voice, and his “Wild in the Streets” was as big a radio hit as you could get without actually having a hit. Over the years, he’s released smart and topical records, but the commerical breakthrough never came. I’ve been waiting 30 years to hear him play “Wild in the Streets” and 35 Millimeter Dreams.” I was not disappointed. His new album is “King of In Between.”
Raul Malo was up next, but cut his set to two songs because of loud conversations in the bar. Shelby Lynne is the only other performer I’ve ever seen do that.The Malo fans were not happy.
Chuck Mead then closed the show with an entergetic and entertaining set, including his salute to engagments, “She Got the Ring, I Got the Finger.” The show was just three blocks from where Mead and BR5-49 first rocked lower Broadway, and a reminder of just how dynamic a performer he has always been.
Brian Henneman of the Bottle Rockets (Ken Paulson photo)
One of the least heralded Americana Music Festival events was also one of the coolest.
This afternoon, SiriusXM recorded a Mojo Nixon show in Nashville, with live performances from the Bottle Rockets, Kenny Vaughan and Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi All-Stars.
Mojo was his usual crude self, and the performers delivered impeccable mini-sets, dialed down to a studio seating just a few dozen people.
It was an inspirational setting with a picture window view of the Ryman Auditorium appearing just over the performers’ shoulders.
Buddy Miller at Americana Music Awards
Tonight’s Americana Music Awards show sent two clear messages about the Americana Music Association:
1. The genre is inclusive, embracing young and old, rock, folk and country.
2. Forget all that. We love Buddy Miller.
Miller, an extraordinary guitar player and tonight’s awards show bandleader, won both the artist of the year and instrumentalist awards, and is a member of Robert Plant’s Band of Joy, which had the album of the year.
This continues Miller’s domination of the awards over a span of years, so much so that Emmylou Harris has joked that the Americana award should be called the “Buddy.”
The awards:
Album of the Year: Band Of Joy, Robert Plant
Artist of the Year: Buddy Miller
Instrumentalist: Buddy Miller
New/Emerging Artist: Mumford and Sons
Song of the Year: “Harlem River Blues” by Justin Townes Earle
Duo/Group of the Year: The Avett Brothers
Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriter: Lucinda Williams
Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance: Gregg Allman
Lifetime Achievement Award for Instrumentalist: Jerry Douglas
Jack Emerson Lifetime Achievement Award for Executive: Rick Hall
Trailblazer Award: Bob Harris
(More coverage and photos to come.)
Tonight’s Americana Music Festival midnight show at the Rutledge features Will Kimbrough, voted 2004 Instrumentalist of the Year by the AMA and a repeat nominee in the same category in subsequent years. Kimbrough is also a fine singer-songwriter and this is a great opportunity to see his solo set.
Kimbrough is just off the road with Emmylou Harris and earlier toured with Jimmy Buffett. His “Nobody From Nowhere,” written with Tommy Womack (also booked for the festival), and “Wings” were featured on Buffet’s “Buffet Hotel” album.
Earlier in his career, Kimbrough fronted fun and fresh rock bands Will and the Bushmen and the Bis-Quits, who were signed to John Prine’s Oh Boy label.
In recent years, Kimbrough, Womack, John Deaderick, Paul Griffith and Dave Jacques have toured and recorded as DADDY.
To top it off, Kimbrough posts videos of his favorite licks, a weekly feature inexplicably named the “Lick of the Day.”
Here’s a sample:
The 2011 Americana Music Festival began last night with an event that illustrates the genre’s greatest strengths: outstanding performances and a respect for what has come before.
The 90-minute concert celebrating the Muscle Shoals sound was equal parts energy and nostalgia, with legendary figures like Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, Jimmy Johnson and David Briggs sharing the stage with some of Nashville’s most soulful vocalists.
With Webb Wilder on hand as MC, the evening walked through the history of FAME Studio and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, from soul to pop and rock.
Highlights were plentiful. From Jonell Mosser’s take on “Dark End of the Street” to Mike Farris’ “I’d Rather Go Blind” to Jimmy Hall’s “Land of a Thousand Dances,” singers delivered faithful, but moving performances. Special treats: Candi Staton’s “He Called Me Baby” and Dan Penn’s “I’m Your Puppet.”
Billy Burnette performed “The Letter,” which was recorded in 1967 by a young Alex Chilton and the Box Tops at FAME. Oddly, he did the live Joe Cocker arrangement that came three years later.
The show closed with Burnette kicking off an all hands-on-deck performance of Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock ‘n’ Roll.” The song belongs in the “Played Badly at Weddings Receptions Hall of Fame,” but proved to be a vibrant and fitting close.
(Pictured: A scarce Muscle Shoals anthology.)
Tonight’s Americana Music Festival in Nashville kicks off with the week’s highlight, the 10th Annual Americana Honors and Awards show. Performers include Lucinda Williams, the Civil Wars, Elizabeth Cook and Buddy Miller, plus many more.
Club showcases begin at 10 p.m., with the reunited Jayhawks (currently in the top spot in Americana radio with “Mocking Bird Hill”,) headlining the Cannery Ballroom at 11 p.m.
At exactly the same time in the adjoining Mercy Lounge, Will Hoge will take the stage in support of his new album “Number Seven,” which is #13 on the Americana chart.
The Station Inn features Mollie O’Brien and Rich Moore at 10 p.m., followed by storied songwriter and singer J.D. Souther. In addition to a rich solo career and his role in the Souther Hillman Furay Band, Souther wrote “Best of My Love”, “Heartache Tonight”,”New Kid in Town” and “Faithless Love.”
Here’s the full line-up for tonight:
The Basement
10 pm Amanda Shires
11 pm Malcolm Holcombe
Midnight: Pokey LaFarge & the South City Three
The Station Inn
10 pm Mollie O’Brien and Rich Moore
11 pm JD Souther
The Rutledge
10 pm Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen
11 pm Gurf Morlix
Midnight: Lori McKenna
The Mercy Lounge
10 pm Lera Lynn
11 pm Will Hoge
Midnight: Romantica
The Cannery Ballroom
10 pm Carrie Rodriguez
11 pm The Jayhawks
The reunited Foster and Lloyd
There’s plenty of time-tripping to be done tonight as the Americana Music Festival opens in Nashville.
It’s a measure of the genre’s wide embrace that performers who first hit their stride in every decade since the ’60s – and songs that were written years before that – are in the mix of showcase performances.
At the Rutledge at 9 p.m., country music legend Connie Smith will perform. She had her first number one record in 1963 with “Once A Day” and just released a new album, “Long Line of Heartaches.”
Marshall Chapman, playing at 8 p.m. at the Station Inn, began her recording career in 1977, and has long been one of Nashville’s most respected and irreverent songwriters and storytellers. Some of her performances include readings from her very entertaining books. The latest is “They Came To Nashville.”
The reunited Foster and Lloyd (pictured) emerged in the mid-’80s, when they brought a fresh sound to country music with songs like “Crazy Over You” and “What Do You Want From Me This Time?” Their new album “It’s Already Tomorrow” may be their best.
You get the idea. Just look at the line-up at the Cannery Ballroom tonight. From the Muscle Shoals tribute to The Blind Boys of Alabama (founded in 1939), to the very contemporary breakout duo The Civil Wars, the bill and the festival cut a wide swath across American music.
The 2011 Americana Music Festival lights up Nashville this
week, bringing a remarkably diverse and talented range of artists to the city’s venues.
And of course, it also prompts the question: “What is
Americana music?”
Peter Cooper of the Tennessean took a stab at it in 2003:
American music is “country music that is too rooted and true for contemporary country radio programmers. Twangy music that draws from blues, folk and rock forms. Music with smart and
literary lyrics that can be more layered and “difficult” than most
radio fare. Or maybe it would be simpler to say that what they mean is ‘Johnny Cash Music.’
Not bad. That description holds up well today. The biggest change over the years has been a broadening of the genre by the Americana Music Association and radio programmers, inviting more alternative folk performers and storied rock artists into the tent.
That means you’ll see country legend Connie Smith at 9 p.m.
at the Rutledge and emerging folk duo The Civil Wars at the Cannery Ballroom two hours later. You’ll hear the rootsy Knoxville band the Black Lillies one night, and Bobby Keys, saxophonist for the Rolling Stones the next.
Among the performers scheduled for the Americana Music
Festival, which runs from Oct. 12-15:
– The Jayhawks
– North Mississippi AllStars
– Elizabeth Cook
– Keb’ Mo’
-The Bottle Rockets
– Foster and Lloyd
– John Oates
– Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison
– Marty Stuart
– Blind Boys of Alabama
– Blackie and the Rodeo Kings
– Hayes Carll
The highlight of the week is the Americana Americana Honors and Awards Show, scheduled for the Ryman Auditorium on Oct. 13. The show recognizes the best in Americana music and always features stellar performances. This year the show will be broadcast live
for the first time on Nashville Public Television. An edited version will be featured on Nov. 19 on Austin City Limits.
Ticket information for the week’s showcases available at the Americana Music Association website.
You’ll find schedules for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday on Sun209.
Sun209: The Americana Music Journal will be providing extensive coverage of the Americana Music Festival in Nashville all week. Here’s a quick look at opening night:
7 pm Music City Roots at the Loveless Barn, featuring Grayson Capps, The Wilders, Elephant Revival, The Milk Carton Kids, and Scott Miller and Mic Harrison of the V-Roys
The Basement
8 pm Brian Wright
9 pm The Greencards
10 pm Lake Street Dive
11 pm The Dirt Daubers
The Station Inn
8 pm Marshall Chapman
9 pm The Wronglers with Jimmie Dale Gilmore
10 pm Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison
11 pm Peter Rowan
The Rutledge
8:15 pm Marty Stuart
9 pm Connie Smith
10 pm Mountain Heart
11 pm David Mayfield Parade
The Mercy Lounge
8 pm The Gourds
9 pm Kenny Vaughan
10 pm Foster and Lloyd
11 pm Hayes Carll
The Cannery Ballroom
8 pm Muscle Shoals Tribute
10 pm Blind Boys of Alabama
11 pm The Civil Wars
The big event in Thursday’s Americana Music Festival schedule is the Honor and Awards show at the Ryman Auditorium. Here’s a quick look at the showcases that follow:
The Basement
10 pm Amanda Shires
11 pm Malcolm Holcombe
Midnight: Pokey LaFarge & the South City Three
The Station Inn
10 pm Mollie O’Brien and Rich Moore
11 pm JD Souther
The Rutledge
10 pm Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen
11 pm Gurf Morlix
Midnight: Lori McKenna
The Mercy Lounge
10 pm Lera Lynn
11 pm Will Hoge
Midnight: Romantica
The Cannery Ballroom
10 pm Carrie Rodriguez
11 pm The Jayhawks
Sun209: The Americana Music Journal will provide extensive coverage of the Americana Music Festival in Nashville all week. Here’s a quick look at the showcase schedule for Friday, Oct. 14:
The Basement
8 pm Meg Hutchinson
9 pm Tommy Womack and the Rush To Judgment
10 pm Ian McLagan, formerly of the Faces
11 pm Henry Wagons
Midnight: New Country Rehab
The Station Inn
8 pm The Packway Handle Band
9 pm The WIYOS
10 pm David Wax Museum
11 pm The Farewell Drifters
Midnight: The Black Lillies
The Rutledge
8 pm The Vespers
9 pm Matraca Berg
10 pm Eric Brace and Peter Cooper
11 pm The Bottle Rockets
Midnight: Will Kimbrough
The Mercy Lounge
8 pm Robert Ellis
9 pm Amy LaVere
10 pm Elizabeth Cook
11 pm John Oates
12am TBA (In the past, the TBA shows have been very pleasant surprises)
The Cannery Ballroom
8 pm Secret Sisters
9 pm Keb’ Mo’
10 pm Jim Lauderdale and Buddy Miller
11 pm North Mississippi Allstars
Sun209: The Americana Music Journal will have extensive coverage of the Americana Music Festival in Nashville this week, but here’s a quick look at shows scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 15:
Free programs: The 1861 Project, a new album revisiting the Civil War in song, will be showcased at the The Southern Festival of Books at Legislative Plaza at 2:30 p.m.
At 3 p.m.,Musician’s Corner at Centennial Park will feature a tribute to Tom T. Hall, as well as performances by Ben Sollee and Nanci Griffith.
Festival showcases:
The Basement:
8 pm The Deep Dark Woods
9 pm Patrick Sweany
10 pm Hymn for Her
11 pm Sam Llanas, formerly of the BoDeans
Midnight: Farewell Milwaukee
The Station Inn:
8 pm Gleny Rae Virus and Her Tamworth Playboys
9 pm Sierra Hull and Highway 111
10 pm Tara Nevins
11 pm Catherine Britt
Midnight: Brigitte DeMeyer
The Rutledge
8 pm Chris Altmann
9 pm Ryan Tanner
10 pm Blackie and the Rodeo Kings
11 pm Great American Taxi
12 am Orbo and the Longshots
The Mercy Lounge:
8 pm Matrimony
9 pm Tim Easton
10 pm James McMurtry
11 pm Bobby Keys and the Suffering Bastards
Midnight: Deadman
The upcoming Americana Music Festival in Nashville will feature a number of free shows open to the public. Prominent among these is an Oct. 15 performance of songs from the 1861 Project, a new album that recounts the civil war through song. From the original Sun209 review:
This ambitious, engaging and yes, educational project chronicles the Civil War through the perspectives of those who fought it.
The stirring John Anderson performance on “The Turning of a Field” foreshadows the events of the next four years, culiminating in the surrender at Appomattox and the soldiers’ return home.
There are inherent challenges in a project that tries to recapture the emotions and spirit of an era long gone. The music has to be contemporary (the hit songs of the 1860s don’t wear very well) and yet sound like they’re of a kind with the time. Producer Thomm Jutz and a talented group of writers, including Peter Cronin, Charley Stefl, Jon Weisberger, Stan Webb, Irene Kelley and
Dana Cooper accomplish that nicely.
Jutz and Kelley are among the performers scheduled to appear at the free show. The performance, staged in partnership with the Southern Festival of Books, is set for 2:30 pm on Oct. 15 on the Legislative Plaza in Nashville.
The Americana Music Association just released an updated list of performers who will perform at the Americana Music Festival in Nashville Oct. 12-15.
The biggest new name is Lucinda Williams, who will be part of the Honors and Award show at the Ryman Auditorium.
Other additions to the festival line-up include:
Amanda Shires, Ben Sollee, Blind Boys of Alabama, Rolling Stones sax player Bobby Keys, Brian Wright, Brigitte DeMeyer, Chris Altmann, Deadman, Decoys Muscle Shoals Tribute, The Deep Dark Woods, Eric Brace and Peter Cooper, Farewell Milwaukee, Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen, Gleny Rae Virus and her Tamworth Playboys, Hayes Carll, Henry Wagons, James McMurtry, Meg Hutchison, Mollie O’Brien and Rich Moore, Nanci Griffith, Orbo & The Longshots, Packway Handle Band, Peter Rowan, Romantica, Ryan Tanner, Sam Lianas, Scott Miller and Vic Harrison, Sierra Hull and Highway 111, Tara Nevins, The Milk Carton Kids, cast of the 1861 Project, the Wilders, the Wylos and the Wronglers with Jimmie Dale Gilmore.
Already announced: Amy LaVere, Black Lillies, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, the Bottle Rockets, Carrie Rodriguez, Catherine Britt, The Civil Wars, Connie Smith, The David Mayfield Parade, David Wax Museum, the Dirt Daubers, Elephant Revival, Elizabeth Cook, The Farewell Drifters, Foster and Lloyd, the Gourds, Grayson Capps, the Greencards, Gurf Morlix, Hymn for Her, Ian McLagan, the Jayhawks, JD Souther, John Oates, Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison, Kenny Vaughan, Lake Street Dive, Lera Lynn, Malcolm Holcombe, Marshall Chapman, Marty Stuart, Matraca Berg, New Country Rehab, North Mississippi Allstars, Patrick Sweany, Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three, Tim Easton, Tommy Womack, the Vespers, Will Hoge and Will Kimbrough.