the UK home for americana music
Washington born americana singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile has announced she will be performing her Grammy Award-winning 2018 album ‘By the Way, I Forgive You’ in its entirety during a live-stream which will take place on Monday June 1st at 9 p.m. USA ET, although you will need to buy a ticket for it over at Veeps. Continue reading “Brandi Carlile to play classic albums in full by live-stream”
Rolling Stone Country published a really interesting piece just before we had our Christmas break which described how americana was once a niche genre (rude), before finding a wider audience in the last decade citing artists like the Lumineers, Mumford & Sons, and the Avett Brothers. Cue the heated debate over what constitutes americana but hey, if a band causes a banjo to be played on Radio 1, who are we to cast the first stone. Continue reading “RS Country: “How Americana Went Mainstream in the 2010s””
For Americana UK, this year’s Nashville experience ended where it pretty much started – at Robert’s Western World on Lower Broadway. Hotfoot from arriving in the city around 7pm our assembled scribes headed straight downtown to see Joshua Hedley and the Hedliners. These showcases at Robert’s are something of a Nashville institution for both discerning locals and tourists – performing classic country sets from the 1950s and 1960s, Hedley’s velvet croon and stellar backing band which includes Buck Owens’ drummer and a long standing pedal steel player with Merle Haggard, demonstrate their encyclopaedic knowledge of country music and musical chops over a set spanning three and a half hours. Continue reading “AmericanaFest, Nashville, September 10th-15th, 2019”
AmericanaFest 2019 is taking place in Nashville at the moment – our intrepid reporter Mark Underwood is there if you’ve been following our social media – and last night their annual Honors and Awards ceremony took place where there were wins for Brandi Carlile (AGAIN), the War and Treaty and John Prine. In fact Prine’s heartbreaking ‘Summer End’ is about the only song that came out last year that could legitimately beat Ruston Kelly’s ‘Mockingbird’ – hey they’re both below if you want to compare and contrast. Here’s the list of winners (winners in bold): Continue reading “Americana Honors and Awards 2019 – Here are all the winners”
We leave you this weekend dear reader with a clip (filmed in portrait, the humanity of it…) of 2019 UK Americana Award Winner Brandi Carlile’s new song ‘Cowgirls’ which she played at California’s Pacific Amphitheatre earlier this week. In the song she focuses on various targets including the male-dominated music business and the NRA. As she sings, “I don’t believe in wealth and excess and I have had debt the size of Texas, but I didn’t follow my dreams to dump my money in your slot machine.” Amen to that. Have a good one.
We leave you this wet weekend dear reader with something fairly special. Earlier this week Brandi Carlile played a headlining show in her home state of Washington called ‘Echoes Through the Canyon’ which included performances by support acts Neko Case and Emmylou Harris who Carlile had picked herself. The latter performed a version of Sarah McLachlan’s classic from 1998 with Carlile itself which it’s fair to say is up there with the original. Have a good one.
News in from the AMA overnight (the US version) of their list of nominees for their honours and awards for 2018, and there’s good news for Mr Isbell, Margo Price and Brandi Carlile among others – in fact the lists are dominated by the 3 artists, although they are also joined by Mary Gauthier for her excellent “Rifles & Rosary Beads” record, nominated for album of the Year), John Prine (nominated for Artist of the Year), and Lee Ann Womack (nominated for Song of the Year). Continue reading “2018 Americana Music Association Awards nominees revealed”
We’re full to the rafters with horses, women and rain in Liverpool today (which sounds like the title of a country compilation) and so we leave you for the weekend with this lovely clip of 3 americana legends in the one set and coinciding with the release today of the first new album of original songs in over 13 years from John Prine. ‘The Tree Of Forgiveness’ features collaborations with the Pat McLaughlin, Jason Isbell, and Amanda Shires among others and last night, Prine performed the song ‘Summer’s End’ from the album on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, alongside Sturgill and Brandi Carlile. Watch it below, and have a good one!