Music City welcomes the low-fi Americana Music Conference and me

NASHVILLE – Where we live the highways are lined with billboards for stern-faced auto accident attorneys. Probably we should nickname the Tampa Bay area – “Accident City.”

 

In Nashville, they go by “Music City” and even their highway ads back it up. Nashville’s got billboards for Toby Keith’s new album and a Reba retrospective at the Country Music Hall of Fame.

 

Last week Nashville’s hottest export – Taylor Swift – was back in town for a series of shows. The Bridgestone Arena is right next to Nashville’s Music Row. By Wednesday, the arena was wrapped in nine (that’s right NINE!!) semi-trucks bearing Swift’s face and her  “Red Tour” logo.

 

A block away, at the legendary Ryman Auditorium, artists representing a completely different side of Nashville were gathering. It was the 12th annual Americana Music Awards show – the first one recorded live for cable and internet outlets.

 

Americana is a catch-all category of American roots music – a mix of alternative country acts, singer-songwriters,  folkies, New Orleans bands, and non-traditional bluegrass pickers. Sure there are some stars – like Emmylou Harris, Wilco, Allison Krauss, Lucinda Williams, and recently, the former Zep’ front-man Robert Plant.

 

But most Americana artists travel to gigs in vans and station wagons. Instead of arenas, they play bars and house concerts.

 

The big paychecks come occasionally for songwriters who place a tune on an album of a mainstream country star.

 

But there’s a feeling at this conference – which I attended for the first time – that Americana’s moment has arrived. After years of electronic beats, and pop artists who have to lip synch their songs, some of the hottest emerging acts are real bands, playing traditional instruments and offering up soaring harmonies.

 

Witness the success of Mumford and Sons, and the surprising breakthrough of The Lumineers, whose song “Ho Hey” was nominated for Americana song of the year.

 

The awards show was the Americana version of baseball’s All-Star game. Jim Lauderdale, the alt bluegrass singer, was the MC, and the house band included Buddy Miller and Don Was, two of the best musicians and producers around. Dr. John played, along with Emmylou Harris, Roseanne Cash, Rodney Crowell, Richard Thompson (a Palladium regular), Stephen Stills and Kenny Wayne Shepherd (the young bluesman who tore up the Palladium last summer).

 

Under Americana’s big tent it doesn’t seem so strange to see lifetime achievement awards handed out to Hank Williams (singing granddaughter Holly Williams accepted it) and the man who invented “twang guitar” Duane Eddy (who performed). During the festival showcases there was room for the retro star Pokey LaFarge and talented but slightly scary Lisa Marie Presley, fronting a hot band and sending out a harsh breakup song to an ex-husband named Michael.

 

My favorite discovery was the Oklahoma singer and songwriter John Fulbright, who defies categories, but might best be described as an Oklahoma version of Tom Waits. His songs are masterful with lyrics that pass for poetry.

 

A number of artists I saw last week will play the Palladium at some point soon – including Amada Shires, Claire Lynch (April 13), Kim Richey, Grant Peeples (Nov. 2), and Rod Picott. I also caught a great set from the Ohio-based duo Over The Rhine.  Their new album, Meet Me At The Edge of the World, just garnered a major feature on NPR.

 

I’m definitely going back next year. My thanks to Sylvia Rusche, Gloria Holloway and Craig Rellar for showing me the ropes this time.