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2011 Americana Music Association Award Nominees

As luck would have it, I'm in New York City this week for a number of reasons. But, today, it just so happened that the Americana Music Association was holding an event at the Gibson Showroom uptown, just west of the south end of Central Park, to announce the nominees for its 2011 Americana Music Awards.

The event was really fantastic. In case you didn't have a chance to watch the live stream (which Kyla posted here earlier), it was just a small gathering of industry folks in a recording studio uptown. T Bone Burnett swung by to accept an overdo award. Levon Helm sat in with an all-star band of past Americana Music Award winners. Benmont Tench accompanied on piano, Jim Lauderdale did some tunes on guitar, and Rosanne Cash delivered a terrific rendition of "Long Black Veil" from her 2010 AMA Award-Winning album The List. The Civil Wars were also on hand to play a couple songs, although I was running late and unfortunately arrived just as they were finishing up. Then, all the artists got together to perform "The Weight." This was, no doubt, the most incredible moment of the event, with Helm dropping his natural soul on one of the verses, before handing the next one to Cash.

Once the nominees were announced, everyone gathered for cornbread and drinks in the control room, while the artists posed for a photo op. In all, a wonderful kickoff event to what will, no doubt, be an even more memorable week this fall in Nashville. The 2011 Americana Music Honors & Awards will be handed out during the Americana Music Festival and Conference this Oct. 12-15 in Nashville Tenn. For more information, visit the AMA Website.

Now, without further ado, this year's nominees:

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Band of Joy - Robert Plant

Welder - Elizabeth Cook

Harlem River Blues - Justin Townes Earle

Blessed - Lucinda Williams

ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Buddy Miller

Elizabeth Cook

Hayes Carll

Robert Plant

NEW/EMERGING ARTIST OF THE YEAR

The Civil Wars

Mumford & Sons

Secret Sisters

Jessica Lea Mayfield

SONG OF THE YEAR

"Down by the Water" - The Decemberists

"El Camino" - Elizabeth Cook

"KMAG YOYO - Hayes Carll

"Harlem River Blues" - Justin Townes Earle

INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR

Buddy Miller

Gurf Morlix

Kenny Vaughan

Sarah Jarosz

Will Kimbrough

DUO/GROUP OF THE YEAR

The Avett Brothers

The Civil Wars

Mumford & Sons

Robert Plant & the Band of Joy

Comment by Jesse Flores on May 23, 2011 at 2:29pm: Yay! For Jessica Lea Mayfield!

Comment by Lwood on May 23, 2011 at 3:57pm: Nice!

Comment by Hal Bogerd on May 23, 2011 at 7:00pm: No Dylan? An outrage!

But seriously......

Thanks for posting the nominees!

Comment by Jeremy Dylan on May 23, 2011 at 8:54pm: The event this morning was glorious. A gorgeous version of White Dove from Jim and that's my kind of supergroup - Lauderdale, Campbell, Tench, Helm - if only T-Bone Burnett had strapped an axe on and joined them on stage. At first I suspected the ceiling wasn't high enough, but I was disabused of this notion when he came out to accept his award.

Comment by Brian Floyd on May 24, 2011 at 5:49am: Great choices across the board though I liked several songs on Hayes new album much better than KMAG YOYO. I love El Camino from Elizabeth but feel Herion Addict Sister is one the most heartfelt and just plain great songs I have heard recently. Artist of the year category is going to be a tough one, all great!

Comment by Carol Johnson on May 24, 2011 at 7:25am: I like KMAG YOYO as well, but I agree that HC has some other songs on that album that seem better. I saw him in Tulsa recently, and whatever he does, he does well. Why they had him in the tiny Cain's annex I don't know.

Comment by Karyn Williams on May 24, 2011 at 10:22am: Congratulations to Lucinda / Blessed, nomination for Album of the Year 2011! Also, it is great to see the nomination of Gurf Morlix for Instrumentalist of the Year 2011. Gurf previously won this award in 2009.

Overall, it is a well-deserving list of nominees. Many of these names are familiar because they are previous nominees or winners; three of the nominees were winners at the 2010 AMA Awards Celebration. I applaud their hard work to obtain another nomination, especially after winning the prior year. This cannot be said, however, without acknowledging the ‘Unsung & Silent Heroes’ of Americana music. Many great musicians have made significant contributions to this genre of music. At some point, I hope their names stand among those honored by the Americana Music Association. (It is important to note that consideration for nomination requires submission by the artist; this year there were 800 submitted requests.)

Comment by Karyn Williams on May 24, 2011 at 10:25am: This is a great discussion about the genre of Americana music.
An Interview with Jed Hilly, Americana Music Association.

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Comment by steviedal on May 24, 2011 at 2:56pm: JTE has gotta get Album Of The Year - it's a lot better than those others , i'd put Lucinda as second best though !

Comment by Lwood on May 24, 2011 at 3:27pm: Thanks Karyn, your points on Americana music are very much appreciated....if it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

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