Wednesday night at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, the Americana Music Association hosted its 25th annual Americana Honors & Awards where six juried awards and three Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented. The event is a highlight of the annual, weeklong AMERICANAFEST event.

In an evening filled with stunning musical performances — along with heartfelt tributes to the late artists Dolly Parton, Todd Snider, Raul Malo and Tom Petty — Molly Tuttle took home the honor of Artist of the Year, and Brandi Carlile earned Song of the Year for “Returning to Myself.” Emerging Act of the Year went to Oklahoma singer-songwriter Ken Pomeroy, and Instrumentalist of the Year went to guitarist Mandy Fer. Gillian Welch accepted the award for Duo/Group of the Year on behalf of herself and her musical partner David Rawlings, and the only in absentia honoree was Tyler Childers, whose Snipe Hunt took the award for Album of the Year.

The show got off to a rocking start when Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award on the 50th anniversary of the band’s debut album. With singer Chris Stapleton taking the vocal and rhythm-guitar parts played by the late Tom Petty, the Heartbreakers gathered onstage at the Ryman for performances of “American Girl,” “Breakdown,” and “You Wreck Me.”

The Heartbreakers gave such a rollicking performance, co-host Kenneth Pattengale of The Milk Carton Kids was inspired to quip, “Well, that’s our show – good night!”

The show also included a tribute to Dolly Parton — originally intended to be an in-person presentation of a Lifetime Achievement Award to the late icon — as well as tributes to singer-songwriter Todd Snider and to Mavericks’ frontman Raul Malo. Musician Robert Plant also received a Lifetime Achievement Award, and he performed a set of two songs with the house band, led by Plant collaborator Buddy Miller.

The show began at 6:45 p.m. and concluded around 10:20 p.m., clocking in at three hours, 35 minutes. Rather than a chronological overview of the proceedings, here’s a topical breakdown (to borrow a word from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) of what transpired Wednesday at the Ryman.

• The Award Recipients
• The Performances
• The House Band
• The Hosts
• Memorable Quotes
• Upcoming Telecast
• Photo Gallery

The Award Recipients

The juried awards are presented for work that released or occurred between April 1, 2025, and March 31, 2026. Honorees receive a handmade award fashioned by Kentucky artist Stef Ratliff in collaboration with Gibson. Below is the full list of nominees, with the presenters listed and the award recipients in bold:

ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Presenter: Nathaniel Rateliff
Snipe Hunter
Tyler Childers; Produced by Tyler Childers, Rick Rubin & Nick Sanborn
Billionaire
Kathleen Edwards; Produced by Jason Isbell & Gena Johnson
Planting by the Signs
S.G. Goodman; Produced by S.G. Goodman, Matthew Rowan & Drew Vandenberg
Cruel Joke
Ken Pomeroy; Produced by Colton Jean, Dakota McDaniel & Gary Paczosa
Hard Headed Woman
Margo Price; Produced by Matt Ross-Spang

ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Presenters: Allison Russell and Madison Cunningham
Brandi Carlile
Charley Crockett
Margo Price
Molly Tuttle
Jesse Welles

DUO/GROUP OF THE YEAR
Presenters: Langhorne Slim and Shakey Graves
Flatland Cavalry
I’m With Her
Mumford & Sons
Turnpike Troubadours
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings

EMERGING ACT OF THE YEAR
Presenters: Katie Pruitt and Sadler Vaden
Boy Golden
Crowe Boys
Kashus Culpepper
Ken Pomeroy
Mon Rovîa

SONG OF THE YEAR
Presenter: Bernie Taupin
“Returning To Myself,” Brandi Carlile; Written by Brandi Carlile
“Snapping Turtle,” S.G. Goodman; Written by S.G. Goodman
“Wild and Clear and Blue,” I’m With Her; Written by Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan & Sara
Watkins
“Heavy Foot,” Mon Rovîa; Written by Grant Averill, Eric Cromartie, Cooper Holzman & Andrew Lowe
“The World’s Gone Wrong,” Lucinda Williams (feat. Brittney Spencer); Written by Tom Overby, Doug Pettibone & Lucinda Williams

INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR
Presenters: MC Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger and Swamp Dogg
Joshua Blaylock – keyboards
Mandy Fer - guitarist
Ethan Jodziewicz - bass
Libby Rodenbough - fiddle
Juan Solorzano - guitarist

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers presented by Chris Stapleton

Dolly Parton presented by Emmylou Harris

Robert Plant presented by Buddy Miller

The Performances

Naturally, the musical performances across the program are informed by the artists nominated for juried awards and by those receiving Lifetime Achievement Awards. Because performances are so central to the Americana Honors & Awards, there was also space for a performance by house bandleader Buddy Miller and by the evening’s co-hosts The Milk Carton Kids. Here are the night’s performances listed in order:

• The Heartbreakers feat. Chris Stapleton, “American Girl”
  The original members of the Heartbreakers — guitarist Mike Campbell, keyboardist Benmont Tench, drummer Stan Lynch and bassist Ron Blair, accompanied by Chris Stapleton — opened the show with this special reunion performance. When Mike Campbell was tearing out a solo, it drew a visible smile from drummer Stan Lynch.

• The Heartbreakers feat. Chris Stapleton, “Breakdown”

• The Heartbreakers feat. Chris Stapleton, “You Wreck Me”
  Drummer Stan Lynch vacated the kit in favor of Steve Ferrone. Scott Thurston joined the rest of the band onstage, and he and Mike Campbell each played Rickenbacker guitars, the instrument that lent a jangly flavor to many Heartbreakers’ songs. Campbell and Stapleton swapped lead vocals on verses, and during the instrumental break, guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench conversed in alternating licks on their respective instruments.

  

• Mike Campbell leading the Ryman Auditorum, “Happy Birthday”
  Dedicated to bassist Ron Blair, whose birthday was Wednesday.

• Boy Golden, “Suffer” from Best of Our Possible Lives
  Boy Golden (aka Liam Duncan) performed with his band of backing vocalist and percussionist Fontine Beavis, guitarist Austin Parachoniak, bassist Corey Hykawy, and drummer Dani Nash.

• Kashus Culpepper, “Jenni”
  Culpepper performed on lead vocals, guitar and harmonica backed by his backing vocalist and the house band of Buddy Miller, Don Was, Larry Campbell, Fred Eltringham, Jens Gunderman, Jim Hoke, Jerry Pentecost and the McCrary Sisters. “That song is so good, I feel I’ve known it my entire life,” Joey Ryan said afterwards.

  

• Crowe Boys “Made to Wander”
  New Orleans band comprising brothers Wes Crowe (mandolin, backing vocals), and Ocie Crowe (guitar and lead vocals) enhanced by the house band, the McCrary Sisters in particular.

• Flatland Cavalry, “Gone”
  Lead singer Cleto Cordero was sounding and looking cool dressed and coiffed like Tony Rice. The song also featured a strong performance by fiddle player Wesley Hall and by the rhythm section.

• Ken Pomeroy, “Days Getting Darker” from Cruel Joke
  Pomeroy performed in a duo with her bandmate and longtime collaborator Dakota McDaniel.

  

• I’m With Her (Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan) featuring Brandi Carlile “Coat of Many Colors”
  This loving tribute to Dolly Parton concluded with the four musicians quickly exiting stage so the audience’s focus could remain on the projected image of Dolly Parton upstage.

• Mon Rovîa, “Heavy Foot”
  In a cheery performance that captivated the Ryman, Mon Rovîa carried lead vocals and ukulele with the house band providing backup.

• Molly Tuttle, “Rosalee”
  Tuttle was accompanied by fiddle player (and Tuttle’s husband) Ketch Secor with the house band’s Don Was on bass and the McCrary Sisters on backing vocals. The song features a notable instrumental bridge that saw Tuttle playing clawhammer style guitar and trading licks with Secor, elicting a big applause from audience when they began the subsequent verse.

• S.G. Goodman “Snapping Turtle”
  Later in the program, Gillian Welch said this excellent performance brought her to tears.

  

• Robert Plant, “Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down”
  As part of his Lifetime Achievement Award acceptance, Plant performed this song from Band of Joy (2009), which he made with Buddy Miller. NPR Music’s Ann Powers further elucidated that the selection is “a Black American gospel song that Robert and Band of Joy covered on their debut album. Buddy was in that band.” The performance featured a searing slide-guitar solo from Larry Campbell. Also notable were Jen Gunderman on accordion and of course, the impeccable McCrary Sisters on backing vocals.

• Robert Plant, “Angel Dance”
  Also from Band of Joy, the second song in Plant’s award-acceptance micro set.

• Margo Price, “Hard-Headed Woman” segued into “Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down”
  Price performed this little medley with her band — Logan Ledger, Alec Newman, Sean Thompson, Evan Kesel and Jeremy Ivey, the same musicians Price recently played with at the Minnesota State Fair — and with the house band’s Jerry Pentecost on additional percussion and Jim Hoke on pedal steel.

  

• I’m With Her, “Wild and Clear and Blue”
  A fantastic performance by I’m With Her of the title track from their 2025 album. “Wild and Clear and Blue” was a Song of the Year nominee.

• Jesse Welles, “The Nerd Reich”
  Just released on August 31, this new one from Welles feels ripped from the headlines. Welles performed solo on vocals, guitar and harmonica, and his song is packed with current events and commentary.

  

• Brandi Carlile, “Returning to Myself”
  A lovely and stripped-down performance by Carlile on vocals and guitar accompanied by SistaStrings.

• The Milk Carton Kids, “A Friend Like You”
  A nice gift to the show’s co-hosts, this song comes from the Milk Carton Kids’ album Lost Cause Lover Fool, released April 26, 2026 (and therefore ineligible for consideration for this year’s awards). Performed with the house band.

• Kathleen Edwards, “Save Your Soul”
  A fantastic performance by Edwards, backed by the house band.

  

• Buddy Miller feat. Dan Penn, “Don’t Look Back”
  This song, written by Smokey Robinson, appears on Miller’s self-titled album that just released on September 11. Featured vocalist Penn is a hero co-writer whose credits include the soul classics “Dark End of the Street” and “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man.”

• Hayes Carll and Elizabeth Cook, “Play a Train Song” (Todd Snider cover)
  This heartfelt tribute to Todd Snider featured an upstage projection of the late singer-songwriter riding a bicycle. Carll and Cook’s performance was punctuated by articulate fiddle playing by the versatile Larry Campbell.

• Mon Rovîa and everybody, “Dance the Night Away,” (Mavericks cover)
  A hallmark of the Americana Honors & Awards is the epic “all play” that concludes each year’s ceremony. This year’s song was in tribute to the late Raul Malo.

  

The House Band

The house band, appropriately dubbed the Americana All-Star Band, was again led by the inveterate Buddy Miller, and featuring Don Was (bass), Larry Campbell (guitar, fiddle, mandolin, bouzouki), Fred Eltringham (drums), Jen Gunderman (piano, keyboards, accordion), Jerry Pentecost (drums and auxiliary percussion), Jim Hoke (saxophone, pedal steel), and The McCrary Sisters (backing vocals).

The Hosts

Whereas last year’s show was hosted by actor and musician John C. Reilly, who was excellent in the role, this year’s hosting duties returned to The Milk Carton Kids’ Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale, who first hosted the show in 2018 and have pretty much done so every year since, barring the COVID year and 2025.

Ryan and Pattengale have an informality and a spontaneous humor that wonderfully serves the tightrope act that is the Americana Honors & Awards, as they playfully call out the artifice of reading from a prompter and riff goofily when asked to stretch. In an unexpected way, Ryan and Pattengale absorb the awkwardness of the long pauses in the program — and therefore defuse any awkwardness. It’s truly an art the way Ryan and Pattengale are able to achieve that effect.

That’s not to say they can’t be serious. In their opening remarks, they held back nothing in their criticisms of AI and in their undying support for artist and human-made art. “This room and this community is always filled with people who are compelled to make this music,” Ryan said. “We have to do it. Whether we get paid or not, or whether a computer can do it faster or not, we’re going to do it anyway.”

“Some people think that’s what makes us suckers,” Pattengale added. “I think that’s what makes us artists.”

Memorable Quotes

“This year marks the 50th year of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Words cannot express what that music means to me and to the world. It transcends genre. It makes you want to play music. That’s what it did for me.” — Chris Stapleton, in presenting the Lifetime Achievement Award to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

“If my dad was here, there’d be a 1000-watt smile on his face for this band right now. … He was a standard-bearer for decency and integrity in business practices. … My dad approached his job with a reverence for being a messenger in his job. … My dad loved every one of these men [in the Heartbreakers] incredibly deeply. He once told David Fricke, ‘I never saw another band where I thought, Wow, I wish I was in that band. I always thought I was in the best band.’” — Adria Petty, on accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

“This band has meant the world to me for more than half my life, it changed my life, and it means the world to me, and it means the world to me that it still means so much to you all.” — Benmont Tench of the Heartbreakers, on accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award

“When I was a 16-year-old girl first picking up the electric guitar, I noticed a huge void of women being highlighted on stage as lead guitarists. That became my life’s work, to attempt to be a part of filling that void. Standing up here 24 years later, receiving this award, is the greatest honor of my life.” — Guitarist Mandy Fer, on accepting the Instrumentalist of the Year Award

“I feel like I’ve already won the night being sat next to Gillian Welch.” — Ken Pomeroy, on accepting the award for Emerging Act of the Year

“This tiny, extraordinary woman made the world a better, brighter and kinder place. One of the many pearls of wisdom she shared — Dolly would call them rhinestones — was this: dream more, learn more, care more, be more.” — Emmylou Harris, on presenting Dolly Parton with a Lifetime Achievement Award

“Roots music, or what is now called Americana music, is what I grew up playing back in the Smoky Mountains. It's that same music that drew me back to East Tennessee back in 1997 to write and record my album, Hungry Again, and that project really opened the door to a series of bluegrass and acoustic albums that changed the course of my career in so many ways. … looking back at it all, I see this era of my career as a musical renaissance of sorts, and I want to thank everybody at the AMA for recognizing me with this award. It's a great honor, truly, and just know that I will always love you.” — Dolly Parton in a pre-recorded video message for this event (a press release announcing Parton’s award came out August 6, prior to Parton’s death on August 25)

“For some reason, my mother was at a wedding and Dolly Parton was there. My mother was crying when she saw Dolly and said to her, ‘Coat of Many Colors’ is my favorite song, and Dolly said, ‘Well, you gotta sit down and sing it with me.’ It’s one example many beautiful moments like that Dolly Parton gave to people her whole life.” — Joey Ryan of the Milk Carton Kids following the Dolly Parton award presentation and musical tribute

“Twenty years ago today, on a Nashville Sunday morning, I knocked on a door just up the street from here, and I was welcomed as the door opened by the charming Alison Krauss and the formidable T Bone Burnett. I crossed the threshold, apprehensive and eager, and I was welcomed with warmth and kindness into their worlds and the worlds within worlds as an amazing adventure unfolded for me.” — Robert Plant, on accepting his Lifetime Achievement Award

“I really thought when I heard we were nominated that it was a mistake because we didn't release a record this year. All we did was drive around and play a lot of music. Now I'm standing here, and I'm quite overwhelmed with what it feels like to be recognized just for playing a lot of music. I love this community, and I love being in this room with all of you.” — Gillian Welch, on accepting the award for herself and David Rawlings for Duo/Group of the Year

“This song means a lot to me. I think that everyone must make the journey inward. Everyone needs to, at some point, return to themselves. But when you get there, I hope you realize that that we belong to each other and make it a round trip and get right back out again and go and find your people.” — Brandi Carlile, on accepting the award for Song of the Year for “Returning To Myself”

“Now before I tell you who this goes to, I just want to say, can we applaud all of the folks in this category? It takes a lot to pour your heart and your soul into a piece of music and a work that sometimes defines your life, and then to be judged by people, and sometimes misjudged by people, and then you put that out in the world and give it away, and it feels like you're giving away your child. So, to all of you, these were beautiful records. Congratulations for contributing to our community and enriching us all, so thank you.” — Nathaniel Rateliff, before opening the envelope to announce the recipient of the Album of the Year Award

Upcoming Telecast

The Americana Honors & Awards were recorded, and the program will be edited to a one-hour special set to air on Austin City Limits on PBS stations beginning November 21.

Photo Gallery

25th Annual Americana Honors & Awards

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