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Near the end of Wednesday night’s marathon edition of the Americana Music Association’s annual Honors and Awards show, producer and singer T Bone Burnett stood onstage at the Ryman and came close to offering a succinct definition of Americana. Burnett was in town to present Elvis Costello the association’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting. He cited Costello’s 1986 album King of America as proto-Americana. But then he back-pedaled into the haze that can obscure Americana’s true intentions. Texas gospel-blues artist Blind Willie Johnson was, Burnett said, also a pioneering Americana artist.
What Burnett almost said is that Americana is a set of attitudes about music and culture that arose from the experience of boomer fans and musicians whose worldview was transformed by punk and New Wave artists like Costello. At the end of the four-hour show, Costello joined Mavis Staples and several thousand of its other participants onstage to sing the venerable hymn “I’ll Fly Away,” a song Johnson would have appreciated. Well, I’m kidding: The finale featured an assortment of old-timers and newcomers that included Costello, Yola, The War and Treaty, I’m With Her, Bonnie Raitt, John Prine and Maria Muldaur.
Along with Costello, several of the above won awards. Staples was presented with the inaugural Inspiration Award by civil rights activist Ernest “Rip” Patton and John Seigenthaler, son of the late activist who founded the First Amendment Center. Muldaur, who performed Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller’s song “I’m a Woman,” received the Trailblazer Award. Gospel-soul duo The War and Treaty took home Emerging Artist of the Year. I’m With Her, whose rendition of their song “Call My Name” was one of the evening’s highlights, were recognized as Group of the Year. Prine sang his song “Angel From Montgomery” with Raitt, and garnered honors for Album of the Year and Song of the Year — the former with producer Dave Cobb, and the latter with writing partner Pat McLaughlin. (See our full rundown of the awards here.)
Newly crowned Artist of the Year Brandi Carlile, who speaks up frequently about supporting other women, spent much of her acceptance speech highlighting the accomplishments of her competitors in the category. She also performed “The Mother” from her multiple-Grammy-winning full-length By the Way, I Forgive You. And Rhiannon Giddens, who accepted the inaugural Legacy of Americana award, offered a haunting take on “Wayfaring Stranger” — twice, because a technical problem ruined the recording of the first performance. (An edited version of the program is set to broadcast on PBS stations on Nov. 23.)
Still, it was Texas blues-rock-soul singer Delbert McClinton, recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance, who gave the night’s best performance. Dressed in tan slacks and a sports jacket, as if for a Wednesday-night church supper, McClinton sang his tune “Two More Bottles of Wine” like a man who knew the difference between show business and what is sometimes called art. He recalled opening for Jerry Lee Lewis at a Texas wrestling venue in 1957, and mentioned Jack Ruby, Elmore James and T-Bone Walker. “I’m from another time,” he said, deadpan. “I’m a fugitive from the laws of averages.”
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