AmericanaFest 2024 Brings Out the Best Yet Again
Descending upon Nashville last week were Americana fans from around the world. Age, location, vocation, and listening habits bear no weight on attendance. While I usually engage listen on my own, I often forget that it is a huge community of “my kind of music” lovers, and AmericanaFest reminded me of that.
Kicking off the five day festival on Tuesday, September 17th, was a rooftop party at BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.), a nonprofit music licensing organization. You had to RSVP to the party, but why wouldn’t you? It was jam packed with performances, free food and drink, and industry bigwigs (an assumption I’m making by the hoards of people snapping pics of certain people.) I even ran into my friends Goldpine, a husband and wife duo coming off a busy festival season including performances at Red Ants Pants, a nonprofit, volunteer-based festival in Montana as well as Rhythm and Roots in Bristol, Tennessee.
To start the evening, the Hanseroth Twins, of Brandi Carlisle’s band, performed a few songs from their solo projects. The twin rockers were clad in leather and studs and played to a growing crowd against a sunset skyline backdrop. They began their set with a self-described sad song and then joked “welcome to AmericanaFest!” But joke’s on them, because we live off of sad songs.
Mentioning that this AmericanaFest stage once launched Billy Strings, Brent Cobb, and The War and Treaty, the sponsor introduced the next performance: rising singer/songwriter and Colorado native Kade Hoffman. The young sensation, who will be opening for Colter Wall this fall, piqued the attendees’ interest as soon as he humbly took the stage. Budding fans gathered around the stage, closer than before, to take stills and Snaps of the man soon to be selling out venues. Dressed in his western wear, his well-worn boots honored the stories of hard work and sacrifice he sang about in his newest single “Seven an Hour.” As a breeze rushed over the rooftop during Hoffman’s set, I could only hope that his voice and energy would ride the wind down to the streets for all to enjoy.
Emily Nenni was the last act before the evening’s headliner. I came to Americanafest in search of what’s new and thriving in the genre, and that is what Nenni is. She represents today’s Americana: modern values sequin-wrapped in honky tonk energy. Between her bouncy brunette curls skimming the top of her oversized, tinted 70s-era shades, denim dress, and slick guitar moves, Nenni brought us back to peak Americana when the cigarettes and Coors filled as much of the dance halls as the blue collars and bar fights. Bringing honesty and self-deprecation into the mix, Nenni remarked, “This next song is about me…it’s called ‘Useless’.”
The evening was capped off with 23-year old Wyatt Flores from Stillwater, Oklahoma. He’s already found great success in writing and touring and has even earned blessings from emerging country artists like Charles Wesley Godwin. With several heartbreaking ties to mental health issues and suicide in his personal life, Flores writes what he knows and leaves it all on the paper. His lyrics reflect his own struggles as well as those around him. Earlier this year, further demonstrating his true to life art, he decided to take a break from touring after a show in Kansas City, Missouri during which he shared with the crowd that he was numb to his musical dreams coming true. Flores never shies away from these difficult conversations, even when he is at the center of them. Even as a young artist, he understands that you need to put your oxygen mask on first.
Trying to fit as much in as possible, I hop over to The Cannery Mainstage to check out Ken Pomeroy, another Oklahoma native on the rise. Pomeroy’s music has already been featured in acclaimed series Reservation Dogs as well as the new Twisters movie. The forest-scape backdrop branded with “AmericanaFest” was the perfect mood for Pomeroy’s song “Cicada,” released earlier this year and already a hot topic online for fans of Reservation Dogs, during which it was featured.
Bouncing over to the World Famous Santa’s Pub next, I happened upon a launch party for the HUMANABLE app designed to keep generative AI out of music. I’m not native to Nashville, but I have heard a great deal about Santa’s and have even been on a couple of late, mostly memorable nights. When I have gone in the past, it was packed with pink cowboy boots and Instagram moments, but this party was filled with familiar faces (to the people they were hugging) and friendly cheers for the people on stage. The mainstay band at Santa’s Pub, Santa’s Ice Pickers, backed up the night’s performers, which included a special performance by Pub regular, Emily Nenni.
On day two of AmericanaFest 2024, I headed straight over to the Songs of Yellowstone: Presented by Fort Worth Film Commission. An intimate discussion of some of the most beloved songs from the gritty drama set against a sprawling Montana ranch from producer and writer Taylor Sheridan starring Kevin Costner. Hosted by Yellowstone music supervisor, Andrea von Foerster, the program featured commentary and performances from a selected few of the artists that have been featured on the show including Shane Smith and the Saints, Cleto Cordero (of Flatland Cavalry), Kevin Galloway (of Uncle Lucius), Robert Earl Keen, and newcomer Myron Elkins. Von Foerster quizzed members of the panel about their relationship to their songs and connection to the show.
When asked about the featured song “Mountain Song,” Cleto Cordero remarked that he and a friend were trying to write a love song but that neither of them were in love, so they were “kind of wasting time.” Instead they pivoted to write about where they were instead, which prompted them to simply look out the window to the mountains near where they were staying in Mexico, paving the way for the sentimental opening of the song “Mountain, mountain, it’s good to see your face.”
Rising powerhouse Myron Elkins has already had two of his songs featured in the hit show, “Factories, Farms & Amphetamines” and “Wrong Side of the River,” from his debut album Factories, Farms & Amphetamines. I’m still processing this artist. At only 22, the former welder is already working with Nashville mainstays like producer Dave Cobb, who’s worked with greats from Chris Stapleton and John Prine to Sturgill Simpson and Brandi Carlisle. During AmericanaFest, Elkins joked that while everyone else on stage was from “Texas or somewhere cool,” he was from Kalamazoo where they are more car people than ranch people. He also quipped that he is a big deal now at the local restaurant. His wit and charm already won me over by that point, but as he began to perform one of his featured tunes, I almost fell to the floor when this earth shaking baritone came barreling out of this baby-faced rocker with the long hair and boots to match. Summoning CCR as the needle traces the grooves and the rolling paper tightens in your fingers, Elkins’ sound will have you pondering youth on the brink and government overreach. I’ll take care of the roadie revival if he keeps this up.
The event’s “headliner,” if you will, was Shane Smith and the Saints, who recalled their sudden rise through the ranks when Taylor Sheriden got wind of the band’s song “All I see Is You.” Notably, one of the band’s much older songs, as Smith remarks to the crowd. Von Foerster then described a “reign of terror” as Yellowstone featured more and more of their music, noting that the band was the only one smart enough to do co-branding with the show on some of their merch. Smith humbly shared with the audience that they had been a touring band for about 11 years before their breakout on the show a few years ago which ignited their mainstream popularity, to which Von Foerster asked if they were able to get a bigger bus as Smith and the Saints chuckled and agreed.
Later in the day, a surprise show at Robert’s Western Wear filled the historic venue on Wednesday as Old Crow Medicine Show took the stage to celebrate the Americana Music Association’s 25th anniversary, and thus our beloved Americana music as a genre. Lucky for me, with my cameras in hand and a smooth talking friend, I was able to skirt the line and post up right against the stage to capture the pop-up (and my first) OCMS performance. Like the 25 cent PBRs, the room was overflowing with fans from every walk of life to catch this memorable night. A throwback to how the band came up, they shared with the audience it brought them back to the days when they played honky tonks and street corners, that is until Robert’s invited them in, as lead singer and last original member, Ketch Secor joked.
After some good old fashioned country music, I rushed over to the well-dressed 23rd annual Americana Honors and Awards. The night showcases some of the brightest talent in the industry with six member voted awards as well as honors veterans of the genre with several lifetime achievement awards.
Duane Betts, son of Allman Brothers’ Dickey Betts, opened the evening with a tribute to his late father, who passed away this April. He played “Blue Sky” from the Allman Brothers’ 1972 album Eat a Peach. Other performances throughout the evening came from Charles Wesley Godwin, Jobi Riccio, and Sierra Ferrell. You can find more coverage of the night here: AmericanaFest 2024 – Awards and Day 2
Notable winners include:
Album of the Year: Trail of Flowers, Sierra Ferrell
Artist of the Year: Sierra Ferrell
Emerging Act of the Year: The Red Clay Strays
Song of the Year: “Dear Insecurity,” Brandy Clark feat. Brandi Carlisle
You can find the complete list of winners and the night’s honorees here: http://www.americanamusic.org
Other performances throughout the day included husband and wife duo Goldpine at Brown’s Diner, the famous local residency Peach Jam at The Basement, and Lizzie No and Arkansauce, and the artist I was most excited for, Tyler Halverson at the Station Inn.
Since hearing his harmonica pop off in the opening of “Mac Miller” for the first time, I have been tracking this guy for the last couple of years. A South Dakota boy, his honest and entertaining “nothin’ better to do” stories about life growing up in the farthest of the Midwest had me hangin’ on like that cowboy killer. Halverson’s harmonica whinnies in the background to his straightforward lyrics about life on the plains, loving plainly, and plain and simple honky tonkin’.
With his Fear and Loathing glasses, his “painted on Wranglers” (just give me a moment to remember that), cowboy and Indian-era tattoos, thick locks bouncing out of his feather-adorned felt, and his emblematic neo-Americana sound, Halverson is quickly solidifying his spot. The intimate show at the Station Inn is certain to be a memory I draw on for years to come as he continues to build a name for himself, which has already earned him an original featured song in the summer’s blockbuster Twisters. He’s debuting at the Opry later next month.
My first AmericanaFest had to end early as I was headed to Louisville for Bourbon and Beyond, but you can bet I’m sticking around for the entire festival next year. Let’s see what happens in Americana until then!
Find more information on AmericanFest here on their website: http://www.americanamusic.org
