This year was good to Americana music. More mainstream recognition was helped by a broadened Billboard chart announced in May that is dedicated to specifically tracking Americana music sales. That new development, along with the decision last year to include new Grammy categories to honor the best in American roots music, serves to recognize Americana artists who fall outside the constraints of country radio.
You can thank the advocacy of Nashville’s Americana Music Association for those results. The exposure also brings industry legitimacy to thousands of artists who previously have been shunted due to narrow airplay lists and an industry mindset that generally forsakes qualities that greater country music has long abandoned: acoustic string instruments, poetry and storytelling.
The finest example of that combination is this year’s Upland Stories (Bloodshot) by Robbie Fulks, the Chicago country singer and songwriter whose music has been championed by the underground for two decades but thanks to the new categories, was nominated for two Grammys this week. The album joins a strong class of Americana fare that spans from a debut (Midwest Farmer’s Daughter by Margo Price), a collaboration (Blue Mountain by Bob Weir with The National), a veteran’s comeback (Full Circle by Loretta Lynn), and an affirmation of a classic band’s core strengths (American Band by Drive-By Truckers).
Further underground were several albums this year by traditionalists like Luke Bell and Cody Jinks, which shows their greatest years are ahead and not in the past. But maybe the greatest surprise this year were new albums by stadium stars Dierks Bentley, Kenny Chesney and Miranda Lambert that featured courageous new songs, which tackle serious themes from media overload to sexual despondency. If country radio is destined to broaden, it is now obvious it’ll be from the inside out.
The lowest of the lowlights this year is the mash-up no one asked for between Cheap Trick and Billy Ray Cyrus in downtown Nashville during the CMT Awards. Cyrus, for decades irrelevant, sang Elvis and Surrender while Cheap Trick’s Robin Zander fed him lyrics. If nothing else the performance validated the perception that mainstream country gatekeepers are out of touch.
Yet the single crossover that did feel timely was scorned. Beyoncé’s Daddy Lessons was the cover of choice for the Dixie Chicks over the summer; then at the CMA Awards in November they and she performed it together, along with Long Time Gone by the Chicks. In terms of country funk, the performance delivered, yet was attacked by Travis Tritt and others who said it betrayed country traditionalism.
Another letdown this year was the follow-up album by Sturgill Simpson. After a critically hailed second album suggested he was an heir to Merle Haggard, he released A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, a self-produced set of overwrought new songs that suggested he might be closer to a modern day Tom Jones.
The biggest lows of the year were the deaths, most notably Haggard in April and Ralph Stanley in June. Stanley, who started his career popularizing bluegrass with his brother Carter, was one of the last living links to traditional mountain music. His voice, now silenced, will be impossible to replace.
