Nashville, Tenn. — Levon Helm and Alison Krauss & Robert Plant were among the winners at tonight’s Americana Music Association’s 7th Annual Honors & Awards show at Nashville’s Historic Ryman Auditorium. Appearing at the festivities to pick up two awards for their critically-acclaimed “Raising Sand” Krauss and Plant won Album of the Year and Duo/Group of the Year.

• Album of the Year: Alison Krauss & Robert Plant — “Raising Sand”
• Artist of the Year: Levon Helm
• Duo/Group of the Year: Alison Krauss & Robert Plant
• Instrumentalist of the Year: Buddy Miller
• New Emerging Artist of the Year: Mike Farris
• Song of the Year: “She Left Me for Jesus” by Hayes Carll and Brian Keane

Additional Lifetime Achievement Honors were given to:

• Spirit of Americana Free Speech in Music - Joan Baez
• Lifetime Achievement — Songwriting - John Hiatt
• Jack Emerson Lifetime Achievement — Executive - Terry Lickona
• Lifetime Achievement — Performance - Jason & The Scorchers
• Presidents Award - Jerry Garcia
• Lifetime Achievement — Instrumentalist - Larry Campbell
• Trailblazer — Nanci Griffith
• Lifetime Achievement — Producer / Engineer - Tony Brown

The spirited three hour program was hosted by two-time Americana Honors & Awards and Grammy recipient Jim Lauderdale. Award winner Buddy Miller also returned as the band leader. Other special guests included Ryan Bingham and Joe Ely, The Sam Bush Band, Kane, Welch and Kaplan, The SteelDrivers, Tift Merritt, Chris Thile and Edgar Meyer, Justin Townes Earle, James McMurtry, Miller and Robert Plant, and Steve Earle and Alison Moorer.

Photos are available at http://www.americanamusic.org

The event was broadcast live on XM Satellite Radio and amazon.com. BBC 2 Radio will also broadcast the show at a later date.

The 7th Annual Honors & Awards show was produced by Claire Armbruster and Jed Hilly and is part of the four day and night annual Americana Festival and Conference. For a complete list of nominees, showcase performers and a conference schedule, go to: http://www.americanamusic.org

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Nashville, Tenn. — The Americana Music Association is proud to announce plans to celebrate the legacy of the Grateful Dead at this week’s ninth annual conference and music festival in Nashville. At Thursday night’s Honors & Awards at the Ryman Auditorium, Jerry Garcia will be named the recipient of the 2008 AMA President’s Award, a posthumous lifetime achievement recognition for innovation in American roots music. Following the awards, the AMA and Relix magazine co-host a huge tribute show with San Francisco’s The Waybacks and The American Beauty Project, featuring Ollabelle, Jim Lauderdale, Larry Campbell, Buddy Miller and several surprise guests.

AMA President Jessie Scott of Sirius XM Satellite Radio selected Garcia for this year’s award based on his many contributions to Americana music, as part of the Grateful Dead and as a collaborator in acoustic music. “Jerry Garcia championed the roots,” Scott says. “From the Americana infused Dead albums to his collaborations with David Grisman, his love for the archetypes of American music shines through.”

Relix magazine will sponsor the musical tribute to the Dead beginning at 10 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 18 at the Cannery Ballroom, immediately following the Americana Honors & Awards. The Waybacks will kick off the evening. This Bay Area quartet has enjoyed fruitful on-stage collaborations with Dead founder Bob Weir over the last couple of years, and they’ll bring that spirit to their acoustic/electric music rooted in country and blues.

Next up, the American Beauty Project is a collective of remarkable artists who have gathered on several occasions to cover the historic albums the Grateful Dead released in 1970: American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead. They’ve earned praise in the New York Times, Variety and Relix magazine as a true re-imagining of groundbreaking songs that were meant to be interpreted and shared. The musicians include the passionate folk group Ollabelle, legendary multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell, star Nashville songwriter Jim Lauderdale and delicious singers Catherine Russell and Teresa Williams. Awards show band leader and Americana superstar Buddy Miller will be there, plus special guests you won’t want to miss.

The Ninth Annual Americana Festival and Conference will offer seminars, panels and networking opportunities at the Nashville Convention Center by day, while each evening brings more than 80 stacked Americana showcases. The Americana Music Association is a professional trade organization whose mission is to provide a forum for the advocacy of Americana music and to promote public awareness of the genre to support the creative and economic viability of professionals in this field.

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The Americana Music Association announced today comprehensive and pragmatic greening initiatives to take place during next week’s festival, Sept. 17-20, in Nashville. Not only will there be recycling, but there will be a daily schedule of panels at the conference devoted to green ways of living, touring and promoting.

There will be workshops and panels including the legendary Sam Bush speaking on the Greening of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Kathy Mattea presenting highlights from “An Inconvenient Truth”, and The Duhks sharing their experiences on green touring, just to name a few. The panels, coordinated by Atlanta based Change of Atmosphere, will be presented daily at the festival.

Also offered at this year’s Americana Music Conference and Festival is recycling for festival goers. Nashville environmentalist Paula Larson coordinated recycling initiatives with the Ryman Auditorium, Mercy Lounge, Cannery Ballroom, and the Nashville Convention Center, in conjunction with the generous support of Metro Nashville Public Works providing recycling trailers and bins for use. For several of these venues, this will be their first time recycling.

Numerous organizations have lent their support to the Americana Green initiative including Planet Bluegrass, New Belgium Brewery, Kilowatt Ours, Local Table, E3 Innovate LLC, Change of Atmosphere, WRLT Lightning 100’s Team Green, Bridgestone Americas, Tree Sound Studios, NTS Promedia, MusicMatters, XM Radio, Dogwood Alliance, ASK Apparel, Bonnaroo, Open Dome Productions, Vanderbilt Biodiesel Collective, and Seven-Star.

Slated for September 17-20, 2008, the 9th Annual Americana Festival and Conference will offer seminars, panels and networking opportunities at the Nashville Convention Center by day, while each evening brings stacked Americana showcases. Legend Levon Helm will officially jump start the festivities Wednesday, September 17 with his Ramble at the Ryman, and the capstone of the festival will take the form of the annual Americana Music Association Honors and Awards, scheduled for September 18 at the historic Ryman Auditorium.

Tickets are now available for the Levon Helm Ramble at the Ryman and the Americana Honors & Awards show at Ticketmaster and the Ryman box office for $65 or $45 and $45, respectively.

For the latest additions to showcase lineups, ticket purchasing and more information about the Americana Music Festival and Conference, please visit http://www.americanamusic.org/.

About the Americana Music Association
The Americana Music Association is a professional trade organization whose mission is to provide a forum for the advocacy of Americana music and to promote public awareness of the genre to support the creative and economic viability of professionals in this field. Dedicated to building and promoting the Americana genre and the individuals who participate in that industry, the Americana Music Association works closely with artists, labels, radio stations, retailers, print media, festivals, agents,

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Nashville, Tenn. — The Americana Music Festival and Conference will play host to an exploration and celebration of the blogosphere Friday, September 19. The epitome of the anarchic world of contemporary taste-making, blogs break bands, amplifying traditional grassroots campaigns and word-of-mouth buzz.

Innovative industry outfit Thirty Tigers will partner with bloggers My Old Kentucky Blog and Aquarium Drunkard to present a two-pronged AMA event: A daytime panel featuring My Old Kentucky Blog’s Craig “Dodge” Lile, Aquarium Drunkard’s Justin Gage, Amanda Petrusich (New York Times, Pitchfork, Paste) and Janet Timmons of Nashville’s Out the Other will take a multifaceted look at blogs: who’s reading them? Who is writing them? How do Americana bands reach them? Friday evening, an eclectic Americana lineup of blogger darlin’s featuring Jason Isbell, O’Death, Those Darlins, Blair and Le Switch will take the stage at the Basement.

“The blog’s key role in promoting Americana music just underscores our genre’s natural fit with progressive culture,” says AMA Executive Director Jed Hilly. “The benefits of taking a closer look at the Americana and blogosphere relationship are obvious: Our foundations and fan bases are invariably intertwined.”

The Onion dubbed Jason Isbell “a truth-slinging troubadour yearning to push the Southern-rock envelope while hewing close to his Alabama roots.” Isbell, formerly of the Drive-By Truckers, is an accomplished musician and songwriter who weaves dark stories about desperate characters, combining elements of rock, blues and soul. His debut album, Sirens Of The Ditch, received rave reviews from The Washington Post, Pitchfork Media, Village Voice, and more.

New York outfit O’Death’s third LP, Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin, feels like a giddy junkyard hoedown: At times it sounds morose or contemplative, but underneath the melancholy lays a gospel fervor, bashed from paint buckets, banjos, guitars and anything else within kicking distance. Currently, O’Death propels their Americana-meets-gypsy-punk of recent years into a more urgent, unrelenting celebration of life and death.

Murfreesboro’s Those Darlins are ready to party…hand clapping, bloomers, and bourbon. This country mob (Nikki Darlin, Jessi Darlin and Kelley Darlin) boots out a blend of deadpan, crazed music reminiscent of The Carter Family and the Black Lips. Their forthcoming EP on Oh Wow Dang Records is produced by Jeff Curtin (Vampire Weekend, Pitchfork TV, and pioneer of “recap rock”).

Blair writes and sings but “singer-songwriter” would be somewhat misleading. With her innate pop sensibility and intense delivery, it would be more accurate to describe Blair’s sound as the musical meeting of Dolly Parton and Radiohead. Blair’s four-song EP Pluto received praise both online and off with coverage from outlets spanning LA Weekly to My Old Kentucky Blog. A full-length release has been completed and is being readied for release in early 2009.
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About the Sponsors

My Old Kentucky Blog.com is a fanatically updated one-stop shop for all things indie rock. The website’s owner, Craig “Dodge” Lile, has garnered national attention for his enthusiastic and knowledgeable posts about independent music, and the popularity has transcended into a weekly two-hour radio program on Sirius Satellite Radio.

About Aquarium Drunkard
Justin Gage is the founder and Editor-In-Chief of the influential Aquarium Drunkard.com, an award-winning, internationally acclaimed music blog based in Los Angeles. Gage also has an award-winning radio show on Sirius’ Left of Center channel and is the founder of Autumn Tone records.

Äbout Thirty Tigers
Thirty Tigers is a marketing, distribution, publicity and management outfit (but not necessarily all at the same time) that provides a loving home to such acts as The Avett Brothers, Jason Isbell, Amy LaVere, Justin Townes Earle, Elizabeth Cook and James McMurtry among others. They are also the proud home to indie ingénues Jessica Lea Mayfield and Those Darlins.

Slated for September 17-20, 2008, the 9th Annual Americana Festival and Conference will offer seminars, panels and networking opportunities at the Nashville Convention Center by day, while each evening brings stacked Americana showcases. Legend Levon Helm will officially jump start the festivities Wednesday, September 17 with his Ramble at the Ryman, and the capstone of the festival will take the form of the annual Americana Music Association Honors and Awards, scheduled for September 18 at the historic Ryman Auditorium.

Tickets are now available for the Levon Helm Ramble at the Ryman and the Americana Honors & Awards show at Ticketmaster and the Ryman box office for $65 or $45 and $45, respectively.

For the latest additions to showcase lineups, ticket purchasing and more information about the Americana Music Festival and Conference, please visit http://www.americanamusic.org/.

About the Americana Music Association
The Americana Music Association is a professional trade organization whose mission is to provide a forum for the advocacy of Americana music and to promote public awareness of the genre to support the creative and economic viability of professionals in this field. Dedicated to building and promoting the Americana genre and the individuals who participate in that industry, the Americana Music Association works closely with artists, labels, radio stations, retailers, print media, festivals, agents, publishers and more to help organize and build the infrastructure necessary for the Americana genre to achieve success both creatively and financially.

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Nashville, Tenn. — The Americana genre houses a mighty share of music’s most provocative new artists, and each year, the Americana Music Association delivers due recognition to these auspicious newcomers with nominations in the New/Emerging Artist category. All four of this year’s nominees will perform live at the Americana Honors & Awards ceremony September 18, during which the winner shall also be named. The New/Emerging class of 2008 features a nomadic storyteller, a vintage-inspired original, a virtuosic dream team, and a soul-saving singer’s singer.

Autobiographical tales stemming from wistful wandering propelled troubadour Ryan Bingham’s gritty swagger to new heights on his 2007 debut for Lost Highway, Mescalito; American Songwriter praised the album, calling it “compelling listening to the highest sense,” while Texas Music Magazine compared the 26 year-old storyteller to Tom Waits.
www.myspace.com/ryanbingham

Justin Townes Earle faced high expectations seemingly without breaking a sweat: The son of roots rock royalty Steve Earle and the namesake of legend Townes Van Zandt, the younger Earle’s 2008 release The Good Life introduces a disarmingly sincere songwriter whose vintage-inspired honky tonk prompted praise from Pitchfork, The New York Times and more.
www.myspace.com/justintownesearle

Individually, the members of The SteelDrivers have garnered Grammy nominations and penned country chart-toppers, but together, the soul-dipped bluegrassers form one of the most inspiring roots music troupes to emerge in years; their debut album released in early 2008 helped word spread, clearing a path for cross-country touring and a gig on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. www.myspace.com/thesteeldrivers

The buzz surrounding gospel/soul synergist Mike Farris may now officially be dubbed a deafening roar: The former frontman of the Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies, Farris’ 2007 release Salvation In Lights and Stax-inspired live throw-downs prompted widespread endorsements from trusted sources including: Buddy Miller, who proclaimed, “Mike Farris has enough heart, soul, and power to light up a city.” www.myspace.com/mikefarrismusic

The 9th Annual Americana Festival and Conference will offer seminars, panels and networking opportunities at the Nashville Convention Center by day, while each evening brings stacked Americana showcases. Legend Levon Helm will officially jump start the festivities Wednesday, September 17 with his Ramble at the Ryman, and the capstone of the festival will take the form of the annual Americana Music Association Honors and Awards, scheduled for September 18 at the historic Ryman Auditorium. Hosted by Jim Lauderdale and featuring a band led by Buddy Miller, the ceremony will toast winners in six member-voted categories and also bestow Lifetime Achievement Awards on John Hiatt, Jason and the Scorchers and longtime Austin City Limits producer Terry Lickona in the categories of Songwriting, Performance and Executive, respectively. The AMA will also present the unique “Spirit of Americana”
Free Speech award to Joan Baez.

Tickets are now available for the Levon Helm Ramble at the Ryman and the Americana Honors & Awards show at Ticketmaster and the Ryman box office for $65 or $45 and $45, respectively.

Showcase wristbands granting admission to all four evenings of live music showcases are also available for only $35 via www.americanamusic.org and Grimey’s New and Preloved Music (1604 8th Ave. South, Nashville). Registration for the Americana Music Festival & Conference is $350 for AMA members and $450 for non-members until August 13. Fees will increase after that date.

For the latest additions to showcase lineups, ticket purchasing and more information about the Americana Music Festival and Conference, please visit www.americanamusic.org.

About the Americana Music Association

The Americana Music Association is a professional trade organization whose mission is to provide a forum for the advocacy of Americana music and to promote public awareness of the genre to support the creative and economic viability of professionals in this field. Dedicated to building and promoting the Americana genre and the individuals who participate in that industry, the Americana Music Association works closely with artists, labels, radio stations, retailers, print media, festivals, agents, publishers and more to help organize and build the infrastructure necessary for the Americana genre to achieve success both creatively and financially.

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