What is Americana? Glad you asked. Americana is the Kwanzaa of pop music.; a wholly made up sun division of country. You could define it as country rock except Luke Bryan could be defined as country rock and Americana sets itself up as the opposite of bro country.
Americana has, you know, standards. It is (self) important aand not to be mistaken for good time country post-George Jones.
Anyway, they are having an awards ceremony in Nashville in September and looking at these nominess it sure feels like one of the stupider subgenres. It’s like country music I LIKE EVEN IF IT DOESN’T SELL AS WELL AS COUNTRY MUSIC YOU LIKE. It also looks like a slamdunk for Jason isbell. Robert Ellis? Really? He should be fired just for his dress sense but he nasal vocals and overwritten and overwrought folk shouldn’t go anywhere at all. Who else, sure I saw Lake Side drive and Milk Carton Kids last year. Have I written about them since? And ugh to the Avett Brothers. And folks, here are the nominees:
ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Rosanne Cash
Rodney Crowell
Robert Ellis
Jason Isbell
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Build Me Up From Bones, Sarah Jarosz
The Lights From The Chemical Plant, Robert Ellis
The River And The Thread, Rosanne Cash
Southeastern, Jason Isbell
DUO/GROUP OF THE YEAR
The Avett Brothers
The Devil Makes Three
Hard Working Americans
Lake Street Dive
The Milk Carton Kids
SONG OF THE YEAR
“Cover Me Up”, Jason Isbell
“A Feather’s Not A Bird”, Rosanne Cash
“Ohio”, Patty Griffin
“Only Lies”, Robert Ellis
EMERGING ACT OF THE YEAR
Hurray For The Riff Raff
Parker Millsap
St. Paul & The Broken Bones
Sturgill Simpson
Valerie June
INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR
Larry Campbell
Fats Kaplin
Buddy Miller
Bryan Sutton
