Our man Charles Spivey was on the spot at the Americana Music Festival and Conference in Nashville, and he’ll be giving us the lowdown on all the happenings.

Americana isn’t just rejected country… there’s a surprising number of crossovers from all over the map. But I like to say that the Americana Music Association’s annual music conference is really for all the sad bastard indie rockers that just entered their Steve Earle phase.

Americana music (a.k.a. alt-country, alt.country, no depression or my personal favorite: y’allternative), as defined by the Americana Music Association is music that honors and is derived from the traditions of American roots music… that’s obviously incredibly broad, but it’s that way on purpose.

The Grammy award for Americana Album of the Year is a little more strict with their definition. Until recently, the Grammys combined Americana and folk into one Grammy. Now they’re separate awards, and the distraction has to do with acoustic vs. plugged-in.

I’d very much like to argue with the Grammys about their definition, but you only get to file one lifetime complaint to the Grammys, and I chose to complain about them giving Grammys to Celine Dion. I stand by my complaint.

To me, Americana music is like a Venn diagram (yes, I’m a nerd… big whoop, you wanna fight about it?) The Americana circle touches some of the country circle (but not that shit they play on the radio), and it touches the rock circle, the jazz circle, blues, bluegrass… you name it. For some people, it really is hard to define, but you know it when you see it. Kinda like a douche bag.

It’s fairly well agreed upon that the first openly acknowledged Americana record was Uncle Tupelo’s No Depression (which is why some people still call the genre No Depression). However, it is not, by any means, the earliest example of Americana music.

Every record Hank Williams (that’s the senior one, jerks) released certainly qualifies; as does Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn… I could go on. I like to say that Americana music began to take shape in the ’70s and ’80s, when country radio started chasing money and stopped playing the likes of Kris Kristofferson… so all the artists that no longer fit on the “new country radio” now were held close in the bosom of Americana.

I like that comparison, because it’s rumored that Earl Scruggs coined the phrase Americana. One night back stage in the ’40s when the music he played was called “hillbilly music,” he said, “You know, we should come up with a new name for this… something like Americana music or maybe country music.”

Interesting to me that he coined both terms… country music stuck, but now country music wouldn’t touch him with a 10-foot pole.

4 Responses to “What Exactly Is Americana Music?”

1. 

   On 09/21/09 2:09 PM, Charles said:

   What is county music?

3. 

   On 09/21/09 2:35 PM, Sean Cannon said:

   good question. more pertinent: what’s a jackass?

   zing.

5. 

   On 09/21/09 5:19 PM, What Exactly Is Americana Music? | BUZZGRINDER | Berita Kita said:

   [...] is the original post: What Exactly Is Americana Music? | BUZZGRINDER Categories: MUSIC – Object Tags: all-the – charles-spivey – consoles – lowdown – lowdown-on-all – [...]

7. 

   On 09/21/09 5:37 PM, Don Gaines said:

   more importantly, i’m not a big fan of most alt. country music, however, i can get down with some americana. more specifically, the better non wilco and non conor oberst with the mystic valley mountain band (very specific here, not bright eyes) side of americana. i just can’t do it, it’s like nails on a chalkboard to me. i feel like it was some good ol music that got way overproduced and then they threw in a slide guitar and it all just went to hell. give me those scrappy recordings with out of tune singers and guitars and jangly noises everywhere, that’s what i want.

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