2012 Americana Music Award Nominees Show Narrow Perspective
Today the nominees for the 2012 Americana Music Awards were announced at the Clive Davis Theatre in Los Angeles, with Lucinda Williams, Buddy Miller, and other artists performing before and after actor John C. Riley read the lists of nominees. The awards will be handed out September 12th at The Ryman in Nashville.
What immediately struck me as I watched the presentation being broadcast online was how overtly cliquish the Americana Music Association has become, or continues to be, as they narrowcast out awards to the same pool of networked-in, dramatically-familiar, and specifically-focused artists that all tend to know each other, and carry the same politics.
This is a difficult and conflicting conclusion to come to, because all of these artists, and the entities that make up the AMA are ones that I love, respect, and look up to. But they must be more worldly in their perspective to create legitimacy behind their product, their presentation, the term “Americana” in general, and these awards specifically.
The Americana genre is growing in leaps and bounds, and the AMA must grow and evolve with it. When it started out in 2002, it needed to keep its perspective narrow and its network strong so it did not become a flash in the pan or a fad term. There is nothing wrong with sustainability and attempting to grow slowly and smartly, but there can be issues with not attempting to grow at all.
Sure, up to this point there may have been little reason for the AMA to branch out, but after numerous grumbles over the last few years about an underserved audience and talent base, and the lingering question about what Americana actually is, something needed to happen. This feels like such a missed opportunity. As Americana continues to grow, it could put pressure on the CMA for example, and create channels for outreach to the scores of disenfranchised roots music fans left behind by the corporate music world. But instead we get many of the same names, names of the same people in different categories, many of the same names from years past, and names who know each other on a personal level, who’ve played in each other’s bands, produced and played on each other’s albums, and in the case of Steve and Justin Townes, are related.
No, nobody should be discriminated against just because they know each other or because of who their father is or because they’ve won before. And yes, there’s are some new names here. It is great to see the names in the Emerging Artist category, but why does the this category have fewer names than any other? I know there is a process of how these names are derived, but how does it hurt to add another name or two that could benefit from the spotlight an AMA nomination could cast?
Maybe the AMA doesn’t understand just how big Americana has become. Again, I can’t disagree with any of the names of the nominees here. The talent level is ridiculous and inspiring, and the decisions are without question difficult to make. And the AMA should be praised, not criticized for keeping their system sustainable and manageable. But we needed something new, a new category, more names, fresh names, a broader perspective, a better system for finding and evaluating emerging talent. Because in the end this list just comes across as a myopic perspective and tired, and that could create challenges to its legitimacy.
These comments are meant to be constructive, and are not just based on one person’s perspective.
Album of the Year
Here We Rest Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
I’ll Never Get Out of this World Alive Steve Earle
The Harrow & The Harvest Gillian Welch
This One’s For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark Various Artists
Artist of the Year
Gillian Welch
Hayes Carll
Jason Isbell
Justin Townes Earle
Emerging Artist of the Year
Alabama Shakes
Dawes
Deep Dark Woods
Song of the Year
“Alabama Pines” Written by Jason Isbell and performed by Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
“Come Around” Written and performed by Sarah Jarosz
“I Love” Written by Tom T. Hall and performed by Patty Griffin
“Waiting On The Sky to Fall” Written and performed by Steve Earle
Instrumentalist of the Year
Buddy Miller
Chris Thile
Darrell Scott
Dave Rawlings
Duo/Group of the Year
Carolina Chocolate Drops
Civil Wars
Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings
Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
Punch Brothers
May 31, 2012 @ 2:32 pm
I totally agree with your comments. I feel like the Americana awards are for fans of Americana who are white upper-middle class, in their mid-40s, listen to NPR, and drive Volvos. The awards are way too safe and predictable. There are some very edgy and accomplished Americana acts/artists out there who consistently redefine country and folk music, and year after year they are overlooked.
May 31, 2012 @ 2:48 pm
Isbell nominations make the awards much more legible in how I feel about them. Great artist
May 31, 2012 @ 3:11 pm
I think Isbell is great as well, and nominated his song “Codeine” as one of my Songs of the Year last year.
But check this.
Jason Isbell and Justin Townes Earle are good friends. Both are nominated this year. Isbell has played on JTE’s records, and also played with him on Letterman. Isbell’s girlfriend is Amanda Shires, whose also played with Justin before. Isbell’s current manager is Justin’s previous manager. Isbell has the most nominations this year. Justin won Song of the Year last year, and Emerging artist in 2009. Justin is Steve Earle’s son. Steve Earle is nominated twice this year. Steve has nominated multiple times in previous years.
This is just one example. You can draw lines back and forth with many artists on this list, and lists from previous years. And you can’t go anywhere near the AMA’s without being bombarded with Buddy Miller. Great artist, great guy, but we get it. What else is going on in Americana?
It’s a clique of artists and representatives that is preaching to the choir instead of broadening the congregation. In my opinion.
This is good music. Let’s get it in front of people!
May 31, 2012 @ 3:03 pm
With respect to Album of the Year nominees, it’s hard to argue with the Gillian Welch and Jason Isbell nominations. If there was a Mount Rushmore of Americana artists, I think she’d definitely be on it and The Harrow and the Harvest is an album worthy of her reputation. Jason Isbell’s latest album was a breakout for him and made a lot of top ten lists for 2011. He seems to be the biggest winner with 4 nominations
To me, the other two nominations are disappointing. Steve Earle’s nomination has an automatic feel to it. It’s a good album, but one of the best? No. For example, I don’t even think it made the top 50 in the ND reader’s poll for 2011. And I’m not sure about a various artists tribute album either, even if its subject is Guy Clark.
May 31, 2012 @ 3:38 pm
I agree.
Both Gillian Welch and Jason Isbell deserve the nods, and I’m glad they’re getting this attention. But the Guy Clark tribute, good or not, is a pretty transparent pandering to the demographic Aimz laid out above. You can draw parallels to Clark from a lot of these artists and entities. A tribute should never be nominated for something like this over original music, or a project like Cash’s American recordings or something along those grand lines.
We have to be careful not to let personal taste cloud our perspectives on nominees or winners. This is very easy to do. You or I may not care for an album, but a tribute for Album of the Year? That is something easy to see through.
May 31, 2012 @ 5:46 pm
Definately weird to have a compilation win or be nominated. However, just as a person recommending music, that is a fine album that soothed my then newborn and me many exhausted evenings. Guy is a great songwriter/storyteller.
May 31, 2012 @ 3:06 pm
I love Steve Earle, Hayes Carll and Jason Isbell but come on Robert Earl Keen put out his best studio album in serveral years, Dale Watsons sun sessions came out Reckless Kelly’s good luck and true love is an under apreciated gem of an album they will become a joke at somepoint if they do not widen their view somewhat.The Turnpike Troubadors should be nominated for new artist it’s ashamed. I hope next years nominations give a nod to some different artists. Jason Eady put a career defining project with AM Country heaven if it does not get a nod next year I give up.
May 31, 2012 @ 9:59 pm
Some might dispute saying Dale Watson is Texas country, and the Turnpike Troubadours Red Dirt. But Robert Earl Keen fits right in with what is considered Americana. It all seems so arbitrary who the AMA decides is Americana.
May 31, 2012 @ 3:23 pm
The AMA would have really knocked my socks off if either of these two got nominated:
Austin Lucas
Rachel Brooke
May 31, 2012 @ 3:44 pm
The three names I would have offered up as other Emerging artists that completely fit into the Americana mold would have been Austin Lucas, Rachel Brooke, and Sturgill Simpson.
Austin Lucas would have been perfect for the nod. He is an excellent artist with both country and rock sensibilities, that is struggling to find a home in the music world. That is supposed to be Americana’s charter. And without that home or support, it is going to be hard for an artist like Austin to continue. He’s hitting his head on a ceiling. A simple nomination would have been huge for him, and no sweat for the AMA.
June 1, 2012 @ 6:13 am
I couldn’t agree with you more on Austin Lucas. He is without question an “Americana Go Ready” artist. You got to figure that a lot of Jason Isbell and JTE fans would also dig Austin Lucas if they ever heard his music.
May 31, 2012 @ 3:24 pm
I do agree that the list is becoming a rotating lazy susan of artists, just picking one for the award as it circles by. However, the showcases each year are full of new, exciting artists that are playing their asses off to get a deal or a nomination or just get noticed. I could be wrong but Deep Dark Woods played the AMAs for the first time last year and here they are on the emerging artist list. So let’s remember it’s not just the nominees, but the entirety of the festival and showcases that make the AMAs what it is. Oh, and the Guy Clark tribute is pretty damn good. I was skeptical at first and there are a few songs that could have been left off, but check out Shawn Camp’s cover of “Homeless.”
May 31, 2012 @ 10:02 pm
That’s a good point. Folks should understand the awards are just part of a bigger festival that offers a lot more exposure to artists, including many up-and-coming artists. But the festival is a local event. The awards are the national event everyone pays attention to, and everyone can participate in.
May 31, 2012 @ 5:38 pm
Would you hate me if I said I wish I was 20 years younger and walking down a dirt road with Sarah Jarosz on my arm?
May 31, 2012 @ 10:03 pm
I would hate you if you didn’t say that. He’s a cutie. I certainly wouldn’t kick her out of bed for eating crackers 😉
May 31, 2012 @ 5:54 pm
I look at it as the fact that some of the leaders of the genre released albums. Anytime Welch puts out an album, it is sure to be amazing. JTE is still one of the best performers in any music genre today. Steve is going to get a nod when he puts out an album, just as Dylan does with the Grammys. I agree that the emerging Artists could have had more artists on there and really could have been a showcase for the genre. Isbell put out an amazing album and deserves all the recognition he can get for it. I look at it like everytime Jay-Z, or Kanye West put out an album, they are going to get nominations for awards as they are at the top of their genre, same goes for both Earles, Welch, and Rawlings.
June 1, 2012 @ 1:00 am
I detest the country music award shows,but this just seems like it would boring as fuck.
June 1, 2012 @ 4:20 am
another awards show to avoid like the plague.
June 1, 2012 @ 3:34 pm
i should clarify,the awards part doesn’t bother me…if a bunch of hunyucks wanna get together and atta boy each other,that’s fine..it’s the obnoxious pagentry that usally goes along with it that rankels me. this though seems like it’d be as much fun as a birthday party at a public library.
June 2, 2012 @ 5:12 am
‘obnoxious pageantry’ and atta boying each other on national TV rankles me. bloody twits have nothing better to do i suppose. me? i’m late for a b-day party at the library.
vodka shots and kobe sliders.
June 2, 2012 @ 11:33 am
lol…vodka and sliders you say?
June 3, 2012 @ 5:10 am
yeah, ever since the local pols out sourced the day to day running of the library things have become interesting. lol.
June 2, 2012 @ 12:57 pm
I think last year was the first time the AMA awards were shown on TV. It was on PBS and was just the music performances. Wasn’t live either. thought it was pretty good.
June 2, 2012 @ 1:45 pm
i basically enjoy all the artists nominated so i will be watching it..the minute it starts becoming a political fundraiser though (and it will eventually),i’m done.
June 3, 2012 @ 8:51 am
Well, if it is like last year’s broadcast, it will be just the music performances. Maybe a spiel from the AMA head dude. There weren’t even any award presentations shown. It was shown on an episode of Austin City Limits some weeks after the actual event, I’m pretty sure. No fluff, just stuff.
June 1, 2012 @ 8:23 am
Someone from the AMA should lose their job for allowing the Deep Dark Woods to be nominated for an “Americana” award for ‘Emerging Artist of the Year’. They are Canadians for gods sake. 😉
By the way I am just kidding, it is cool to see them on the list and their latest album ‘The Place I left Behind’ is great.
June 1, 2012 @ 8:48 am
The Civil Wars? Dawes? It just reminds me of trust fund college kids that drink PBR ironically. Neutered, safe, liberal Americana. And no matter what Gillian Welch shits out, they’ll nominate her. I was hoping to be surprised by something a little grittier. At least Tom T Hall made it on there.
June 1, 2012 @ 9:17 am
I’m with you on Civil Wars (still love Triggerman’s quote about them being the vocal equivalent of Steve Vai), but don’t know where you’re coming from on Gillian Welch. If you’d said Steve Earle instead, I think I’d agree with you. I love Steve and have a dozen or so of his albums, but think his latest fits into the “good but not great” category.
June 1, 2012 @ 9:40 am
I wasn’t saying that I didn’t like her, I was just saying that she’d be on the list no matter what. And I’ll definitely agree with you on Steve Earle. I’m a big fan, but I just couldn’t get into his new stuff.
June 1, 2012 @ 10:00 am
I think you’re definitely right about that (Emmylou is in that category, too), but I also think it’s an album worthy of being nominated. I think she and her partner David Rawlings delivered the goods on this album.
June 1, 2012 @ 10:34 am
There’s a lot of very easy stereotypes you can identify with this list of nominees, just like you and the very first commenter on this article did. I listed some of these out in the article initially, and then deleted them because in the end, stereotypes are usually unfair, though they also tend to be rooted in truth. But the thing I think is universal throughout these nominees and the AMA organization is a similar political affiliation, and that is the reason this was the one stereotype I left in the article. I’m not for liberals or against liberals or anything like that. I respect everyone’s political beliefs. But the universal thread that seems to run through these nominees is not a sonic style, it is an affinity for a certain political perspective that many times enters into their music.
In fairness, this definitely happens in mainstream country as well, with the whole “let’s bomb the brown skins back to the stone age” bit, and what happened to The Dixie Chicks, etc. But instead of being better than Music Row by welcoming in people of all political beliefs, they seem to be shutting them out. They want artist to reflect the “values” of Americana’s legacy artists like Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, and James McMurtury. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with those values, but the AMA, representing the big tent of all big tent genres, needs to be more open minded than this. There needs to be a rabid search for who is best, not a litmus test based on political affiliation. From the outside looking in, the AMA looks like a bunch of gray-haired, high-nosed liberals. But we all know Americana is much broader than that.
June 1, 2012 @ 9:42 am
Americana should be the widest of generes not the narrowest the cool thing about the old no depression magazine now website was the covered a wide range of artists and thats is what developed into what we know as “americana” as a offical genere with awards radio coverage etc. When you listen to a station like a KHYI out of Dallas they play Texas Red Dirt artists Americana artists classic country artists even some bluegrass one and a while “americana” should be a melting pot for all forms of american roots music. A “big tent” of diverse artists.
June 1, 2012 @ 10:02 am
Yes.
June 1, 2012 @ 10:20 am
That is Americana biggest selling point, that it’s a big tent, the home of homeless American music. Their awards show should reflect this. I understand the narrow perspective they started out with to help define what Americana is. But now it is time to grow up.
June 1, 2012 @ 10:54 am
Amen! Let us all pray the Americana music association folks “grow up” while there is still time to keep the Americana movment alive and well.
June 1, 2012 @ 2:17 pm
I’ve always been curious what the artists that get nominated every year think of the awards. Are they happy, thrilled, embarrassed, bored? Buddy Miller, as an obvious example, is an amazing musician, songwriter, and producer and gets recognized every year for his contributions to Americana music. Does he really need another award though? I’m sure it’s nice to be recognized by his peers, but even if he was the most humble musician on the planet he knows that he’s a pretty damn good. I imagine him giving the awards away to friend’s nephews and nieces when they stop by his studio. “Here kid, this is for you. Naw, don’t mention it, I got a whole box of ’em.”
June 2, 2012 @ 4:43 am
I believe Buddy’s reaction to winning Artist of the Year last year was “this is not right.” He also joked about getting sympathy votes because of his heart attack earlier in the year. 🙂
June 1, 2012 @ 11:34 pm
Out of all the artists listed I loved Hayes Carll latest album the best. His songs were the most hilarouis and expertly crafted fun songs out everyone I heard on the nominees. I remember first hearing the song KMAG YOYO on sirus xm outlaw station and had to get the album the next day. I never heard of Hayes Carll till then.
June 2, 2012 @ 3:45 am
I’m pretty sure KMAG YOYO got an AMA nomination for best album last year. It came out in early 2011.
June 2, 2012 @ 11:23 pm
I understand your frustration, Trig. Have you considered approaching them to discuss these issues? Hell, they may just be grateful to be turned onto some of the stellar artists you have mentioned.
June 3, 2012 @ 7:24 pm
I love how you’re always thinking proactive Carla, but lest Saving Country Music and I by proxy are very small fishes in a big sea. Perhaps someday they would answer my call, or pay attention.
June 3, 2012 @ 8:24 am
As for the Americana Music Association broadening their acceptance to a more diverse range of talent I ask you, is there a broad range of diversity in the Grammys?
The AMA certainly celebrates a more consistent stable of excellence than the Grammys do (at least the televised portion) but NARA and the AMA are still the are trade associations whose mission is to grow the brand and sell music, not celebrate diversity and reward excellence.
I agree the AMA nominees are getting pretty predictable (as are the Americana Grammy nominees) and the list has become a bit of a club. Even the AMA itself has become a bit of an insular enitity as I found out in the recent Linda Chorney fracas.
It’s up to you, and me, the fans with a vehicle for expression, to keep things focused on what really matters, the music. Here’s to the fine people that share it with all of us.
June 3, 2012 @ 7:24 pm
aw fuck, I was just getting comfortable with the term Americana, maybe it’s time for a new name for those outside of the AMA’s scope. Ideas? i,ll start with Dixie-fried
June 4, 2012 @ 7:40 am
I’ve been bitching about the AMA for years. The AMA exists to recognize records that are by and large just for sad bastard ex indie rockers that traded in their pavement and dino jr. records for Steve Earle and Gillian Welch records.
Their focus is ridiculously narrow. I actually called out a board member on this at the Jason and the scorchers show a couple years ago. I said to her “where’s the americana here? ” all I see (with a couple exceptions) is easy listening pseudo bluegrass steve earle wannabes. If this is truly the ‘AMERICANA’ music association, why don’t I see Blues artists, where is the parlor Jazz, where are the cajun and zydeco bands? ” Hell, there’s barely any electric guitar based bands at all. If it’s gonna be the AMericana music association, they need to include all types of music that are indigenous to the US. not just be some retirement home for aging hipsters..
June 4, 2012 @ 1:28 pm
Even limited to “safe” choices, the nominee selection is extremely narrow and there is really no support shown for up-and-comers. To me, Sierra Hull is the most glaring omission in that regard. Very strange not to see Noam Pickelny (of Punch Brothers) get a nod for his recent more traditional album. Then there’s The Kruger Brothers “Appalachian Concerto” and all their other stellar work that, as far as I know, was never so much as acknowledged by the AMA.
June 9, 2012 @ 6:49 pm
What are some other americana artists to listen to?