Sierra Ferrell wins Album, Artist of the Year at dazzling 2024 Americana Honors & Awards program
by Luke Taylor
September 19, 2024
Singer-songwriter Sierra Ferrell took home awards for Album of the Year (Trail of Flowers) and Artist of the Year at the Americana Music Association’s 2024 Honors and Awards program Wednesday night at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Ferrell led the field in an evening that saw several women artists take home awards in a nearly four-hour event that featured an array of dazzling performances while also celebrating the Americana Music Association’s 25th anniversary. (see a full list of award winners below)
Most of the evening’s nominees gave live performances; standouts included Waxahatchee featuring MJ Lenderman performing “Right Back To It” (with a hat tip to house band leader Buddy Miller for playing the song’s more intricate guitar ornamentation); The War and Treaty’s rafter-shaking performance of “Mr. Fun”; Sarah Jarosz and her band’s spot-on delivery of “Jealous Moon”; Larkin Poe’s all-out rocking rendition of “Bluephoria”; Hurray For The Riff Raff’s captivating performance of “Buffalo”; and Ferrell’s slowly building performance of “American Dreaming.”
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The evening also featured the presentation of six Lifetime Achievement Awards: to the Blind Boys of Alabama, Dave Alvin, Rev. Gary Davis (posthumously), Don Was, Shelby Lynne and Dwight Yoakam. Dave Alvin and Dwight Yoakam each gave particularly emotional speeches filled with gratitude, with Yoakam humbly heaping praise on Alvin. All Lifetime Achievement award recipients performed a selection of their choice, with two notable exceptions: Don Was did not perform a song of his own as he performed all night as the bassist in the house band; and stepping in to honor the late Rev. Gary Davis was Fantastic Negrito, who fronted a bring-‘em-to-their-feet rendition of Davis’ “Samson and Delilah.”
As has been typical during recent Honors and Awards programs, no small portion of the evening’s speeches were spent either attempting to define or to embrace the widely encompassing term of Americana. The celebration of Americana as a genre took on additional significance as the Americana Music Association marked its 25th year of existence, with several speeches — including a humorous one by perennial Honors and Awards emcees The Milk Carton Kids — recalling the association’s founding in 1999. While several speakers referred to Americana artists as “misfits” or “storytellers,” other speakers thanked the Americana Music Association for its inclusivity and for giving them a place to call home. Some of the evening’s most notable remarks on this topic came from producer T Bone Burnett, who said, “If you want to know what’s good about the United States, listen to our music … Music that includes every person from every direction is the very vibration of America. It is not a misnomer to call this art form Americana.”
Whereas previous iterations of the Honors and Awards program have concluded with a massive if sometimes chaotic group sing-along onstage, this year’s program saved a special honor for Emmylou Harris. The always eloquent Margo Price gave Harris an introduction, saying, “If there were a founding voice or patron saint [of Americana], it would be Emmylou Harris,” after which Harris and Rodney Crowell performed a sublime cover of Gram Parson’s “Return of the Grievous Angel.” Backing Harris and Crowell, as they did for several acts Wednesday night, were the monumentally talented house band of Miller, Was, multi-instrumentalists Larry Campbell and Jim Hoke, drummer Jerry Pentecost, keyboardist Jen Gunderman, backing vocalists Alfreda, Beverly and Regina McCrary, and auxiliary percussionist Bryan Owings.
It was an evening befitting an organization’s 25th year. As Grimey’s Record Store proprietor Mike Grimes pointed out, the Americana Music Association has succeeded in not only creating a trade group and a musical genre that welcomes artists of any age, race, gender, sexual orientation and identity , it has also established a radio chart, a Grammy category, and even earned a definition in the dictionary. After 25 years — to paraphrase Danny & the Juniors’ iconic 1958 refrain about rock ‘n’ roll — it’s clear that Americana is here to stay.
2024 Americana Honors and Awards Nominees and Winners
(winners in bold with asterisk)
Artist of the Year
Tyler Childers
Charley Crockett
Sierra Ferrell*
Noah Kahan
Allison Russell
Album of the Year
"Brandy Clark," Brandy Clark; produced by Brandi Carlile
"Rustin' in the Rain," Tyler Childers; produced by Tyler Childers & The Food Stamps
"The Past is Still Alive," Hurray for the Riff Raff; produced by Brad Cook
"Trail of Flowers," Sierra Ferrell; produced by Eddie Spears and Gary Paczosa*
"Weathervanes," Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit; produced by Jason Isbell
Song of the Year
"American Dreaming," Sierra Ferrell; written by Sierra Ferrell and Melody Walker
"Dear Insecurity," Brandy Clark feat. Brandi Carlile; written by Brandy Clark and Michael Pollack*
"In Your Love," Tyler Childers; written by Tyler Childers and Geno Seale
"Jealous Moon," Sarah Jarosz; written by Sarah Jarosz and Daniel Tashian
"Right Back to It," Waxahatchee feat. MJ Lenderman; written by Katie Crutchfield
Duo/Group of the Year
Black Pumas
Larkin Poe*
The Milk Carton Kids
Turnpike Troubadours
The War and Treaty
Emerging Act of the Year
Kaitlin Butts
Wyatt Flores
Charles Wesley Godwin
The Red Clay Strays*
Jobi Riccio
Instrumentalist of the Year
Grace Bowers*
Maddie Denton
Jamie Dick
Megan McCormick
Joshua Rilko
2024 Americana Honors and Awards Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients
The Blind Boys of Alabama
Shelby Lynne
Don Was
Rev. Gary Davis
Dave Alvin
Dwight Yoakam
External Link
Americana Music Association – official site