Avett Brothers, Nickel Creek among acts receiving career honors at 22nd Americana Awards
With 2023's AmericanaFest just a week away (from Sept. 19-23, 2023, in Nashville), the Americana Music Association has announced that The Avett Brothers, George Fontaine Sr., Patty Griffin, Bettye LaVette and Nickel Creek will receive this year's Lifetime Achievement, Trailblazer and Legacy Award honors from the organization.
The ceremony will occur during the 22nd annual Americana Honors & Awards show on Sept. 20 at the Ryman Auditorium.
"This year's Lifetime Achievement honorees represent the diverse sounds that contribute to the American roots music canon," said Jed Hilly, Executive Director of the Americana Music Association and Foundation. "Our honorees have inspired this community individually and have collectively changed the landscape of the music industry."
For the past two decades, The Avett Brothers (Brothers Seth and Scott, with bandmate Bob Crawford) have existed as what No Depression referred to as "a trio of rompin' stompin' roots Ramones." A press release notes that Americana and Grammy Award-winners' success has been built on a "rousing folk-rock hybrid" and "carefully crafted vocal harmonies."
New West Records owner George Fontaine, Sr.'s quarter-century as the chief of the company based at various times in Athens, GA, Austin, TX, Los Angeles, and Nashville, has released music from icons including Rodney Crowell, Kris Kristofferson, Delbert McClinton, Steve Earle, John Hiatt, Buddy and Julie Miller, and Billy Joe Shaver, introduced artists like Lilly Hiatt, Jaime Wyatt and Nikki Lane, plus sustained artists including Randall Bramblett.
Since the 1990s, Austin-based Patty Griffin's incisive, personal songwriting has yielded inspiration and netted her the Americana Artist of the Year award in 2007.
Bettye LaVette's Legacy Award is presented with the National Museum of African American Music) and celebrates what a press release refers to as her "triumphant" multi-generational legacy as a singer "cherished for her open ears and determination to control her own destiny."
Acoustic bluegrass trio Nickel Creek's persistent innovation and 21st-century genre adaptations are being celebrated for "challenging orthodoxy and luring thousands of new young fans into the wonders of virtuoso-level acoustic Americana."
Tickets to the Americana Honors & Awards are on sale now at https://wl.seetickets.us/event/2023-Americana-Honors-and-Awards/548006.
More information on all Americana Music Association events, plus Americanafest Conference and Festival wristbands, is available at https://www.americanamusic.org.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Avett Brothers, Nickel Creek among acts receiving career honors at 22nd Americana Awards
