AmericanaFest

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.

The 21 years since the birth of the Americana Music Association’s annual fall convention and festival have been rough on the American people but good for America’s music. It recalls the breakthroughs and beauty that came from the grassroots during the Great Depression. Hard times inspire art. As I traversed the city during my own 21st AmericanaFest, I saw a vibrant community, full showcases, exciting special events and optimism about the business.

Photos by John Partipilo from the first day of the AmericanaFest Day Stage presented by WMOT, NPR Music and World Cafe.

A bluegrass artist won the Americana Music Association's Artist of the Year award for the first time, as guitarist, singer, songwriter and bandleader Billy Strings took the final prize of Wednesday night at the 21st Honors and Awards. As with his 2021 IBMA Entertainer of the Year Award, Strings was on the road entertaining, but bluegrass star instrumentalist Jerry Douglas presented and accepted on his behalf. By contrast, much of the energy of the evening inside the Ryman Auditorium came from two women who've dominated the Americana conversation for the past couple of years, Allison Russell and Brandi Carlile.

Photos from our WMOT Wired In AmericanaFest Edition by photojournalist John Partipilo.

WMOT’s ongoing tradition of bringing thrilling, historic roots music to the daytimes of AmericanaFest will reach another level in 2022 with spotlight sets by Lyle Lovett, Brennen Leigh with Asleep At The Wheel, American Aquarium and many more. For three afternoons starting Wed., Sept. 14, Middle Tennessee’s only full-time Americana radio station will take over the stage at the Wash at East Side Bowl in historic Madison, just a few minutes from downtown.

Brandi Carlile, Allison Russell and Yola have emerged as game-changing artists in roots music in recent years, and on Monday afternoon they were informed that they’d each earned three nominations for 2022’s Americana Awards, in the prestige categories of Song, Album and Artist of the Year.

AmericanaFest returned to Nashville with a slimmer but spirited 2021 edition. Those able to come found community, diversity and great performances. I caught up with five showcasing artists to check in on their new projects and their take on today's roots scene. Included: blues veteran Sue Foley, LA protest folk artist Chris Pierce, Colorado songwriter Emily Scott Robinson, new Austinite roots rocker Suzanne Santo and folk duo Golden Shoals.

The movement to fully incorporate (or more accurately re-incorporate) African American artistry and influence in the realms of country music and Americana accelerated palpably during the 2020 pandemic. While artists of color have become more integral to AmericanaFest since about 2015, conversations last year shifted to matters of equity in the business, including jobs at music companies and representation wherever decisions about the genres' trajectory are made. To catch up on the issues in the wake of the 2021 convention, I spoke with Washington DC freelance journalist Marcus K. Dowling.

Brandi Carlile was named Artist of the Year for the second time in three years at the 21st Americana Honors and Awards in a ceremony marked by remembrance of artists who've passed on since the last gathering of the Americana Music Association in September 2019. Other winners: Sturgill Simpson, John Prine and Charley Crockett.