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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Tag: Americana Music Festival
Americana Mojo: Bottle Rockets, Kenny Vaughan, Luther Dickinson
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.
Will Kimbrough at the Rutledge
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:
Americana Music Festival schedule: Thursday, Oct. 13
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
Americana Music Festival preview: The 1861 Project
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.
Americana music awards nominees Civil Wars book fall tour
The Civil Wars, Americana Music Association Awards nominees in both the duo and emerging artist categories, have scheduled a fall tour of the U.S. that begins in Birmingham, Alabama on Oct. 7. (They’re scheduled to appear Oct. 12 and 13 at the Americana Music Festival.)
Joy Williams and John Paul White are an extraordinary success story. with “Barton Hollow” selling more than 150,000 copies so far.
According to Entertainment Weekly, here are the fall dates:
October 7 Birmingham, AL Alabama Theatre
October 8 Knoxville, TN Bijou Theatre
October 9 Atlanta, GA Presser Hall at Agnes Scott College
October 10 Atlanta, GA Presser Hall at Agnes Scott College
October 12-13 Nashville, TN Americana Music Festival & Awards
October 19 Charlotte, NC McGlohan Theatre
October 20 Durham, NC Page Auditorium
October 21 Norfolk, VA NorVa Theatre
October 22 Charlottesville, VA Jefferson Theater
October 23 Washington, DC Lincoln Theatre
October 25 Philadelphia, PA The Trocadero
October 27 New York, NY Town Hall
October 28 Boston, MA Berklee Performance Center
October 29 Montreal, QC Gesu
November 1 Toronto, ON The Phoenix
November 2 Ann Arbor, MI Michigan Theater
November 3 Columbus, OH Lincoln Theatre
November 4 Indianapolis, IN Egyptian Room
November 6 Chicago, IL The Vic
November 8 Milwaukee, WI Turner Hall
November 9 Minneapolis, MN State Theatre
November 13 Vancouver, BC The Vogue
Npvember 14 Seattle, WA The Neptune
November 15 Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom
November 17 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
November 18 Santa Barbara, CA Lobero Theatre
November 19 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern
November 20 Tempe, AZ The Marquee
The Civil Wars are also booked to perform on Cayamo 2012 in February.