Last week in Nashville was the highly anticipated Americana Festival! I echoed the sentiments of many other creators and music lovers when they expressed the “wow this is overwhelming how am I supposed to make it to see all this awesome music” statement. It truly was overwhelming. Hundreds of artists, dozens of participating venues - all descending (and many overlapping) on Nashville for showcases of the genre described as ‘Americana’.
For me, I had grandiose plans of making multiple daily showcases, hitting a new venue for the shows each night, and getting endless amounts of content - alas, reality struck and I in fact didn’t make ANY nighttime shows and only got to 1-2 showcases during 3 of the 5 days.
Ah me. Oh well. Next year I’ll do better. But let’s chat about who I saw and loved, and who I missed but wished I was able to see.
Saw
Ray Benson - an absolute legend and ‘Asleep At The Wheel’ frontman hosted the Lightin’ Management Medicine Round at 3rd and Lindsley.
Josh Hedley - a regular on my playlist, Josh collaborated with Ray and Brennen as well as stunned with his vocals and violin skills during his own set!
Brennen Leigh - honky tonkin’, guitar picking queen Brennen Leigh showed up for her set during the day!
Christina Vane - amazing vocalist and one I haven’t seen yet, she blew me away!
Willi Carlisle - folk poet master Willi always brings such feeling and devotion to his sets. He’s a master storyteller in his music and between songs.
Gabe Lee - Gabe is such a legend around here that his name is almost met with a ‘whisper’ as if he’s the elusive white whale. I cry at Eveline. Every time.
Zach Meadows - hot off the release of his album ‘Road To Nowhere’ Zach brought the energy with this performance.
Sophie Gault - also off her release of the sophomore album Baltic Street Hotel, Sophie who just joined me on the Carter Sessions struck people as the ‘country Stevie Nicks.
Taylor Hunnicutt - outlaw woman indeed she always brings attitude and energy to her rock n roll performances… love it.
Kade Hoffman - a young artist I couldn’t wait to see, his EP Relics was a refreshing listen and his performance at the WesternAF showcase was no less.
Jalan Crossland - honestly I had not heard of this Wyoming-based artist until he played but it was amazing all the same. Master at guitar playing, banjo playing, and melding bluegrass with a sort of Irish gypsy feel, the crowd loved it.
Noeline Hofmann - my highlight of the fest was seeing Noeline for the first time. I remember back when she was just starting to get noticed on socials and now she’s winning awards, opening for huge artists, and garnering millions of fans.
Wishes
The Droptines, Calder Allen, Coleman Jennings, Hannah Juanita, Iron and Wine, India Ramey, Jason Eady, Jason Scott and the High Heat, Kaitlin Butts, Kelsey Waldon, Kimmi Bitter, Maggie Antone, Margo Cilker, Max McNown, Melissa Carper, Robert Earl Keen, Shawna Thompson, Tami Neilson, Uncle Lucius, Vandoliers, … SEE WHAT I MEAN!? Ugh.
Seriously props to Saving Country Music for seemingly being everywhere at once - I don’t know how you did it but thank you for the amazing recaps as always!
See you next week,
Nikki
Oh right, the PS - in today’s marshmallow culture of randos getting mad at literally anything and everything just so they have the ability to feel effectual in an otherwise lonely existence, we’re now making everything political. I mean….streeeetching to make things political. Like this seemingly sweet post by Tim McGraw for Faith’s birthday that the masses swarmed in and attacked him for making a political statement because he said ‘ to support her in fighting for her rights’. Come on. Stop it. Seriously stop it. It’s embarrassing. Ok. That’s all.