For five years running, our dear beloved Steve Earle has been gathering a group of world-class friends and performers for a one-night-only concert which raises money for The Keswell School, an educational program for children and young adults with autism. This year on December 13th, Earle’s 6th annual John Henry’s Friends benefit concert is going virtual, meaning that you have the opportunity to watch it from the UK for the first time, and crikey just look at this dream americana lineup – Steve Earle & The Dukes, Emmylou Harris, Graham Nash, Jackson Browne, Lucinda Williams, Jason Isbell & Amanda Shires and Josh Ritter to name but a few artists. Continue reading “Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris to play autism benefit next month”
At AUK we are on a quest to find the ‘top 10 americana albums ever’. Over the last few weeks our writers have been going through the mental anguish of trying to narrow the whole history of americana down to just ten albums. When every writer has had their say, a shortlist of the most frequently chosen albums will be drawn up and voted on, in order to generate the definitive AUK writers top ten. This week we turn to one of our most senior writers. During a recent AUK writers zoom meeting, collective jaws dropped as he told us all of having seen The Beatles and The Rolling Stones within four days of one another! Enjoy the selections of Alan Fitter. 
‘Pieces of the Sky’ was an album eagerly anticipated by those of us who followed the road of Country Rock in the 70s. Still reeling from the loss of Gram Parsons, this was expected to be the next best thing to an album from the Cosmic Cowboy himself. It fully lived up to those expectations and then exceeded them, as Emmylou Harris stepped out of the shadow of Gram and established herself as not just a good harmony singer in a band, but as an artist with a very clear musical vision and the ability to front a band in her own right. 
