Thursday September 19
It was a day of sessions at the Americana Conference starting with My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music’s Black Past, Present and Future. This was really a tribute to songwriter Alice Randall who is the only Black woman to co-write a number one country hit and an ACM Video of the Year. Her memoir ‘My Black Country’ was published earlier this year and she has been elevated to Andrew W. Mellon Chair in the Humanities at Vanderbilt where she is a Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies. The panel was led by Caroline Randall Williams and featured Alice, Fiona Prine (Oh Boy Records), Leyla McCalla and Miko Marks
Then it was the great Dave Alvin, 2024 Americana Lifetime Achievement honoree, in conversation with Warren Zanes, author of the recent book on Springsteen’s Nebraska and the Tom Petty biography as well as working for there Rock’nRoll Hall of Fame and being a former member of the Del Fuegos (one of the best unknown American roots rock bands). Alvin, spoke about his forty-five years in music, from his earliest influences that included his older brother Phil, to the The Blasters to his recent collaborations with Texas legend Jimmie Dale Gilmore.
Following this the conversation with Waxahatchee (Katie Crutchfield) and Ann Powers, mainly about the latest album Tiger’s Blood, was extremely interesting. It was lime you had the two smartest people In Nashville engaged in a discussion. Powers questions about the music delved deep, Crutchfield’s answers were a match. Members of Crutchfield’s band (including MJ Lenderman) sat at the back as her ‘cheer squad’. I was mighty impressed with Lenderman’s guitar playing last night at the awards and equally impressed when Crutchfield played three songs acoustically for us.
My final panel for the day was the one on the 25th anniversary of Mary Gauthier‘s classic Drag Queens in Limousines. This combination panel and performance explored the importance of Gauthier’s work. Jewly Hight chaired a panel that included Margo Cilker, Liv Greene and Madeleine Kelson who were all able to expand on Gauthier’s work and perform her songs.
I really wanted to see T Bone Burnett at the Analog and I knew there were limited seats, so I decided get there early. Doors were set to open at 6.00pm but I got there at 5.00pm and walked right into the venue just as T Bone and his incredible band were to take the stage for a soundcheck. Just before that I saw Joe Henry sitting there and waved to him (we have spoken many times). Joe came over and we spent a half hour talking about his health (which is good) and his latest project which he is excited about but cannot reveal yet. Then I got to see the sound check wth Colin Linden on guitar, Dennis Crouch on bass and David Mansfield on mandolin and fiddle. If that was good, the performance just an hour later was even better. T Bone played his latest album, The Other Side, in its entirety. The playing was brilliant. He punctuated the performance with a short discussion of the Civil War and suggested the South get over it and later how we should all work together. This was a great way to end the day and I headed home at 8.00pm pretty happy. Tomorrow, I have to prepare my radio show.