Tag: luke bell

Americana Honors & Awards 2022: See the Full Winners List

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

It was a wonderful night of music, celebration, reflection, and joy last night at the Ryman Auditorium as folks gathered for the 21st Annual Americana Honors & Awards.

Billy Strings was crowned Americana’s Artist of the Year, with Jerry Douglas presenting the award.

Triple nominee Allison Russell earned the Album of the Year Award for her record Outside Child, produced by Dan Knobler. She accepted the award from respected music critic and NPR writer Ann Powers.

Allison Moorer and Hayes Carll awarded two-time Artist of the Year Brandi Carlile for the Song of the Year with “Right On Time,” written by Carlile, Dave Cobb, Phil Hanseroth and Tim Hanseroth.

The War and Treaty (Michael and Tanya Trotter) won Duo/Group of the Year after winning Americana Emerging Act of the Year in 2019.

On the heels of her new album Long Time Coming, Sierra Ferrell was also honored by the Americana music community and received this year’s Emerging Act of the Year Award.

Multi-instrumentalist Larissa Maestro took home the Instrumentalist of the Year Award, as Molly Tuttle recognized the Berklee College of Music grad. Maestro has performed and recorded with many high caliber artists and musicians, including Allison Russell, Mickey Guyton, Eminem, Ms. Lauryn Hill, H.E.R., Michael Bublé, Margo Price, and Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings.

Highlights from the evening include Brandi Carlile and Allison Russell delivering a soul-stirring rendition of “You’re Not Alone,” as well as the iconic McCrary Sisters honoring their late sister Deborah (who passed away in June) with a chills-inducing performance of “Amazing Grace.”

Americana stalwart and reigning All-Star Band musical director Buddy Miller was surprised by Robert Plant, who presented Miller with The Lifetime Achievement Award, which was previously unannounced. Miller graced the audience with his classic “Wide River To Cross.”

Throughout the night, attendees were treated to additional performances by the Fairfield Four, Indigo Girls, Lucinda Williams, Adia Victoria, James McCurtry, Lukas Nelson, Morgan Wade, Neal Francis, The War and Treaty, Sierra Ferrell, and JP Harris honoring the late Luke Bell.

Previously announced Lifetime Achievement honors were accepted by the Fairfield Four (Legacy of Americana Award, co-presented with the National Museum of African American Music [NMAAM]), presented by NMAAM’s Katie Rainge-Briggs and award-winning producer Shannon Sanders; Chris Isaak (Performance), presented by Lyle Lovett; the late Don Williams (President’s Award), presented and accepted on behalf of the Williams’ family by producer Garth Fundis; Al Bell (Executive), presented by music executive and Chairman of the Black American Music Association Michael Mauldin; and the Indigo Girls (Spirit of Americana Award, co-presented with the First Amendment Center), presented by Brandi Carlile and First Amendment Center’s John Seigenthaler.

Here’s the full list of the 2022 Americana Honors & Awards Winners and Honorees:

Album of the Year: Outside Child, Allison Russell; Produced by Dan Knobler

Artist of the Year: Billy Strings

Song of the Year: “Right On Time,” Brandi Carlile; Written by Brandi Carlile, Dave Cobb, Phil Hanseroth and Tim Hanseroth

Duo/Group of the Year: The War and Treaty

Emerging Act of the Year: Sierra Ferrell

Instrumentalist of the Year: Larissa Maestro

Legacy of Americana Award, presented in partnership with the National Museum of African American Music: Fairfield Four

President’s Award: Don Williams (posthumous)

Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance: Chris Isaak

Lifetime Achievement Award for Executive: Al Bell

Spirit of Americana Award: Indigo Girls

Luke Bell, ‘Sometimes’

Posted on by Editor

Where does "throwback" end and "reinvention" begin? Somehow, we can smell music that's too stuck in the past, like the musky odor that lingers on a pair of thrift store corduroys: They look nice on the hanger and all, but don't really work for modern life or wear well with the times. Luke Bell, who grew up in Wyoming's ranch culture and now lives in Nashville, has plenty of vintage sheen — a deep, honky tonk-meets-soda shop croon that hiccups and yodels along, a penchant for innocent flicks of piano and steel guitar that swing and sway through tales of hurt and heartbreak where the melody keeps the glass wet but cheeks dry.

But "Sometimes," the first single from his forthcoming self-titled release on Thirty Tigers, doesn't sound like something queued up on your granddad's radio. Swirling Buddy Holly quirk and Elvis Presley quivers into his classic country constructions, there's a freshness to his interpretation of the genre, as if instead of attempting to resurrect a bygone era, he's just trying to pick up where it might have left off, using a levity and acuity that is often best gained by those who study their forefathers without trying to purely emulate them. There's a purity to "Sometimes," too, that's stripped of the sarcasm often attached to anti-Music Row arbiters who worship Waylon Jennings but translate it all into a cartoonish vision of what could have been — the only bitterness here is what Bell feels for the woman whom he loved but had to leave, his "watermelon woman" and his "cornbread queen." Nothing musky-smelling about that.