Americana’s Annual Gathering Has Brandi Carlile and Others Posing the Question: Is It a Musical Style, or an Ideology?
variety.comChris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Every year at the Americana Honors & Awards program in Nashville, Jim Lauderdale will exclaim, as a running joke, “Now, that’s Americana!” — usually right after someone has given a rousing performance in a style that most people wouldn’t reflexively classify as Americana.
The fact that it’s said both enthusiastically and slightly facetiously does beg the obvious, perennial question: What’s Americana… all kidding aside?
Standing outside the Ryman Auditorium, where the 22nd annual edition of the awards show was about to go down, Brandi Carlile had an answer.
And since she is the closest thing to an offical mascot the genre has had since the passing of John Prine, when Carlile talks about Americana, people listen. “We need to elevate this and make a home here,” Carlile said. “I’m aware that there’s a certain amount of mystery around the concept of what Americana is.
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