Wednesday night I was honored to broadcast the Americana Honors & Awards Show from the booth at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Under the auspices of Linda Fahey at Folk Alley, Ann Powers and I teamed up once again to bear witness to an historic night of music. The winners list only tells the half of it. Jason Isbell won Song Of The Year for the fabulous "Alabama Pines," Artist of the year was Gillian Welch, and Instrumentalist Of The Year went to her partner Dave Rawlings. Alabama Shakes picked up the New & Emerging Artist Of The Year. Group or Duo Of The Year was awarded to The Civil Wars, and Album Of The Year went to Tamara Saviano and Shawn Camp and Guy Clark, for "This One's For Him," A Tribute to Guy Clark. The Lifetime Achievement Awards went to Bonnie Raitt, Richard Thompson, Booker T. Jones and Dennis Lord from SESAC, one of us folks who banded together to form the Americana Music Association thirteen years ago.
There were stellar moments and tears of joy, there were spectacular performances, and if you missed the show, you can hear the archive on folkalley.com or npr.org. It is always a blast when the tribe gets back together to celebrate the music we love at Americana Fest. It is random who you run into, and I haven't seen him yet, but I just checked Will Kimbrough's tour schedule and he might just be around Nashville this week. I am using this video as a spell to summon him. It is the haunting "Hill Country Girl," filmed during MusicFest At Steamboat Springs 2011. This one will dig down deep.
-Jessie Scott
