Americana’s Annual Gathering Has Brandi Carlile and Others Posing the Question: Is It a Musical Style, or an Ideology?
26.09.2023 - 14:53
/ variety.com
Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Every year at the Americana Honors & Awards program in Nashville, Jim Lauderdale will exclaim, as a running joke, “Now, that’s Americana!” — usually right after someone has given a rousing performance in a style that most people wouldn’t reflexively classify as Americana. The fact that it’s said both enthusiastically and slightly facetiously does beg the obvious, perennial question: What’s Americana… all kidding aside? Standing outside the Ryman Auditorium, where the 22nd annual edition of the awards show was about to go down, Brandi Carlile had an answer. And since she is the closest thing to an offical mascot the genre has had since the passing of John Prine, when Carlile talks about Americana, people listen.
“We need to elevate this and make a home here,” Carlile said. “I’m aware that there’s a certain amount of mystery around the concept of what Americana is. We’ve all joked around about it; we’ve all said it’s country music for liberals.
It’s not that. And it doesn’t really come down to instrumentation or tempo, or even really subject matter. It’s starting to feel more and more, to me, like it’s based on an ideology of inclusion.
“It’s similar to the concept of what alternative is and why it formed itself as a way to sort of not be walled in by something,” she continued. “There’s so many things that I love about Americana. My favorite thing about it is that I can hardly even maintain eye contact, because I can’t count the number of people whose neck I want to hug.
And that’s where I want to be. I don’t want to call myself anything else. Even if there’s money there, or bigger gigs, or a stronger franchise, I would still rather be with people that I can stand
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