AmericanaFest 2025 – Day 2
Day 2 of AmericanaFest is when existing legends are honored and new legacies are started (at the Americana Music Association Honors and Awards), but it also proved to be a contrast in styles and guitar tones around Nashville all afternoon.
Shawn Camp Album Release
This private listening party, put on by Truly Handmade Records (a non-profit headed by former Americana Music Association president Tamara Saviano), included every journalist’s best friend – a free lunch. Most importantly, though, was a chance to get an early listen to Shawn Camp’s upcoming album, The Ghost of Sis Draper (available this Friday, September 13). It’s a gorgeous new country/bluegrass record of songs primarily written by Camp and, and it was inspired by tales both tall and true of the real-life fiddle player in the title. It’s a project that was long in the making (Camp quipped at one point, “Worked on it for 27 years, cut it all in one day”), but the songwriting (Booze! Murder! Ghosts!) and musicianship (featuring Tim Crouch filling in for Sis) make it an excellent listen. As fellow longtime Guy Clark collaborator Verlon Thompson told the audience, “It was like a great Netflix series. I fell in love with this Sis Draper woman, then they killed her off!” That’s good storytelling.
Big Loud AMERICANAFEST Takeover at Skydeck
My next target was high over Lower Broadway at the top of the Assembly Food Hall to see Stephen Wilson Jr. He’s an artist I’ve gravitated toward but never completely latched onto – until now. Loud (BIG loud) and energetic, Wilson’s sound rides on his unique nylon string guitar playing, as well as the raucous pedal steel work of Scott Murray. The storytelling, though, from the former microbiologist (really!), from “Holler from the Holler” to “Year to Be Young 1994,” anchors what Wilson does. That, and his astounding cover of Nirvana’s “Something in the Way” (from his new covers EP Blankets), is one of the best memories I’ll take from Nashville.
Secretly Distribution & Grimey’s Presents: Independents Day!
Staying near a record store and a coffee shop/brewery (Living Waters) had the potential to bankrupt me, but it also gave me the chance to drop in on some amazing music before getting ready for the evening’s Awards show. I had time to check out Florry, a Philly-based band (and one of my AmericanaFest Musts) who somehow jammed seven musicians onto the tiny stage (a Grimey’s record, we were told) and rip through half an hour of their gloriously unkempt guitar rock, including one of my favorite songs of the year, “First it was a movie, then it was a book.” Up next was Wednesday’s Karly Hartzman with an electric guitar and new songs from the band’s upcoming album Bleeds (it’s a good one – trust me). Not only did she perform the indie country song of the summer, “Elderberry Wine,” but she sang one of my favorite lines of the year, from “Phish Pepsi” – “We watched a Phish Concert and Human Centipede/Two things I now wish I’d never seen.”
The 24th Annual Americana Honors and Awards
As is tradition, my picks for winners would’ve put me in the poorhouse if I were a betting man: correct picks were MJ Lenderman for Emerging Artist and Gillian Welch and David Rawlings for Duo/Group. Congrats also go out to Sierra Ferrell (a repeat winner for Artist of the Year), I’m With Her (Album) and Alex Hargreaves (Instrumentalist, primarily for serving as Billy Strings’ violinist), and a special shout-out to honorary Coloradans Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats (from this adopted Coloradan) for their Best Album award for South of Here.
Actor John C. Reilly proved to be a charming and funny host (while also dueting with Margo Price on Willie Nelson’s “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain). Other highlights from the Ryman Auditorium included:
Emerging Artist nominee Medium Build stunning the Ryman audience with his impassioned delivery of his song “Drug Dealer” – always fun to watch an upcoming musician find a whole new audience.
The McCrary Sisters celebrating their Lifetime Achievement Honor while leaving a mic open for their late sister, Deborah.
Darrell Scott celebrating his Lifetime Achievement Honor by performing his “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” with his three brothers joining the McCrary Sisters for some otherworldly harmonies
Songwriting Honoree Joe Henry, a born storyteller even as a speaker, reminding the assembled artists that, “The song is the act. The song is the character.”
John Fogerty telling the audience that, “Protest songs don’t belong in the past” and, later in the evening, wrapping the show by tearing up the stage on a few Creedence Clearwater Revival classics
3rd & Lindsley
It’s hard to follow up a night at the Ryman, but a little more music was calling my name. Marfa, a band with Colorado ties (and another of my AFest Musts) shared why they ended up leaving the Centennial State (accidentally hitting a deer, as it tu rns out), then launched into their road-worthy “66.” Kelsey Waldon, fresh off presenting an award at the Ryman, wrapped the night with her version of old-school twang, featured on her new album, Every Ghost. Before launching into her “Ramblin’ Woman,” she remarked that it “took me 10 years to get my name in the big font” on Fest promotional material. Too long, if you ask me – she’s a good one.
Find more information here: https://americanamusic.org/americanafest/
Check out Day one coverage here: Show Review: AmericanaFest 2025 Day 1
AmericanaFest 2025 – Day 2
