Americanafest is now as big as Nashville itself, stretching from Dee’s in Madison to the Bluebird Cafe in Greenhills 15 miles away, with about a billion cars and SUVs in between. So I found myself singing the stuck-behind-taillights blues a couple of times last week, but my decades of living here helped me navigate, while the official app kept me on schedule, and I had an excellent experience at last week’s 24th annual conference of twang and song.
I’ve covered or attended or worked every one of these gatherings, and it remains a sacred week on my calendar. Spirits were high. The weather was excellent. There were countless good options for where to be at any given time, so choosing is hard, and one has to put feelings of fomo in a mental lockbox. I tried to stay in the moment as I enjoyed old-school country, funky soul, bluegrass and newgrass, emotional solo songwriters, and high caliber bands. I saw longtime friends and colleagues in some of our city’s coziest settings.
As I’ve said for some time, Americanafest is so sprawling these days that it’s hard to find a theme or throughline, but WMOT is going to try. We’ve partnered with a small team of student journalists from Middle Tennessee State University for a kind of on-the-go focus group about the association’s mission and possible future as it marks its 25th anniversary. But that’s going to take some time to pull that together.
In the meantime, this is a notebook from your roving correspondent, because I want to tell you who I’m most excited about going forward. Between Tuesday and Saturday, I saw substantial sets by 21 different artists, 13 of whom were first-time experiences for me. I conducted seven sit-down interviews, representing some truly exciting personal discoveries that will be shared in future episodes of The String. And when folks ask who blew my mind at AmFest 2024, I’m telling them Gaby Moreno and Humbird, two ultra-creative songwriting singers and guitar players with wildly different stories and sounds. We’ll get to them in a moment.
My week started Tuesday evening at our third Old Fashioned String Band Throwdown at Dee’s, which came off like an absolute dream, thanks to the spirit of the artists, the organizational chops of my co-host Amy Alvey, and the good folks at Dee’s. The Wood Box Heroes bring together the bourbon barrel baritone of Josh Martin and the lush country alto of Jenee Fleenor in a rather new band that I hope is winning awards soon. The fiddling got rough and driving as New York trio the Down Hill Strugglers brought our shot of pure old-time music, featuring three guys who are central to the folk scene in Brooklyn.
From Richmond, VA came Justin Golden, a songwriter and guitarist who demonstrates the full range and experimental possibilities of the blues. It was good to cross paths with him several times through the week, as he’s a keen observer and a hard-working evangelist for American roots. Fellow progressive thinkers AJ Lee & Blue Summit showcased Lee’s velvety California voice and some masterful ensemble picking, largely via songs from their new album City Of Glass. And our outdoor program ended with a full moon rising and the classic strains of Rhonda Vincent and the Rage. As I said on stage, she was one of the voices that brought me to bluegrass in the 90s, and it was emotional for me to hear her singing at the top of her game these many years later. Her newest album, Destinations And Fun Places, features classic songs of travel, and the band’s take on Steve Goodman’s “City Of New Orleans” was truly moving.
Wednesday night was all about the Americana Honors & Awards, which I wrote up here.
I saw Golden hanging out on Thursday at a party thrown by Nashville’s Americana stalwarts New West Records. As I described in my Athens, GA field trip show this year, New West is now kind of a label group, and this event showcased some artists from their Normaltown and Strolling Bones imprints. On the latter is Georgia acoustic blues traditionalist Jontavious Willis. Golden told me that in his estimation, among the new young purveyors of the ragtime Piedmont fingerstyle pickers, Willis “is the best of us.” When Jontavious busted a high E String, Golden loaned him his guitar, allowing us to see Willis simply own a diverse set of blues and complex techniques on a borrowed instrument (this is very hard). I was also very glad to catch Dutch songwriter Jana Mila with her harmonious acoustic trio. I know they’ve been excited about her, releasing her Todd Lombardo-produced debut Chameleon on New West this August. With an affinity for minor melodies and lush Laurel Canyon vocals, Mila hushed the crowd and was briefly the virtual owner of the 5 Spot.
Thursday night was about making sure I saw my two top interview targets and new musical fascinations. Guatemala-born, L.A.-based Gaby Moreno is an in-demand singer beloved by Calexico and Chris Thile, who brought her into the Live From Here musical collective. She won a Grammy Award this year to go with her two Latin Grammys. And she’s released Dusk, a wide-ranging album of crafty writing and musical production that’s ultimately graced by Moreno’s sweet and supple voice. She was backed on the Row One Stage (at the renovated Cannery Row) by its producer Dan Knobler and a crack bass player/drummer, and it was a thrill. Check out “New Dawn” for one mere sample of her sound.
By the way, Moreno was one of several artists at Amfest this year signaling renewed attention on the Latino and Latina artists in our midst, including NPR Tiny Desk Contest winner Alisa Amador, Silvanan Estrada, and Lindi Ortega, just as Hispanic Heritage Month got underway. A new partnership of the AMA, Telemundo and the Tennessee Latin American Chamber of Commerce held a kick-off event at City Winery with performances by Rachel Rodriguez, Rico Del Oro, and Veronique Medrano. I did not see that set, but I’ll be watching this space.
It was an easy jaunt to the original Basement on 8th Ave. to see Humbird from my favorite spot in that beloved music shrine. I’ll save most of my rhapsodizing for a future String where I introduce singer-songwriter-guitarist Siri Undlin properly, but the Minneapolis artist melds insightful songcraft with intricately textured and grooving music in a way that I crave. Barefoot and smiling, always smiling, Siri delivered the best songs from her 2024 opus Right On, including the melancholy title track and the simmering, pulsing “Cornfields And Roadkill.”
Finally on Friday, to coin a phrase, I had time to take a chair and kick back at WMOT’s mighty Day Stage, which cooked along in Madison for three days with wonderful crowds and community. I was sad that folky Ruth Moody had to cancel, but in her place stepped not only Amy Helm, but her four-piece band, for a veritable church service of roots/soul. The material from her new Silver City album gave her ground to rock out in a Neil Young kind of way, and with that voice, yes, please, more. Next came the Cactus Blossoms, the brothers from Minneapolis who lean into vintage vibes (think Buddy Holly harmonizing with Chris Isaak) for a lush, reassuring sound. Their newest is Every Time I Think About You.
There was no missing our final artist of the week, Dave Alvin just days after he was granted an Americana Lifetime Achievement Award for his decades of negotiating the overlap of old folk and fresh rock and roll. We thought his pal Jimmie Dale Gilmore would be on hand, but alas, Covid was zapping people left and right, so he couldn’t make it. Dave and his band The Guilty Ones fired up new material as well as “Abilene” and “Long Black Cadillac,” giving us longtime fans a mix of memories and stimulation.
The highlight of my Friday night was no doubt Swamp Dogg at the Station Inn, possibly the most outlandish shotgun marriage of artist and (bluegrass) venue I’ve seen. The cult R&B singer is 82 and feisty, indulging in bawdy stories and songs, supported by a fun and shaggy band. He hit his stride with the ballad “Gotta Have My Baby Back,” whose divine pedal steel part helped tell the story of country/soul. They brought deep, dance-inducing funk and wrapped with Dogg’s famous country hit “She’s All I’ve Got.” Read Alice Randall’s new book for a deep dive into Dogg’s legacy in Black Country Music.
By Saturday, was I tired? Somehow, not really. So I got myself to the Kentucky day party at the Basement to see Ben Sollee, because the cello-playing indie folk and soul master is back with his first album in about six years. I hope to follow up with him about this one. I then spent time at a reception marking the 75th anniversary of United Record Pressing in the lot of its historic building in Wedgewood Houston. I’ve been worried sick about this iconic space (with the famous Motown Suite), but the boss of today’s mighty United operation told me the building is safe and that work is beginning on their vision to give the space new life. Details to come.
For my final night of showcases I perched at my favorite bar stool at 3rd & Lindsley for an interesting run that started with Asheville band Holler Choir. I like their debut album Songs Before They Write Themselves, but the band’s vision really took shape for me over a 45 minute set. It’s bluegrass instrumentation with singer-songwriter Clint Roberts at the helm. They hopped into the old fiddle tune “Angeline The Baker” late in the set and I wish they’d done so sooner, as I think a bit more regional Appalachian salt could make their indie-folk sound stand out. But I loved the late-in-set songs “One Less Lie” and “Carolina Moon.”
Up next came The HercuLeons, the local live project led by John Cowan and Andrea Zonn, who find time for this labor of love between their steady gigs touring with the Doobie Brothers and James Taylor respectively. Clearly, these are master musicians, like the whole band, which this night included Muscle Shoals star guitarist Will McFarlane. Andrea led the voices on “Face of Appalachia,” a stunning song by Lowell George and John Sebastian and her own lovely album title track “Rise”, while Cowan shone on Gregory Porter’s “Take Me To The Alley,” a song I adore. If you’re in Nashville, you should see this highly synched up, jazz-minded, and soulful ensemble.
And I wrapped my night and festival with craggy Alabama bayou folk rocker Grayson Capps. In this case he went solo acoustic because he’s sharing gems from his new collection Heartbreak, Misery & Death, songs he learned growing up that shaped his love of American music. We heard “Columbus Stockade Blues” from Doc Watson’s catalog and the old English ballad “Barbara Allen” and “Guilty” by Randy Newman, all in Grayson’s dirt road baritone. All that mournful stuff didn’t bring me down though. It just fired me up to grab my own guitar and dust off some of that same catalog and look forward to sharing my Grayson Capps interview with you all soon. We sing about the sad stuff to keep our hearts light, and I couldn’t have come away feeling much lighter.
