Billy Strings, Bonnie Raitt, Allison Russell among winners at 2023's Americana Awards
The Ryman Auditorium-hosted 22nd Annual Americana Honors & Awards cemented Billy Strings' status as a touring-to-mainstream superstar. His back-to-back victories as the Americana Music Association's 2023 Artist of the Year also highlights the sustainability of the subgenre's latest generation of highlighted talents, including fellow Artist of the Year nominees Margo Price and Allison Russell.
Upon his victory, Strings noted that only three hours prior, he was at his downtown Nashville home "watching mindless television."
"This is not how I expected the evening to go," he joked.
Chronicling his past decade in music city, he highlighted being in a "colorful and vibrant" musical community as one of the great joys of his hard-touring and acclaimed experiences to date.
Another act, Universal Music Group-signed duo The War and Treaty (Michael and Tanya Trotter), also repeated as winners, receiving the Duo/Group of the Year award for the second consecutive year.
Americana's mainstream renown expanding
More than anything, the entrenchment of Americana as a progressive-minded outpost of popular culture's embrace of country music and related genres was a palpable theme throughout the evening.
Bonnie Raitt's "Just Like That" win for Song of the Year followed her win in the same category at the Grammys.
"Song of the Year rewards a well-written song that captures people's ears," Raitt told The Tennessean. "Yes, I'm surprised by the song's continued success, but I'm also glad that I'm still able to share songs with the world that people love."
Onstage, Raitt added that the song -- a story of "grace and redemption" -- recalled times she spent singing the late John Prine's "Angel From Montgomery" when they met in the early 1970s.
Among notable performances during the evening, 49 Winchester's hometown roots of Russell County, Virginia, were highlighted as the streaming-popular, country-beloved, and award-nominated Americana act played their appropriately titled single "Russell County Line."
Price's three nominations did not yield a victory. However, her performance of her latest album single, "Been To The Mountain," found her in greater control of her spiritualized rock n' roll energy than at any point in her near quarter-century in Music City.
The presence of renowned rocker and producer Carlile was similar to Price's.
Her duet with Brandy Clark on the latter's "Dear Insecurity" from her Carlile-produced and 2023-released self-titled album was a show-stopping moment highlighting the Americana community's "guiding and foundational collaborative spirit," Carlile told The Tennessean on the event's red carpet.
Allison Russell wins Spirit of Americana award
John Seigenthaler and Democratic Tennessee lawmakers Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson presented the 2022 Americana Music Association Album of the Year winner Russell with the Spirit of Americana/Free Speech in Music Award. The Montreal native joins Joan Baez, Jackson Browne, Johnny Cash and Mavis Staples as notable artists receiving the award sponsored by the First Amendment Center.
Johnson highlighted that Russell "did the work to make her community better for everyone [via] diversity, equity and inclusion." Pearson highlighted how Russell's "multiracial, multi-ethnic and multigenerational All-Americana family" was instrumental in the "audacious" Love Rising benefit on March 20, 2023.
"An act of resistance in the face of hate," added Jones. "We're either all equal, or none of us are equal. Y'all means all."
"Pride and love does not run from fascism," Russell said upon receiving the award.
Later in the evening, she and her all-female, multiracial and self-proclaimed "Rainbow Coalition" band delivered a thunderous rendition of her latest album's track "Eve Was Black."
A familial duo that often backs Russell, SistaStrings (Chauntee and Monique Ross), were awarded Instrumentalist of the Year honors. Overwhelmed by the recognition given to them by longtime Americana favorite Dom Flemons, the tandem recalled their religious upbringing and their work spreading from Russell and Brandi Carlile to now also backing Brandy Clark at the Grammy-nominated artist's Oct. 25 Ryman concert.
Timeless musicianship, songcraft highlighted
The Avett Brothers and Nickel Creek were also presented their Trailblazer Awards by two-time Americana Music Association Artist of the Year Brandi Carlile and -- in a surprise -- recent Billboard chart-topping country superstar Kacey Musgraves, respectively.
"Nickel Creek made bluegrass cool again," said Musgraves, a lifelong fan of the act.
"They blazed a trail forward into the unknown."
Comedian and admitted Patty Griffin fan Sarah Silverman rattled off two dozen of the Americana icon's albums and songs before bringing on the performer and awarding her the Americana Music Association's 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award.
After briefly thanking the crowd, Griffin performed 2015's "Shine A Different Way" from the Grammy-nominated album "Servant of Love."
Logan Ledger opened the proceedings by paying tribute to recently-deceased icon Jimmy Buffett with a rendition of his 1974 classic "Come Monday, while Robbie Robertson and The Band were honored via a multi-artist version of The Band's "Up On Cripple Creek" to close the event.
Two albums celebrating their 50th anniversary: Tom Waits' "Closing Time" and Paul Simon's "There Goes Rhymin' Simon," were feted by Rufus Wainwright and the pairing of Milk Carton Kids and Noah Kahan.
Also highlighting timeless songcraft was Legacy Award winner (presented by the National Museum of African-American Music) Bettye Lavette. Being honored by her current producer, Steve Jordan, her work as a Detroit, Muscle Shoals and Nashville artist whose ultimate acclaim continues to arrive 62 years into her recording career.
"I'm thrilled to receive this prestigious award," stated Lavette.
Stating that she was finally proudly unencumbered from her lifelong humility, she soaked in three standing ovations during her acceptance speech and performance of her new soul ballad "In The Meantime."
Childers, Goodman's success highlights genre's future
A half-decade swing for Tyler Childers' creative work has also yielded success for him as his 2022-released gospel-tinged triple album "Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven?" won for Album of the Year.
Similar to Strings, his presently frenetic touring schedule precluded him from being present at the awards ceremony.
Related, his current "Rustin' In The Rain" album collaborator S.G. Goodman also won Emerging Act of the Year.
Goodman -- who also performed during the event -- is experiencing a surge in appeal comparable to Childers (a 2018 Emerging Act of the Year winner). About her current moment, which includes her fellow Kentuckian Childers releasing a cover of her stirring folk-soul ballad "Space and Time," the artist stated, with dry humor upon winning the award, "Imagine what can be done when nobody is worried about who gets the credit...it takes a village of Western Kentuckians doing their best [to achieve this honor]."
A simple statement uttered on the event's red carpet by Nickel Creek's mandolinist and vocalist Chris Thile summed up both the evening and Americana's greatest artistic and social value moving forward:
"This community has the widest, most-open ears in music."
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Billy Strings, Bonnie Raitt, Allison Russell among winners at 2023's Americana Awards
