Dwight Yoakam, Blind Boys of Alabama among many receiving lifetime Americana award honors
A sextet of artists spanning blues, country, gospel, rock and soul will be honored as Lifetime Achievement Honorees at 2024's 23rd annual Americana Music Association Honors & Awards ceremony.
Dave Alvin, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Rev. Gary Davis, Shelby Lynne, Don Was and Dwight Yoakam will be celebrated during the ceremony at the Ryman Auditorium on Sept. 18, 2024.
"It is a privilege to recognize and celebrate the incredible careers of these artists. We look forward to another exceptional night at the Ryman Auditorium," said Jed Hilly, Executive Director of the Americana Music Association and Foundation.
Tickets to the Americana Honors & Awards will go on sale to Silver Passholders on June 26, 2024. Tickets will be available to Association members, festival pass holders and the general public at a later date.
The Honors & Awards ceremony will highlight 2024's Americanafest in Nashville from Sept. 17-21, 2024. Hundreds of artists and bands will be showcased in venues throughout Music City, alongside an extensive music conference. For more information, visit americanamusic.org.
Tyler Childers and Sierra Ferrell are the most nominated male and female artists for 2024's Americana Honors & Awards. The evening's most vaunted award, Entertainer of the Year, features Ferrell repeating her 2023 nomination alongside Charley Crockett and Allison Russell. Upstart pop-crossover favorite Noah Kahan and Childers also round out the nominees.
Grammy-winning Americana favorites Brandy Clark and Jason Isbell are also featured as nominees.
The former's self-titled and Brandi Carlisle-produced 2023 album and its single "Dear Insecurity" are among the nominees for Album and Song of the Year.
Isbell and the 400 Unit's album "Weathervanes" is also nominated for Album of the Year.
A complete list of nominees is available at americanamusic.org/awards/nominees.
The honorees
Alongside being the bass player in the American Honors & Awards house band, Detroit native Don Was is an Emmy and Grammy-winning artist, arranger, producer and session musician with critically acclaimed work with Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and Brian Wilson, among many. Since 2012, he's also worked as the president of the jazz label Blue Note Records.
Dwight Yoakam's bluegrass, cowpunk and countrified guitar-rock stylings have significantly influenced the past five decades of mainstream culture and music. His Eastern Kentucky bluegrass roots melded with Los Angeles' burgeoning cowpunk scene's rekindling of country's foundational Bakersfield and honky-tonk traditions to foreshadow the alt-country movement that evolved into Americana.
Alongside artists like Yoakam, when paired with The Blasters — alongside his brother Phil — or as a solo artist, Dave Alvin's work as a roots-based West Coast folk-rocker was best-highlighted in works, including his Grammy-winning, 2000-released, traditional folk album, "Public Domain: Songs From the Wild Land."
Alabama-born Shelby Lynne's largely independent history as a soulful and Americana-defining singer and songwriter includes having her career intertwine with working with producer Billy Sherrill and hall of famers like George Jones, recordings and performances with her younger sister Allison Moorer, plus paying homage to Dusty Springfield via a 2008 covers album, "Just A Little Lovin'."
For nearly a century, the electrifying sanctification with which Talladega's Blind Boys of Alabama imbued their R&B-meets-gospel sound grounded their sound in a Grammy-winning style that inspired artists as diverse as Peter Gabriel and Booker T. Jones, plus Tom Petty and Lou Reed. Alongside their five Grammy victories, they've been hosted at the White House on multiple occasions.
Like the Blind Boys' Southern-borne legacy, Rev. Gary Davis' grounding in the Appalachian-meets-Deep South Piedmont blues tradition allowed his sacred and secular sounds to be uniquely guided by ragtime-style syncopated guitar counterpoint. Eventually lured to New York City by the 1960s-era folk revival, his work inspired that of the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, John Sebastian, Jorma Kaukonen and more. Davis is the recipient of the Legacy Award presented in partnership with the National Museum of African American Music (NMAAM).
The Americana Honors & Awards have celebrated pioneers and newcomers for over two decades, including Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash's last live performance and the late John Prine with Bonnie Raitt.
The event also featured show-stopping performances by an all-genre who's who, including k.d. lang, Van Morrison, Mavis Staples, Bob Weir, Buddy Guy, George Strait, Don Henley, Gregg Allman, The Avett Brothers, The Lumineers, Mumford & Sons, Alabama Shakes, Solomon Burke, Rosanne Cash, the late Dr. John with Dan Auerbach, Irma Thomas, Levon Helm, Robert Plant and more.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Americanafest to have many receive lifetime Americana honors
