AmericanaFest

Craig Havighurst has covered or attended every Nashville Americanafest since it was founded, and it remains a sacred week on the calendar. Spirits were high. The weather was excellent. There were countless good options for where to be at any given time, so choosing was hard, but our correspondent found his way to hearing top-shelf old-school country, funky soul, bluegrass and newgrass, emotional solo songwriters, and high caliber bands. Here's a look at his notebook across five days.

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.

With Americanafest landing in Nashville this week, Craig Havighurst looked over the many artists breaking out of Music City and got especially excited about Baltic Street Hotel by rocking songwriter Sophie Gault. It’ll be released this Friday, but Craig’s been listening for a few weeks and finds it rich with personal details, sharp melodies, and an old school Americana spirit that evokes Lucinda Williams or Kathleen Edwards. The show features exclusive teasers of several songs from this LP, produced by Ray Kennedy at his request. Also in the hour, a rising star of acoustic Americana, 15-year-old mandolinist Wyatt Ellis, who recently released his solo debut with guest turns by some of today’s best mandolin players, including Marty Stuart.

Watch WMOT's free livestream of the 2024 AMERICANAFEST Day Stage on September 18th - 20th from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. CDT.

For the second year in a row, bluegrass guitar innovator and live roots phenom Billy Strings was named Artist of the Year at the 22nd annual Americana Honors and Awards. Unlike last year, Strings was on hand to accept his custom trophy and then join the night's huge cast of assembled artists to play a snapping guitar solo on the show finale jam on "Cripple Creek," a salute to The Band's great songwriter and singer Robbie Robertson, who died in August.

Tune into WMOT's broadcast of the 2023 AmericanaFest Day Stage from 12 PM to 5 PM this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for live coverage of every performance.

AmericanaFest is a controlled explosion, a circus maximus, an idea so crazy that it just might work. The Americana Music Association has been pulling this thing off for 23 years, so it’s got staying power. It’s grown from a handful of shows at a few bars to a sprawl of 220 artists playing at 40+ venues from the far West End to far East Nashville, so it has drawing power too. And it’s back, between Tuesday, Sept. 19 and Saturday, Sept. 23. We’re as ready as we can be (including three afternoons of loaded Day Stage performances). How about you?

Husband and wife duo Goldpine talk about their sophomore album, Two, out today. Their Americana Fest debut is Friday, September 22nd at The Five Spot in East Nashville.

Charley Crockett, a new era Texas troubadour, and Margo Price, the East Nashville indie country phenom, will lead the pack into the 2023 Americana Honors and Awards with three nominations each for Artist, Album and Song of the Year. This year’s selections were announced Tuesday afternoon at the National Museum of African American Music by Americana Music Association board member Gina Miller.

For the second year, WMOT took over the Wash at East Side Bowl in Madison to host three days of hand-picked master musicians that told the story of AmericanaFest 2022. Nashville's award-winning photographer John Partipilo was on hand to capture the sights while WMOT broadcast the sounds.