Sierra Ferrell’s journey from West Virginia to national prominence as a country singer and songwriter sounds more like something from the 1930s than this hypermediated new century, with rail riding, busking, and late night honky tonks along the way. But on Wednesday night, the quirky, fashion-forward and extravagantly gifted artist took her spot at the top of Americana music, winning Artist and Album of the Year (Trail of Flowers) on a gala night that featured oratory almost as good as the songwriting from a score of multi-genre standouts.
The Ryman Auditorium ceremony was the 23rd annual Honors and Awards, but the event marked the 25th anniversary of the 1999 founding meeting of the Americana Music Association, a humble event that produced seismic waves over the next two decades. Numerous special guests spoke about the origins and legacy of this format that’s built a pathway for artists like Ferrell.
“For me, tonight is a celebration of independence, a reminder that regardless of our differences, we can truly work together to build a vibrant community,” said Mike “Grimey” Grimes, Nashville’s beloved record store and music venue proprietor. “With this show, with this festival, the AMA has created a space for people to follow their dreams and a context in which those dreams might become reality.”
T Bone Burnett, looking like a 19th century senator, zoomed out and delivered a stemwinder about how the United States has “spread our culture and freedom all over the world with the soft power of our music." He concluded “We are here tonight to celebrate this music that is filled with history while looking toward a better future, music that includes every person from every direction, music that is the warp and woof, the very vibration of America. It is not a misnomer to call this art form Americana.”
The music and its current top shelf artists were abundantly celebrated. Brandy Clark won Song of the Year for “Dear Insecurity,” a ballad co-written with Brandi Carlile. Larkin Poe made a nice breakthrough, as their rocking blues sister act was named Duo/Group of the Year. Two awards were presented in absentia to The Red Clay Strays, Emerging Act of the Year, and guitar player Grace Bowers, Instrumentalists of the Year, who were on the road, reportedly playing the same show.
Meanwhile, presentations of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Awards felt especially historic and emotional. Allison Moorer presented to her sister Shelby Lynne, imagining her fierce sensitivity and independence as a “human lightning rod, highly sensitive, whip thin, and always ready to receive.” Lynne said, “I am proud to be a part of Americana, because I feel like if I was ever to fit anywhere, it was with misfits and the storytellers and the outlaws, and the truth tellers, the heartbreakers, the hippies.”
Brandy Clark brought Dwight Yoakam to the stage for an award that the AMA had hoped to bestow for years, waiting for a year he could be on hand. Yoakam offered special gratitude to his production partner and guitar player Pete Anderson (“The two of us conspired to do something almost unimaginable”) and fellow honoree Dave Alvin (“Without Dave Alvin coming into my life, I don’t know where my journey would have taken me. I owe him a debt of gratitude forever.”
Alvin’s honor was presented by his longtime friend and current touring duo partner Jimmie Dale Gilmore, who said the Californian songwriter and guitar player has been “one of my main teachers of American music and its history.” Alvin, upon receiving his special trophy Gibson electric guitar, said “the fact that an oddball, outsider, barroom blues guitar basher, sad songwriter like me, who not only loves blues, rhythm but folk, blues, rockabilly, country, doo wop, surf and psychedelic bands as well as jazz from New Orleans to the avant garde can find a home in the open minded world of Americana is an incredible thing that I treasure.”
Alvin and Gilmore then performed “Fourth of July” while Yoakam joined the house band to call back “Fast As You” from 1993’s This Time.
Speaking of the house band, its long time bass player Don Was received a Lifetime award for his jaw-dropping resume as a producer and all-around musical force. The Blind Boys of Alabama were on hand to receive their Lifetime prize, singing “Work Until My Days Are Done” while leader Ricky McKinnie walked into the audience (with a guide) to shake hands and whip up the crowd as the Blind Boys have been doing since the 1940s. And Rev. Gary Davis was named this year’s Legacy Award winner, with super-producer Shannon Sanders nothing the bluesman’s deep influence on folk and rock and roll in the 1960s. Fantastic Negrito singing Davis’s signature song “Samson and Delilah” in a gold jacket and ginormous hat was one of many live highlights.
The night’s other performers included: Brandy Clark with SistaStrings, Charles Wesley Godwin, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Jobi Riccio, Kaitlin Butts, Larkin Poe, The Milk Carton Kids, Noah Kahan, Sarah Jarosz, Shelby Lynne, Sierra Ferrell, Turnpike Troubadours, The War and Treaty, Waxahatchee with MJ Lenderman, and Wyatt Flores.
