The Americana Music Association announced the winners of its 22nd annual Americana Honors & Awards this evening (September 20) at a star-studded show at the historic Ryman Auditorium during the week-long AmericanaFest conference and festival in Nashville. Performers at the marquee event – which felt, as it usually does, more like a concert interspersed with awards presentations than vice versa – included Bonnie Raitt, Bettye LaVette, S.G. Goodman, Noah Kahan, The Avett Brothers, Adeem the Artist, William Prince and many more with Buddy Miller once again as music director for the Americana All-Star Band.
The evening’s presentations also spotlit this year’s Lifetime, Trailblazer, and Legacy Award Honorees: The Avett Brothers, George Fontaine Sr., Bettye LaVette, Patty Griffin and Nickel Creek. Allison Russell, nominated in two categories, was bestowed the Spirit of Americana / Free Speech in Music Award by the infamous Tennessee Three, Tennessee state representatives Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, whose expulsion by the Tennessee General Assembly after protesting in support of common sense gun legislation earlier this year made international headlines.
A full list of categories, nominees and winners at the Americana Music Association’s 22nd annual Americana Honors & Awards is below, winners in bold. Congratulations to all of the honorees and awardees!
ARTIST OF THE YEAR:
Charley Crockett
Sierra Ferrell
Margo Price
Allison Russell
Billy Strings
ALBUM OF THE YEAR:
Big Time, Angel Olsen; Produced by Angel Olsen and Jonathan Wilson
Can I Take My Hounds To Heaven?, Tyler Childers; Produced by Tyler Childers
El Bueno y el Malo, Hermanos Gutiérrez; Produced by Dan Auerbach
The Man from Waco, Charley Crockett; Produced by Bruce Robison
Strays, Margo Price; Produced by Margo Price and Jonathan Wilson
SONG OF THE YEAR:
“Change of Heart,” Margo Price; Written by Jeremy Ivey, Margo Price
“I’m Just a Clown,” Charley Crockett; Written by Charley Crockett
“Just Like That,” Bonnie Raitt; Written by Bonnie Raitt
“Something in the Orange,” Zach Bryan; Written by Zach Bryan
“You’re Not Alone,” Allison Russell featuring Brandi Carlile; Written by Allison Russell
DUO/GROUP OF THE YEAR:
49 Winchester
Caamp
Nickel Creek
Plains
The War and Treaty
EMERGING ACT OF THE YEAR:
Adeem the Artist
S.G. Goodman
William Prince
Thee Sacred Souls
Sunny War
INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR:
Isa Burke
Allison de Groot
Jeff Picker
SistaStrings – Chauntee and Monique Ross
Kyle Tuttle
Jack Emerson Lifetime Achievement Award
George Fontaine, Sr.
Legacy of Americana Award (Presented in partnership with the National Museum of African American Music)
Bettye LaVette
Lifetime Achievement
Patty Griffin
The Avett Brothers
Spirit of Americana / Free Speech in Music Award
Allison Russell
Trailblazer Award
Nickel Creek
Photo Credit: Bettye LaVette by Danny Clinch; Allison Russell by Laura E Partain; Billy Strings by Jesse Faatz; SistaStrings by Samer Ghani.
This weekend, September 21, 22, and 23, at the West Virginia State Fairgrounds in Lewisburg, West Virginia, ascendant, down home country star Tyler Childers and his cohort will gather for an event begun in 2018 called Healing Appalachia. The benefit festival, put on by West Virginia based non-profit Hope in the Hills, will include performances by some of the biggest and buzziest names in American roots music: Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Trey Anastasio Band, Marcus King, Umphrey’s McGee, Amythyst Kiah and many more.
Healing Appalachia is just one of many such community-led, collective efforts born from within the region in recent years that is working towards effecting positive change while offering local, ground-up solutions to big, systemic problems. Their social media and website put it elegantly and succinctly: Their vision is a prosperous Appalachia, free from addiction. The opioid crisis has hit Appalachia, especially West Virginia and Childers’ home state of Kentucky, incredibly hard. When 26 people overdosed on one day in Huntington, West Virginia, in 2016, the mission for Hope in the Hills and Healing Appalachia was born.
At the time, Childers and his hardscrabble team were still climbing the music-industry ladder, building connections and community that would eventually grow and blossom into the multi-day event Healing Appalachia has become today. Childers’ friend and manager, Ian Thornton – who founded WhizzbangBAM, the booking and management company that represents Childers – together with festival program director Charlie Hatcher, Hope in the Hills board president Dave Lavender, and others took that tragic day in Huntington and turned it into an accretion point, around which they gathered and took action. Now, the festival has a local, annual economic impact approaching $3 million while raising thousands of dollars to be distributed to local, on-the-ground organizations and non-profits that specialize in addiction programs, recovery, support and healing for this long-oppressed region of the world.
We spoke to Ian Thornton and Dave Lavender for a two-part interview preview of Healing Appalachia, that dives into the work of Hope in the Hills and explores this grassroots music event’s community-first mission, that hopes to heal these music-steeped, underestimated communities in Appalachia from the inside out. Read our conversation with Ian Thornton below, read our conversation with Dave Lavender here.
Could you tell me a little bit about the background, the impetus, or the inspiration when you all were putting your heads together to make an event called Healing Appalachia. What was that like?
Ian Thornton: I’m very close friends with a fellow named Charlie Hatcher, who’s actually the festival producer for the event. The idea came to him first – you know, he tells the story better than I do – but he was on a fishing trip and got a call that yet another one of his friends had passed away from an opioid overdose. You know, we’ve all lost countless friends who we grew up with, went to school with, and I guess you’d say this one was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Charlie just kind of wanted to do something about it. He reached out to me and we got our heads working.
We’re not a recovery organization ourselves, right? But what we’re good at is the music side of things, producing events, working with musicians, playing music, inspiring people, bringing people together. That’s kind of how it was born. I talked to Charlie, who is friends with Tyler [Childers], too, and obviously this is something Tyler is very passionate about.
Tyler is also from Appalachia and he’s lost friends and family members, himself. The idea kind of spawned from thinking, “What if we do essentially a Farm Aid type of event?” The thought process was to have Tyler be the face of it and have all the efforts go towards recovery and the battle against the opioid epidemic here in Appalachia.
What I love about a cause like this is that the music itself is generative and restorative, and isn’t just a tool to generate interest or awareness. How do music and the arts play a role in a mission like this, in healing Appalachia, where the music can do the work as well as spotlighting the work? Do you agree or disagree?
IT: I certainly agree, and I think music is one of those things that ties everyone together, right? On a base level.
This one I think is in particular, it’s special because substance use and music are pretty closely tied together. A lot of musicians suffer from [substance abuse], and it’s part of the lifestyle, right? It’s part of what you see as “the rock and roll lifestyle” or whatever you call it. They kind of go hand in hand. We’re all more aware of it now, too, and we all know folks who have taken things to the extreme, then they’ve had to kind of pull back and get sober after feeling like they lost their way. We wanna show that sobriety and rock and roll – or whatever you want to call it – can live together harmoniously, just as easy as the party side of things.
A very good friend of mine, who’s no longer with us, Tom Morgan, he battled with sobriety for a long time. He was one of the guys that taught me my first chords on a guitar, right? And it got to the point, for him, where he couldn’t even go to shows locally, because they’re always at bars, right? Venues and bars are so closely associated that it can be difficult for someone who is in recovery.
I think that’s why the music side of Healing Appalachia, using music to bring awareness to this epidemic, really goes hand-in-hand. Even some of our performers – Trey Anastasio is performing this year and I think he’s over 15 years sober, now. Obviously with Phish, which is, you know, the jam band, you would assume, drug culture and everything else is associated with that. But, Trey’s only gotten greater in what he’s done with his musicianship. And, you know, Tyler even comments too that his artistry has improved and he’s been able to focus more on it since becoming sober and quitting drinking.
What is the importance of community and mutual aid to this mission, and how important is it that you all are not just people coming in from the outside, that you all have a stake in this – regionally and locally. Do you think that building community as you’re doing this is just as important as doing the work as well?
IT: Yeah. And, you know, to be honest, I think that’s where it has to start. You can look at things on these big levels and you can just get overcome or overwhelmed with how large the changes you’re trying to make are. At that point you get discouraged and you’re not going to do it.
Living inside Appalachia, we have heard all of the stereotypes. That we’re, you know, “Shoeless, toothless, drug-addled, fat…” We’ve dealt with these things and we’ve dealt with the oppression of the coal industry, of big money, of big pharma. All of this built on the backs of Appalachians.
I’ve always been someone who believes that you have to start locally. You have to have something that’s attainable. Something you can put your hands on and something that’s meaningful – it’s more meaningful to us because we’re in the fucking thick of it, right? I mean, Huntington, West Virginia, was almost the nucleus of the opioid crisis, and that’s the city I was born and raised in. We watched [everything] happen, the day there were 26 overdoses in one day due to a bad batch of heroin coming in. If you create something locally and have local people that are invested, what that does is it will not only grow the mission in and of itself, to help people become more aware. But one of my ultimate goals was always for someone else to see what we’re doing and it inspires them to do something in their region. Sometimes that’s all people need. They just need to be pushed over the hump to get the inspiration.
Do you have an idea of the scale of the economic impact of the festival, not only for your mission, but also for the area in general?
Yeah, so I’m going to refer to my fact sheet here. [Laughs] We’ve estimated $2.4 million in local economy spending in southern West Virginia and the Lewisburg area. That’s like hotels, gas stations, shops, restaurants, everything. On top of that, we donate money directly, too, and we pull a lot of volunteers from the region.
Like, the local high school basketball team will come and clean up trash. We’ve given more than $50,000 to local youth organizations in Greenbrier County alone. I think we had over 30 states and 6 countries represented last year in concertgoers. It does make the point for you: You can have all of the apparatus and all the infrastructure, but if you don’t have the community, how do you take those numbers and turn them into something that means something to the people who are on the ground there in West Virginia? And involving them, too, right? Everything from the car lots to catering to cooking burgers out back.
To date, we have donated over $400,000 to recovery wellness organizations. That goes to over two dozen different organizations. We’re not a recovery organization ourselves, right? We’re facilitators. What we’re trying to do is give people that want to do that side of the work the means to do it. We don’t have this crazy application process for grantees. You don’t have to have a degree in grant writing to come to us. Tell us what it is you’re doing, tell us what you need. It could be needle exchange programs or money going towards Jacob’s Ladder, which is an organization for children that were born addicted. We try to hit all sides of it that we can, relying on donations as well as funds raised from the concert itself.
What bands, acts, or artists are you particularly excited about this year when you look at the lineup? It’s a pretty stout lineup!
To be quite honest, I’m pretty excited about the whole thing! When this started it was a small, one day event. I think we only had around 7,500 people show up to it. Last year, we had 16,000+ plus.
I’m personally pretty excited about Trey Anastasio and Classic TAB. I’m such a Phish fan, obviously, and can’t believe we’re having Trey play right before Tyler. I’m just really stoked about that! Also excited for Gov’t Mule, Isbell, 49 Winchester, who are cruising right now. And then, you know, keeping some local folks involved, too, your Kelsey Waldon, Charles Wesley Godwin. And Mr. Tommy Prime, who is fantastic and obviously, his father was an inspiration to a lot of these folks.
It’s really special to see some of these folks actually coming to us now. At first, you know how it is, you have to go beg people, “Hey… I’m doing this charity thing… You want to go play for free? We’ll get you in the local paper…” The “exposure” gigs, right? And now the pitch writes itself! The work that’s been done speaks for itself and people get behind it.
It goes back to the tie with substance abuse and music. You know, they go hand in hand. … I drink, right? It’s nothing that I’m personally [abusing], thankfully. But substance abuse is a thing that can get out of hand in the music industry.
Tommy Prine performs at Healing Appalachia 2022.
Let’s close with two questions and they feel very big, but don’t be alarmed: What does a healed Appalachia look like to you, personally? And what’s one thing that you’d like people to know about Appalachia?
IT: I mean in healing Appalachia, we just have to make it so that folks don’t feel trapped or alone. And to let them know, if it’s a battle they’re going up against, they’re not the first one to do it, even if it’s not an easy battle. It’s not going to be a mound to climb, it’s a goddamn mountain, right? So, having the availability and the resources in place so that when someone is ready to take this on, whether it be the first time or the 10th time, that they don’t feel ashamed or guilty about it. That they feel loved and like a human being.
Question 2, I think wherever you come from, rural, urban, or whatever, it’s the stigmas, right? I want people to know how those stigmas make an impact. The stereotypes of, “They’re fat, uneducated. They live in hills and don’t wear shoes, right?” The whole reason I do what I do, with Whizzbang in particular, I only work with acts from our region. And I do that specifically. When I started getting into all this, even before Tyler, just seeing the music that’s created here. We are not just one thing, right? Nobody is just one thing. You cannot judge a whole people by the bit of the iceberg that floats on top.
The stuff on top that’s the most visual, but you can’t judge a whole people by that. Appalachia is the most beautiful place in the country. Granted, I’m biased. I grew up there.
(Editor’s Note: Read part two, our conversation with Hope in the Hills board president Dave Lavender, here.)
This weekend, September 21, 22, and 23, at the West Virginia State Fairgrounds in Lewisburg, West Virginia, ascendant, down home country star Tyler Childers and his cohort will gather for an event begun in 2018 called Healing Appalachia. The benefit festival, put on by West Virginia based non-profit Hope in the Hills, will include performances by some of the biggest and buzziest names in American roots music: Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Trey Anastasio Band, Marcus King, Umphrey’s McGee, Amythyst Kiah and many more.
Healing Appalachia is just one of many such community-led, collective efforts born from within the region in recent years that is working towards effecting positive change while offering local, ground-up solutions to big, systemic problems. Their social media and website put it elegantly and succinctly: Their vision is a prosperous Appalachia, free from addiction. The opioid crisis has hit Appalachia, especially West Virginia and Childers’ home state of Kentucky, incredibly hard. When 26 people overdosed on one day in Huntington, West Virginia, in 2016, the mission for Hope in the Hills and Healing Appalachia was born.
At the time, Childers and his hardscrabble team were still climbing the music industry ladder, building connections and community that would eventually grow and blossom into the multi-day event Healing Appalachia has become today. Childers’ friend and manager, Ian Thornton – who founded WhizzbangBAM, the booking and management company that represents Childers – together with festival program director Charlie Hatcher, Hope in the Hills board president Dave Lavender, and others took that tragic day in Huntington and turned it into an accretion point, around which they gathered and took action. Now, the festival has a local, annual economic impact approaching $3 million while raising thousands of dollars to be distributed to local, on-the-ground organizations and non-profits that specialize in addiction programs, recovery, support, and healing for this long-oppressed region of the world.
We spoke to Ian Thornton and Dave Lavender for a two-part interview preview of Healing Appalachia, that dives into the work of Hope in the Hills and explores this grassroots music event’s community-first mission, that hopes to heal these music-steeped, underestimated communities in Appalachia from the inside out. Read our conversation with Dave Lavender below, read our conversation with Ian Thornton here.
Can you talk a bit about the impetus or inspirations for Healing Appalachia?
Dave Lavender: Hope in the Hills, our non-profit, was started in 2017, and then the first Healing Appalachia was held in 2018 as it took a minute for Ian Thornton, Keebie Gilkerson and Charlie Hatcher, and the other OG board members to get the all-volunteer non-profit going.
The birth of the group is rooted in the events of 2016 – two historic things happened that year. In June 2016, central West Virginia got record flooding that killed 23 people. Shortly thereafter, the Huntington music scene, which was really getting built-up in a mighty way with touring bands, came together and raised more money in one night at the V Club than some big corporate fundraisers had in a couple weeks. I think all of us there saw a ragtag bunch of musicians could really make a difference banding together. Interestingly, Tyler Childers and the Food Stamps’ first New York City trip was that August as well, for a West Virginia flood fundraiser organized by our friend, Michael Cerveris, the two-time Tony winner from Huntington.
As that was happening in August 2016, Huntington, West Virginia, hit the world’s headline news with 26 overdose calls within four hours. It might have been a shock to the world, but we were all living around it in West Virginia so Ian, Tyler and Charlie Hatcher, Healing’s co-founder and show producer, knew how bad it was, and knew it was time to project the “bat signal” in the air, and unite their super friends in music to gather again and put on a show to help out the boots-on-the-ground folks overwhelmed and trying to assist in this opioid crisis.
One thing that struck me about the organization and the event is how y’all are from the region and building support systems, resources and pathways for folks from within the region – can you talk about the importance of mutual aid and community to the org and also the event?
DL: Everyone in the world knows the West Virginia theme song is “Country Roads,” but I would say the West Virginia and Appalachian motto is a song from Slab Fork, West Virginia-native Bill Withers. He wrote “Lean on Me” about being raised in the coal camp where you rely on your neighbors. Being from Appalachia, we know help is not on the way and that we are also better and stronger together.
For Hope in the Hills as a granting organization, we try to stay acutely aware of the ever-changing recovery ecosystem and fill the gaps where we can. For instance, I think the general public thinks of the opioid crisis as, “That’s the guy with the backpack at the recovery house.” Yes, true. But, the opioid crisis has created deep and wide fall-out – from historic numbers of kids in foster care (addressed by Barbara Kingsolver in her latest Pulitzer-Prize winning book, Demon Copperhead), to an overloaded prison system with non-violent drug offenders to many governments not wanting to fund harm reduction – even though they know through countless studies that it saves lives. Without harm reduction, communities are likely to get horrific spikes in hepatitis and HIV.
We try to put what funds we have into the gaps to provide a little help, but to also let folks know through our socials about some of these amazing programs happening across the region with things like camps for kids in trauma, and innovative recovery-work programs.
As for the event, I think that “Lean on Me” spirit is really palpable everywhere you look at Healing Appalachia. We’ve modeled ourselves in the spirit of using music to create social change, after Farm Aid. Healing is shining a light on a crisis that many choose to ignore. We’re highlighting amazing people who help daily to deal with that crisis. We’re inspiring attendees through the music, testimonials from the stage, and the dozens of service providers there, to go forth and be the change when they get home from the concert, wherever home is. And that home is widespread – last year we had folks from 38 states and 3 countries.
The message I hope the casual music fan receives in their heart and acts upon from Healing Appalachia is that the opioid crisis is not “us and them,” it’s just us. Last year, we lost more than 109,000 in the United States to overdose. Music is a powerful vehicle for conveying with love that message of empathy. Even if you haven’t lost someone personally to overdose, we lost Prince, Tom Petty, Whitney Houston, and a long list of beloved musicians to opioid overdoses. So I hope that at the very least the casual music fan who comes just to see some amazing bands, goes back home with an improved empathy muscle that allows them to lay down the proverbial stones and jokes and judgment they were set to throw at someone suffering from Substance Use Disorder and in active addiction.
For the recovery service groups coming to Healing – and this year we will have more than 40 from 13 states – I want them to know, that as Mavis Staples sings, “You’re Not Alone.”
That they hopefully will meet folks from organizations like them who are in the trenches everyday, doing the hard, tedious and often-unsung work of helping someone along their journey, and that they may pick up some best practices, some group to ally with, and some friends from across Appalachia who know their struggles and can be an encourager.
Do you have a favorite anecdote or story about a partner organization or individual or program that was particularly impactful, or a perfect representation of why you do what you do?
DL: At Healing Appalachia last year, Kenney Matthews, the ONEBox coordinator for Drug Intervention Institute was one of our main speakers. I’m typically running around taking care of a lot of back-end stuff at the fest, but I was out there with him before he went out. He was really nervous, but I hugged him and told him he was going to crush it. He did, and threw down this beautiful line about “the opposite of addiction is connection.” It really was electric, so real and so true. I was talking with my wife, Toril, after Healing and Kenney – who spent 15 years in prison – told her about running into a prison guard who knew him on the inside at the festival. The guard tells Kenney he never did think he would change and that he was really proud of him, and they both had a moment of healing at Healing. We’ve had LOTS of moments in doing this work and the fest is full of them, but I loved hearing both sides of Kenney’s story and its impact to spread hope.
How do you – either individually or as a group – see music and the arts (especially arts with regional ties, like folk and country music and folk arts) as part of these regional solutions to regional problems?
DL: In Appalachia, storytelling and music are so grapevine-wrapped in who we are, how we think, what we do, so connecting and teaming up with those artists who are using their music with intent and purpose is what we want to do.
As a group, Hope in the Hills, we’ve been building out a Music Is Healing program that has active music therapy programs in East Tennessee with Cecilia Wright (who plays cello with Senora May and who has her own band), and in Eastern Kentucky at ARC and West Virginia with Huntington-based music therapist Margaret Moore (a multi-instrumentalist folk artist who also teaches the Wernick Method bluegrass jams). She also happens to be an expert in forward facing trauma.
The inspiring thing is we are bringing folks like Cecilia and Margaret – with that intersectionality of professional musicianship and therapy – to team up with other regional artists of all genres and do sessions not only at drop-in centers and recovery houses but also at regular music festivals to spread the fact that music is therapy and can be tapped into to get on a higher spiritual plateau.
At Addiction Recovery Care (ARC) Centers in Eastern Kentucky, Margaret gets to work with world-class bluegrass artists Don and John Rigsby, long-time nationally-touring bluegrass artists who are sharing their music to inspire folks on their recovery journey. Through ARC, Don’s built out a studio in Lawrence County, Kentucky, where he is teaching some of the ARC guys the recording industry. Along those career pathway lines, at Recovery Points in West Virginia, Hope in the Hills (Dave Johnson and Charlie Hatcher) have been working with folks there who have in years past helped build Healing’s stages and do stage-hand and festival security work, get paid for additional festival work as a career pathway build-out as an employment option.
Hope in the Hills is also helping fund the WVU School of Medicine’s music therapy program at the opioid unit. We’re also contributing to the inspiring Troublesome Creek Stringed Instruments program with Doug Naselrod in Eastern Kentucky, where Doug is doing music therapy while also carving out recovery-to-work opportunities for his world-class luthier shop making traditional music instruments.
Specifically for Healing, we’ve leveraged the fact that we have a large audience to help train them on using Naloxone. Last year (the first year back after two years off because of COVID), we teamed up with the WV Drug Intervention Institute to have a Naloxone training tent that really broke down the stigmas of Naloxone with a festival spirit. Our buddy Joe Murphy got Gibson Gives involved and we loaded up swag bags with Tyler CDs, water bottles from Healing, and then additional swag from other artists.
Are there particular bands/artists/acts on the lineup this year you’re especially excited about?
DL: Gotta give crazy props to Charlie Hatcher and Ian Thornton for pulling aces and connections to reel in an insanely good lineup that includes 24 national acts. This is only our fourth Healing Appalachia, so to have Marcus King, Umphrey’s McGee, and Warren Haynes and Gov’t Mule back-to-back-to-back – would be the envy of jam band festival in the world! Truly a guitar lover’s feast on Friday. And opening act Joslyn and the Sweet Compression is one of my favorite R&B bands out there.
I’m really knocked out that 49 Winchester (who’s up for Americana Group of the Year) are throwing down for two nights in a row hosting our Late Night Jam with some killer bands and songwriters on those bills.
As far as really impactful musicians and people in that recovery space, we feel beyond blessed to have Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit on Thursday as the headliner and then Trey Anastasio and Classic TAB on Saturday headlining with festival co-founder Tyler Childers and The Food Stamps. Isbell, who was on a recovery panel at SXSW 2022 with our good friend Jan Rader, has put in the hard work to become increasingly more comfortable and sure-footed in that space and has Weather Vanes fresh out — the album to prove it. That’s been inspiring to watch.
We’re over the moon to have Trey (who is 15 years in recovery) with us and bringing Classic TAB, after a full summer of Phish shows, and with the great news that his 40-bed recovery center Divided Sky Foundation is on the way to opening in Ludlow, Vermont.
As a West Virginian, I’m super stoked to get Charles Wesley Godwin back on home turf to do something so real. I think he could grow into the biggest thing out of West Virginia since Brad Paisley. His new 19-song album, “Family Ties,” drops the day after he plays Healing on Thursday.
Margo Price performs at Healing Appalachia 2022.
What does a healed Appalachia look like to you?
DL: The problems are many, but the power of collective hope is growing and change is in the air all over Appalachia.
A healed Appalachia spends its riches and resources on mental health and particularly on children, making sure they are loved, nurtured, yet independent, and have all of the coping skills needed. We are now in an era of record kids in foster care and, as we know, childhood trauma is a thread that runs through folks who suffer with Substance Use Disorder. So first order for a healed Appalachia would be a widespread movement and budget shift to help kids in trauma now.
A healed Appalachia is one that has abundant opportunities within a clear line of sight for everyone in the community. A healed Appalachia gives everyone a seat at the table regardless of their past.
I’m a big fan of Brad Smith, who along with John Chambers and others, helping launch and rebrand West Virginia as the start-up state, where we create a really robust small business economy that allows folks here to dream big and launch those dreams here, like Ian, Tyler and the WhizzbangBAM team have done in Huntington, building out a business that builds spiderwebs of creative economy supporting regional musicians and artists.
A healed Appalachia has ample and good-paying sustainable green-energy jobs that pay a living wage and that brings wealth and health and that are not destructive to our beautiful Appalachian Mountains and to the workers.
A healed Appalachia is one with nature, gardening, exercise and healthy lifestyles that bind us to our beloved mountains and valleys.
A healed Appalachia talks less about politics and more about community and being a good neighbor – as the wonderful new Tim O’Brien song, “Cup of Sugar,” suggests we should do.
A healed Appalachia is full of true forgiveness, grace and second chances for folks, making forgiveness not just an often-trotted out word in a book but something real and necessary to heal our communities.
I think that’s probably enough healing or I’ll have to send you a doctor’s bill… [Laughs]
(Editor’s Note: Read part one, our conversation with Hope in the Hills board vice president and WhizzbangBAM founder Ian Thornton, here.)
Traditional country phenom and Kentuckian Tyler Childers has announced his upcoming album, Rustin’ In The Rain (available September 8, 2023), with a brand new single and music video, “In Your Love.” Written and creative directed by New York Times bestselling author Silas House, the video tells a gay love story between two working class, Appalachian men – played by queer A-list actors and celebrities Colton Haynes and James Scully. The visuals for “In Your Love” tell one of country music’s most prominent and visible LGBTQ+ narratives to date, entering an industry landscape that has become more and more (openly) queer over the past decade.
“In Your Love” reminds of songs and albums released not just by left-leaning, more mainstream artists like Childers and Parker Millsap, but also by queer artists themselves, telling working-class stories and histories just like that constructed and depicted by House and director Bryan Schlam. In 2015, gay banjo player, singer-songwriter, and fellow Kentucky-resident Sam Gleaves released a landmark album, Ain’t We Brothers, which dripped with the exact same lived experiences and soot-tinged patina that inform Childers’ new video. In the past couple of years, releases by LGBTQ+ identified music makers like Amanda Fields, Willi Carlisle, Adeem the Artist, Amythyst Kiah, Jaimee Harris, and more trod similar ground. It’s notable still that an artist – however outlaw- or fringe-identified – as mainstream as Tyler Childers and with as broad a fanbase as his would choose to not only highlight queer, working-class storytelling, but to do so in a way that normalizes and re-centers these ways of being in Kentucky, the South, and Appalachia.
Rustin’ In The Rain will be released via RCA Records on Childers’ own imprint, Hickman Holler Records, on September 8. Via press release, Childers describes the inspiration that birthed Rustin’: “This is a collection of songs I playfully pieced together as if I was pitching a group of songs to Elvis. Some covers, one co-write, and some I even wrote in my best (terrible) Elvis impersonation, as I worked around the farm and kicked around the house. I hope you enjoy listening to this album as much as I enjoyed creating it. Thank you. Thank you very much.”
Clearly, the legacy of “The King” is merely one way drama, mystique, nuance, entertainment, and Southern-ness coalesce within this new project from one of the most exciting voices and perspectives in country.
Highlighting the confluence of roots music and the mainstream, Railbird Festival welcomed 32 acts from across the rock, folk, and bluegrass spectrum to Lexington, Kentucky on June 3-4.
Boasting headliners Tyler Childers and Zach Bryan, plus Charley Crockett, Whiskey Myers, Nickel Creek and more, a sold-out crowd of 40,000-plus helped kick off festival season with a uniquely “Americana” lineup – drawing attention to this hidden gem of a city.
Set in the heart of Lexington and spread across three massive stages and a spacious lawn at The Infield at Red Mile (usually a horse racing venue and casino), 2023 marked the third year of a festival turning the “horse capital of the world” into roots-music central while celebrating the rich musical history of the area.
Jenny Lewis (R) with Lucius by Nathan Zucker
Day one kicked off with perfect festival weather– meaning it was blazing hot and dry as a bone. That was no worry, however, since Railbird also featured three huge shaded areas, plenty of refreshments (it is bourbon country, after all) and a merciful breeze. From just about anywhere on the grounds, fans could see everything all at once – and that included 2023’s festival-season fashions.
Charley Crockett (L) by Charles Reagan
Indie pop chanteuse Jenny Lewis was an early draw, singing smart tunes about “psycho men” and hypoallergenic puppies – and also welcoming Lucius, the Grammy-nominated duo who became something like the fest’s house band, for a rich duet.
Sheryl Crow by Nathan Zucker
Later on, Charley Crockett herded everyone to the Elkhorn stage for some ballads from a modern day drifting cowboy. And Sheryl Crow showed she could still hang with the kids, even calling for more of them in politics. “I don’t have a lot of hope for people older than me,” the feisty icon said. “But you can bring change.”
Valerie June by Cora Wagoner
Whiskey Myers brought their own gasoline (and a match), firing up a midday crowd with their rowdy roadhouse rock, and while Valerie June won her crowd over with a big smile and songs connected to the Black-folk past, emerging phenom Morgan Wade unleashed the pent up anger of country girls everywhere, sounding like a combination of Courtney Love and Loretta Lynn.
Morgan Wade by Taylor Regulski
Nineties alt-heroes Weezer united the crowd in a full set of fuzzed out awkward-teenager anthems – but also showed where they fit in the roots world, breaking out some old-timey three part harmony – and the day came to a close with breakout superstar Zach Bryan.
Zach Bryan by Charles Reagan
A self-made headliner who still carries the underground spirit, he gathered the whole crowd as the sun went down, doing his best to stay a songwriter who “keeps truth in songs.” Leading a country band with strong Class of ‘89 vibes, he mixed tender-but-edgy confessions with a well-placed vocal growl, and finished the night off in awe of the Railbird crowd, noting he was on the fest’s smallest stage just a few years earlier.
“I’m nervous as shit!” Bryan admitted. “Never in my life did I think I’d be after Weezer or Marcus Mumford.”
Marcus Mumford by Charles Reagan
Day two started off much the same as the first: hot and sunny, but with a marked increase of tow trucks prowling the Red Mile area. Great herds of humanity seem to migrate from one stage to the next, with wide smiles and a rootsier, more-acoustic lineup for them to enjoy. Luckily, the pacing was excellent and there was rarely any conflict over which stage to check out.
Sierra Ferrell by Cora Wagoner
Winchester 49 took over the big stage early, dodging beach balls and blasting their gritty country/rock/soul as they welcomed the crowd back with calls to drink up life (and beer.) Old-school master Sierra Ferrell had everyone dancing a throwback jig, and while Flipturn mixed fiery rock grooves with huge, danceable swells of energy (like EDM on electric guitars), Ricky Skaggs charmed as the fest’s elder statesman, and Kentucky treasure.
Making bluegrass look beyond easy (maybe more like effortless), a “RICKY!” chant soon broke out as parents answered questions from dumbstruck kids, like “Is it just him playing right now?” – once again proving the timeless, ageless wonder of acoustic music.
Nickel Creek by Charles Reagan
Nickel Creek seasoned their simple ingredients with a playful edge, returning for their first tour as a blood-bonded neo-bluegrass trio in quite a few years, while Amos Lee sampled everything from Memphis soul to Bob Marley and a bit of New Orleans funk.
Amos Lee by Taylor Regulski
Town Mountain found a welcome home for its foot-stomping, wild-child alternative-grass over at the covered Burl stage – as did Molly Tuttle (who will surely be on a bigger stage next year) and Charles Wesley Godwin, the West Virginia troubadour who welcomed night-one’s headliner back for a re-energizing duet, late in the festival and just before its biggest draw.
Molly Tuttle by Cora Wagoner
That moment finally came as the deep-red Strawberry Moon rose over Red Mile, with Tyler Childers putting a bold, indie-country cap on an already special event.
Tyler Childers by Charles Reagan
Welcomed to the stage by Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton – who proclaimed June 4, 2023 as Tyler Childers Day – the Lawrence County native arrived carrying the whole state’s roots-music tradition on his small frame, and never put a foot wrong.
Humble as ever and wielding the witty cadence of a carnival barker, he presided over a rabid hometown crowd in a jean jacket and rusty-blond hair, matching a voice that could cut Kentucky limestone with hardscrabble poetry just as sharp.
Tyler Childers by Charles Reagan
Over a two hour set, all of Lexington seemed to sway and sing along, closing the weekend with proudly down-home tracks like “All Your’n.” On the surface, it’s a holler-kid’s rebellious pledge of true love, that’s obvious enough. But in this case, that pledge seemed applicable in other ways – to the fans, to roots music, to Lexington. Perhaps even to the Railbird Music Festival itself.
“I’ll love ya ’til my lungs give out / I ain’t lying,” Childers and his audience sang. “I’m all your’n and you’re all mine.”
Tyler Childers and band by Cora Wagoner
Photos courtesy of Railbird Festival Lead photo credit: Taylor Regulski
The Americana Music Association announced the nominees for its 22nd annual Americana Honors & Awards today at the National Museum of African American Music (NMAAM) in Nashville. This year’s nominations were revealed by host Gina Miller, Senior Vice President and General Manager of MNRK Music Group and member of the Americana Music Association’s Board of Directors. The event was streamed live to the Americana Music Association’s Facebook page and also featured performances from S.G. Goodman, The McCrary Sisters, and Margo Price.
A full list of categories and nominees for the Americana Music Association’s 22nd annual Americana Honors & Awards is below:
ALBUM OF THE YEAR:
Big Time, Angel Olsen; Produced by Angel Olsen and Jonathan Wilson
Can I Take My Hounds To Heaven?, Tyler Childers; Produced by Tyler Childers
El Bueno y el Malo, Hermanos Gutiérrez; Produced by Dan Auerbach
The Man from Waco, Charley Crockett; Produced by Bruce Robison
Strays, Margo Price; Produced by Margo Price and Jonathan Wilson
ARTIST OF THE YEAR:
Charley Crockett
Sierra Ferrell
Margo Price
Allison Russell
Billy Strings
DUO/GROUP OF THE YEAR:
49 Winchester
Caamp
Nickel Creek
Plains
The War and Treaty
EMERGING ACT OF THE YEAR:
Adeem the Artist
S.G. Goodman
William Prince
Thee Sacred Souls
Sunny War
INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR:
Isa Burke
Allison de Groot
Jeff Picker
SistaStrings – Chauntee and Monique Ross
Kyle Tuttle
SONG OF THE YEAR:
“Change of Heart,” Margo Price; Written by Jeremy Ivey, Margo Price
“I’m Just a Clown,” Charley Crockett; Written by Charley Crockett
“Just Like That,” Bonnie Raitt; Written by Bonnie Raitt
“Something in the Orange,” Zach Bryan; Written by Zach Bryan
“You’re Not Alone,” Allison Russell featuring Brandi Carlile; Written by Allison Russell
Photo of Tyler Childers: David McClister Photo of Sierra Ferrell: Alysse Gafkjen Photo of Allison Russell: Marc Baptiste Photo of Charley Crockett: Bobby Cochran
Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?
Right now, I’m listening to the new Tyler Childers record a lot and it’s starting to warm up so I’ve been out at the smoker a few times a week. So I’d probably say Tyler Childers and a brisket this week.
Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?
I live out on a little farm and spend most of my days outside, if I’m not in the studio. Lots of long walks through the fields and the little woods bordering them. I do a lot of foraging for mushrooms and herbs out there, bonfires most nights with friends and my brother. It’s where I do most of my writing. Being surrounded by the outdoors finds its way into most of my songs, mostly through imagery.
What has been the best advice you’ve received in your career so far?
I think the best advice I’ve been given so far is that it’s more important to be constantly creating and writing new material and growing as an artist than it is to chase perfection in one song or one album. I try to create, release, move on, to keep things feeling fresh.
What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?
I do a lot of reading, mostly old books, lots of 1800s fairy tales and old Westerns. I think the more I read, the more I write, so I try to keep things circulating.
How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?
I think about 50% of the songs are personal and 50% are stories. I’ve always liked creating characters based off of the people around me and writing them stories, I think that’s why there are so many names in my songs. But I think it’s no more hiding than a book author hides behind their characters. It’s all just storytelling.
Artist:Elle King Hometowns: Wellston and Columbus, Ohio Single: “Jersey Giant” (written by Tyler Childers) Release Date: November 11, 2022 Label: RCA Records
In Their Words: “Tyler Childers is not too far from where my family lives and he’s a legend. The life of a song is something so beautiful to me, and country music has taught me to see that the opportunity to sing a song written by someone else is nothing short of a gift, a blessing. When you hear a song and say ‘I wish I wrote that,’ you know it’s a good’n. I was humbled and so excited that Tyler gave his song to me. I tried to blend the two worlds of honoring traditional bluegrass and what country music is to me. Thank you, Tyler, for your music, and thank you for entrusting me with this gift. I’m so excited for everyone to hear it.” — Elle King
“I wrote ‘Jersey Giant’ over 10 years ago and only performed it for a short period of time. I was pleased with how it turned out structurally (it even has a bridge, which is rare for me), but I was over performing it pretty fast. I reckon that’s just how songs go sometimes. They can be like that coat you saw and had to have, only to get it home and think, ‘Why gah, I ain’t never gonna wear this thing.’ Or, one that you got from an ex which you would rather just toss out. But that’s not saying anything against the coat, it just doesn’t fit me anymore and hasn’t for some time. I’m super excited that Ms. King has dusted this old song off and given it a new life. I’m extremely grateful for her seeing the potential in this tune and wish her the best out there on the road. Break a leg Elle! And stay warm.” — Tyler Childers
Artist:Tyler Childers and The Food Stamps Hometown: Lawrence County, Kentucky Song: “Angel Band (Jubilee Version)” Album:Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven? Release Date: September 30, 2022 Label: Hickman Holler/RCA Records
In Their Words: “I grew up Baptist and I was scared to death to go to hell. And a lot of that stuck with me. Filtering through that and trying to find the truth, and the beauty, and the things you should think about and expelling all that nonsense has been something I’ve spent a lot of time on. This is a collection that came together through those reflections. In a lot of ways, this is processing life experiences in the different philosophies and religions that have formed me, trying to make a comprehensive sonic example of that.
“Working with the same song three different ways is a nod to my raising, growing up in a church that believes in the Holy Trinity: The Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and what that means. The Father being the root, the place from which everything comes from, and The Son coming to free up some of those things, allowing it to be more open and welcoming. And then you have the Holy Ghost once The Son is gone — that feeling that’s supposed to keep us sustained until we are reunited, in whatever way that looks.
“Message wise, I hope that people take that it doesn’t matter race, creed, religion and all of that like — the most important part is to protect your heart, cultivate that and make that something useful for the world.” — Tyler Childers
Editor’s Note: Conceptualized as a three-part project, the eight songs on Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven? are presented in a trio of distinct sonic perspectives — Hallelujah, Jubilee and Joyful Noise. Produced by Childers and The Food Stamps, the collection features a mix of new and traditional songs and was primarily recorded in guitarist James Barker’s home studio. The Hallelujah version captures Childers and the core band playing live in a single room over the course of two days, while the Jubilee version builds on it with the addition of strings, horns, background vocals and an array of worldly instruments such as dulcimer, mbira and sitar. The Food Stamps are: Barker (pedal steel), Craig Burletic (bass), CJ Cain (guitar), Rodney Elkins (drums), Chase Lewis (keyboards) and Jesse Wells (guitar, fiddle).
Photo Credit: Emma Delevante. Pictured (L-R): Tyler Childers and The Food Stamps (Jesse Wells, James Barker, Tyler Childers, Chase Lewis, Craig Burletic, Rod Elkins)
Artist:The Wooks Hometown: Lexington, Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee Latest Album:Flyin’ High
Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?
I fish and kayak a lot, both here in Kentucky and elsewhere. Fishing and the time spent with friends doing so has certainly inspired me to write. Sometimes being outside and on the water helps me clear my mind for creativity, and sometimes the inspiration is more direct. “Mudfish Momma” is inspired by one of my favorite places to fish in Florida. Mudfish are also known as bowfin and are toothy creatures that often cut your line with their teeth, leaving you wondering if it was the one that got away or just another mudfish. My friend Ray Smith and I wrote the song together, and after telling Ray about this cool fishing spot and the mudfish that sometimes come to visit, he came up with the idea to make the Mudfish Momma a swampy Florida version of a mermaid. — CJ Cain
What is your favorite memory of being on stage?
Probably the first time I was ever on a “stage.” I had been playing mandolin for a couple of months and was really starting to get into it. A family friend called my mom to tell her that there was a fall bluegrass festival in a little rural community about 20 miles from where we lived. My mom took me and my brother to the park/fire station in Letona, Arkansas, where there was a flatbed gooseneck trailer set up with a bunch of what I’d assume were Shure SM57s (the international microphone of bluegrass). There was an open mic style jam and a group of pickers we had just met invited us to come up and play some tunes with them. That was the first time I’d ever heard myself back through a microphone and monitors and it was enough to get me hooked. That memory still stands out very vividly. — Harry Clark
What other art forms influence your music
I’m a huge fan of movies, and have been as long as I can remember. I love movies for the same reasons that everyone loves movies; it’s the thrill of being taken to another place and living a life other than our own for a brief moment, and perhaps returning to reality with some new perspective, knowledge, empathy, etc. I think a great song or composition can do that, too. When I write a song or instrumental piece, I want it to take the listener to another place, in a similar way that a movie would. Sometimes when I’m stuck writing a song or composition, I try to imagine a scene in a movie that might go along with the piece I’m writing. It usually helps to spark new ideas and make the music more evocative. Both “Virgil’s Prayer” and “Madison Chimes” came from this approach. I wrote “Virgil” one night after watching a few episodes of the Netflix show Ozark. The somber cinematography and dark subject matter were fresh in my mind and that song just kind of appeared as a result. I wrote “Madison Chimes” while driving around on a dark and spooky summer night in Madison, Tennessee, and that tune is basically just the soundtrack I imagined for that evening. — George Guthrie
What has been the best advice you’ve received in your career so far?
I have been fortunate to spend a good deal of time around my friend Tyler Childers, and have learned a great deal from him. He never said this directly but I have learned from writing with him and listening to his songs — that you not only can, but you should write about the people you have in your life that are inspiring to you. Their life story or simple daily life circumstances can make for wonderful storytelling songs. You can invoke a philosophy or thought through those stories in a more effective way than just spewing out lyrics that sound like you got something figured out. A good example of one of Tyler’s songs that does this is “Matthew,” a song about his brother-in-law and friend, and one that informed my creativity when I wrote “Flyin’ High.” — CJ Cain
Which artist has influenced you the most and how?
One of my favorites is Del McCoury. I’ve been listening to him and his band since I was an adolescent learning about bluegrass. Del keeps his core sound rooted in traditional bluegrass with both his vocal style and band dynamics while having the ability to reach new audiences with songs that aren’t inside the box of traditional bluegrass. A few examples of this are Tom Petty’s “Love Is a Long Road,” Robert Cray’s “Smoking Gun,” or the Richard Thompson ballad “1952 Vincent Black Lightning.” All three songs are from very different artists with contrasting styles. This has given Del different reaches in the music world and why it’s not uncommon to go to a Del McCoury Band show and see an audience of diehard traditionalists standing next to deadheads. His ability to bridge that gap between fans is outstanding. — Harry Clark
Photo Credit: Carrie Wilson/CW Photography
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