AmericanaFest2024 – Day 5
There’s good and bad about Saturday at AmericanaFest. Good – the work week is over, so it’s all about the music. Bad – it’s the last day! Nashville was full of all-day events and a final night of showcases, but most of the best was to be found in one small Five Points-area bar.
THE AUSSIE BBQ
As I found out last year, some of Americana’s best music comes from roughly 9,600 miles away. This (amazingly) 15-year-old event, hosted by Sounds Australia, has found a home – and a strong fan base – at The 5 Spot in East Nashville. Our top draw was Jordie Lane – originally of Melbourne, he’s now found a home in Nashville. His music is a mix of honky-tonk and Southwestern (just a little farther south-west than usual). Lane, from Melbourne, even had his most recent record, Tropical Depression, reach Number One on Australia’s ARIA Country Album chart, and he’s gaining airplay in Nashville as well. His song “It Might Take Our Whole Lives” served as a reminder that, whether it’s love or musical success, getting where you want to go might take longer than you ever thought possible.
Other Aussie highlights included Imogen Clark, another recent Nashvillian who brought her stunning pipes to the states; Emily Barker, whose solo set included “The Woman Who Planted Trees,” a tune about a Kenyan activist who started a conservation and reforestation movement and ended up with a Nobel Prize; and Freight Train Foxes, a folky duo who first met at a Brisbane open mic event. All told, Australia has a varied country and Americana scene, and the folks at the BBQ are a friendly, open-minded bunch – this will certainly be an annual must for me.
Ashley Monroe
Even though the best of the action (day and night) was at The 5 Spot, there was time (and a calling) to head over to Analog at Dutton Hotel, a gorgeous setting for music. The real draw here, though, was a showcase for Ashley Monroe. The woman who’s seemingly written with everyone, from Guy Clark to Chris Stapleton, as well as recording with Pistol Annies, has returned from a bout with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and is back writing and touring – in fact, she was fresh of a plane from the UK when she joined us. She began her set with a solo version of her song “There You Are” before welcoming a four-piece band (who, in her estimation, she had rehearsed with only twice). She ran through several of those co-writes, including the Tex-Mex-y “If the Devil Don’t Want Me” (Stapleton) and the resilient “Like A Rose” (Clark). Most fun, though, was her sexy, spiky “Weed Instead of Roses.” With more songs seeming to pour out of her (four singles so far this year), this isn’t a comeback – merely a continuation.
The 5 Spot
It was back to East Nashville to wrap AmericanaFest with an evening full of music that deserves to be heard and stories that needed to be told. First up – Lawrence Rothman released one of this year’s best albums, The Plow That Broke the Plains. The singer-songwriter-producer went deeply personal on the record, from gender identity to body dysmorphia, but at its heart, it’s country music, best typified on this night in the title track, with lines like “I ain’t afraid of losing my mind for a while/The only thing I’m afraid to lose is you.” Side note – Fields’ band included former 400 Unit member Jimbo Hart on bass – I knew he’d been playing around town, but it was good to see him doing what obviously makes him so happy.
Next on stage was Paisley Fields, and his recent album title, Limp Wrist, tells you all you need to know about him – queer, and unafraid to sing about it. From “Burn This Statehouse Down” (originally performed with trans artist Mya Byrne) to “Stay Away from My Man,” which Fields performed “as if Loretta Lynn had been born a gay man,” the sparkling cowboy singer was outspoken, unapologetic and, most importantly on a Saturday night, FUN.
The last artist (in our evening, anyway) was Crys Matthews, performing in her first showcase and her first full band show in Nashville (which included her wife Heather Mae on vocals). Matthews proved to be an excellent bandleader and a gifted storyteller, but it was two comments around her gorgeous “Oklahoma Sunset” that stood out. First, she joked (?) that she’d be happy to sell it to any of the male singers in town, and her point was accurate – this song would be a smash if only the “right” person were singing it. But it was another remark that really drove her message home – “Living down here, the love songs are feeling like protest songs.” Every song – and every performance – at The 5 Spot on this particular Saturday evening was as good as anything Nashville has to offer (and better than most). Listen to them, share them with your friends, play them in the car when your conservative aunt is with you – whatever little bit you can do to help “normalize” what’s already perfectly normal.
Keep tabs on Americana Music Association here: http://www.americanamusic.org
Enjoy our previous coverage here: AmericanaFest 2024 – Day 4
