And of course according to Billy Bragg we invented it anyway

https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2013/sep/20/billy-bragg-americana-british-teenagers

While I may have been flippant with the Schrodinger’s Cat analogy, there is a lot of truth in the statement that Americana can be a very individual thing. Americana is a very diverse genre and one of the easiest ways to try and get someone more interested in it is try to go for a closest fit with their current musical interests as possible. The country rock of the late ‘60s/‘70s mixed country with rock & roll attitude like the Burritos, in the ‘80s we had cow punk mixing country with punk, alt country in the ‘90s added indie influences to country etc, and they all drew listeners in who didn’t realise that they liked country. Today’s music is more diverse but that probably only means a little more effort is required to find that initial fit.

Thank you all for your input! 😊