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And the winners are...
19 Sep 2008, 19:31
Americana Music Association 2008 Winners were announced in a big shindig at the Ryman in Nashville on Thursday night:
Album of the year: Alison Krauss & Robert Plant, Raising Sand
Artist of the year: Levon Helm
Duo/Group of the year: Alison Krauss and Robert Plant
Instrumentalist of the year: Buddy Miller
New emerging artist of the year: Mike Farris
Song of the year: “
She Left Me For Jesus,” written by Hayes Carll and Brian Keane, and performed by Hayes Carll
“Spirit of Americana” Free Speech In Music: Joan Baez
Lifetime Achievement/Songwriting: John Hiatt
Jack Emerson Lifetime Achievement/Executive: Terry Lickona
Lifetime Achievement/Performance: Jason and the Scorchers
President’s Award: Jerry Garcia
Lifetime Achievement/Instrumentalist: Larry Campbell
Trailblazer: Nanci Griffith
Lifetime Achievement/Producer/Engineer: Tony Brown
Thanks to The Tennessean online (I wasn't there and the AMA isn't doing the job promoting their own stuff--guess they figure those who need to know are already at the event):
these folks — Robert Plant, Joan Baez, John Hiatt, Nanci Griffith, Levon Helm, Jason and the Scorchers, Jim Lauderdale, Buddy Miller, Steve Earle and so many others — were bound by the amorphous "Americana" designation, by a love of American roots music and by the shared feeling that genre divisions are among the sillier of musical (or anti-musical) notions.
Paste Magazine has some nice pics online.
I liked Robert Plant in Led Zeppelin days. I still think the love shown the Rock Star is a bit odd, but apparently the aging Rock star is smitten, says Country Standard Time:
Plant and Krauss talked about their experiences after winning each award. Plant said after taking the duo/group honor, "I was never in a band where anybody else could sing. I like it better like this." Americana Roots blog has the full scorecard from the awards show.
So how'd I do on my predictions? I didn't MAKE predictions this year. Am I surprised? Not really. I thought Steve Earle would get artist of the year, tho. And who the hell is Mike Farris??? JT Earle, Ryan Bingham, The Steeldrivers (on MrModernRock's endorsement), any of them no problem. Go figure.
-jc
Album of the year: Alison Krauss & Robert Plant, Raising Sand
Artist of the year: Levon Helm
Duo/Group of the year: Alison Krauss and Robert Plant
Instrumentalist of the year: Buddy Miller
New emerging artist of the year: Mike Farris
Song of the year: “
She Left Me For Jesus,” written by Hayes Carll and Brian Keane, and performed by Hayes Carll“Spirit of Americana” Free Speech In Music: Joan Baez
Lifetime Achievement/Songwriting: John Hiatt
Jack Emerson Lifetime Achievement/Executive: Terry Lickona
Lifetime Achievement/Performance: Jason and the Scorchers
President’s Award: Jerry Garcia
Lifetime Achievement/Instrumentalist: Larry Campbell
Trailblazer: Nanci Griffith
Lifetime Achievement/Producer/Engineer: Tony Brown
Thanks to The Tennessean online (I wasn't there and the AMA isn't doing the job promoting their own stuff--guess they figure those who need to know are already at the event):
these folks — Robert Plant, Joan Baez, John Hiatt, Nanci Griffith, Levon Helm, Jason and the Scorchers, Jim Lauderdale, Buddy Miller, Steve Earle and so many others — were bound by the amorphous "Americana" designation, by a love of American roots music and by the shared feeling that genre divisions are among the sillier of musical (or anti-musical) notions.
Paste Magazine has some nice pics online.
I liked Robert Plant in Led Zeppelin days. I still think the love shown the Rock Star is a bit odd, but apparently the aging Rock star is smitten, says Country Standard Time:
Plant and Krauss talked about their experiences after winning each award. Plant said after taking the duo/group honor, "I was never in a band where anybody else could sing. I like it better like this." Americana Roots blog has the full scorecard from the awards show.
So how'd I do on my predictions? I didn't MAKE predictions this year. Am I surprised? Not really. I thought Steve Earle would get artist of the year, tho. And who the hell is Mike Farris??? JT Earle, Ryan Bingham, The Steeldrivers (on MrModernRock's endorsement), any of them no problem. Go figure.
-jc
Comments
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MrModernRock wrote:
I'm not surprised by the Robert Plant and Krauss love, although I haven't run into very many people who have had a lot of good things to say about the album.
Duo/Group of the year, though, still think it should have been DBT. But I'm obviously biased. I'll be seeing them on Saturday with another Duo/Group of the year nominee: Avett Brothers.
New artists, really couldn't have gone wrong with any of them. My pick would have been The Steeldrivers because that album has blown me away. The Mike Farris album is on here to listen to, by the way. I suggest giving it some plays. I liked what I heard from it a lot, just haven't picked it up yet.
I'm happy with song of the year, though. That Hayes Carll track is instant classic, IMO. -
ACKthehack wrote:
Hayes Carll rocks.
Sounds like from some coverage the Americana folks who do this were a bit too smitten by the godness of Robert Plant.
I found the album frankly to be a decent Allison Krauss CD with Plant doing vocals on lots of tracks. Neat, novel but not that special.
Way to go Hayes Carll maybe ol Ryan Bingham will get some attention. -
koemer wrote:
For me as a musical sexist, americana is not a women's genre. When you ask me what i think about the winners... Women should stay with soul and jazz, not with blues. I just dont like it. It simply does not reach me. But thats just my dumb opinion. Therefor i would prefer to see Steve and Townes (the young fella) up there. I wonder if we will ever see Hank III on that stage. But i think thats a tragic family issue there.
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ACKthehack wrote:
Man between Gillian Welch and Allison Krauss and Emmylou Harris.
I don't get your opinion on women in Americana at all and those are just three examples. -
koemer wrote:
Just wanted to provoke a little bit. I simply prefer male voices by far.
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MrModernRock wrote:
I don't get how one could say women's vocals are any less Americana than men's vocals. Neko Case is about as complete of a package as any Americana vocalist - male or female.
Trying to distance female vocalists from the blues by keeping them in soul and jazz is even more laughable considering how much all three of those relate to one another. The division lines between them are probably the blurriest of any combination of genres, so pigeonholing female vocalist into only two of the three is more or less impossible to do. I don't see how anybody could listen to Bessie Smith, Etta James, Billie Holiday, etc and conclude that female vocalists don't belong in the blues genre.
As for Hank III, I don't think we'll ever see him up on the Americana stage for two reasons. First reason is that his father is too busy bending over and opening up to Nashville and pandering to them to keep that pseduo-"outlaw" image going and III tries to keep as far away from his father as possible. Secondly, Hank III is a walking contradiction. His music itself is as much a part of Americana as his grandfathers, but I think his antics distances himself quite a bit. -
jcshepard wrote:
Dropping in for a moment... I've sampled the Avett's on some videos, like their sound but haven't read up on them.
re: Hank III. The man in the musician in the boy may emerge one day, if he doesn't succeed in following his granddad to an early grave. He's a genius, and a dufus, all wrapped into one. The only thing consistent is he doesn't play well with others.
re: Women in Americana. I've seen the exact opposite charge, that Americana is watered down by the over-educated women singer-songwriters--the Emmylous and Gillians and such that have studied the music but never really lived it. I've heard it said that Americana is just country music for people who know how to read...
back to work.
