Mary Gauthier, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats Nominated for Americana Awards
By Jeff Gage
The list of nominees for the 2018 Americana Music Association’s Honors & Awards has been revealed and genre favorites Brandi Carlile, Jason Isbell, and Margo Price feature prominently among the candidates.
All three have had a blockbuster run over the past 12 months, starting with the release of Isbell and the 400 Unit’s The Nashville Sound, which dropped a few weeks after the 2017 nominees were announced. Along with Price’s All American Made and Carlile’s By the Way, I Forgive You, Isbell and earned nods in three categories — Album of the Year, Artist of the Year, and Song of the Year — with a further nomination including the 400 Unit for Duo/Group of the Year.
Joining that trio of performers in the marquee categories are Mary Gauthier (Album of the Year), John Prine (Artist of the Year), and Lee Ann Womack (Song of the Year), while the Duo/Group of the Year category features stiff competition from the likes of Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real and Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats.
The Americana Honors & Awards have a shorter list of categories than most awards shows, only six in total, with the remaining pair including Emerging Artist of the Year and Instrumentalist of the Year. The former category sees Tyler Childers and Lily Hiatt among the nominees, while the latter includes two guitarists (Daniel Donato, Molly Tuttle), a drummer (Jerry Pentecost), and a violin player (Brittany Haas).
Now in its 17th year, the awards gala takes place at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on September 12th. It’s the signature event for the weeklong AmericanaFest that descends upon Music City from September 11th to 16th and has already announced Carlile and Womack among its 250 performers.
The full list of Americana Music Association’s Honors & Awards nominees for 2018:
Album of the Year:
All American Made, Margo Price (Produced by Jeremy Ivey, Alex Munoz, Margo Price and Matt Ross-Spang)
By The Way, I Forgive You, Brandi Carlile (Produced by Dave Cobb and Shooter Jennings)
The Nashville Sound, Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit (Produced by Dave Cobb)
Rifles & Rosary Beads, Mary Gauthier (Produced by Neilson Hubbard)
Artist of the Year:
Brandi Carlile
Jason Isbell
Margo Price
John Prine
Duo/Group of the Year:
I’m With Her
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit
Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real
Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats
Emerging Artist of the Year:
Courtney Marie Andrews
Tyler Childers
Anderson East
Lilly Hiatt
Song of the Year:
“A Little Pain,” Margo Price (Written by Margo Price)
“All The Trouble,” Lee Ann Womack (Written by Waylon Payne, Lee Ann Womack and Adam
Wright)
“If We Were Vampires,” Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit (Written by Jason Isbell)
“The Joke,” Brandi Carlile (Written by Brandi Carlile, Dave Cobb, Phil Hanseroth and Tim Hanseroth)
Instrumentalist of the Year:
Daniel Donato
Brittany Haas
Jerry Pentecost
Molly Tuttle