By Brian Wise.
AMERICANAFEST
Nashville, Tennessee – September 9-13, 2025
Running for just five days, AmericanaFest is a power-packed summation of the genre that combines club gigs with concerts in halls, arenas and an amphitheatre plus a conference that delves into many aspects of the genre. It brings fans, practitioners and musicians together. The centrepiece is the spectacular Americana Honors and Awards at the Ryman Auditorium, the mother church of country music.
The undoubted star of the Ryman show was Jesse Welles, winner of the Spirit of Americana Free Speech in Music award, who performed the song ‘War Isn’t Murder’, which brought the audience to a hush. His acceptance speech had a touch of Bob Dylan about it and his charisma was readily apparent. This is a singer with plenty to say and he says it eloquently. He is going to be huge and he will be touring Australia next January/February. Four of his eight shows are already sold out. If you want to see him then you better get tickets now!
How can I capture the essence of what AmericanaFest can offer? Maybe it is best summed up by recounting the final day, which is one of the best days I have had in all the years I have come here. It started for us at 11.00am with the Gospel Brunch for Thirty Tigers Records at the City Winery. In previous years, this event has been MC’d by Henry Wagons and I really missed his anarchic sense of humour and interplay with the audience. They should get him back next year.
First on the agenda was the actual brunch of fried chicken and waffles with maple syrup. I was assured last year that this has no calories. Of course, this was said in jest because nothing that tastes this good could possibly be healthy.
Then, there was the music which was a mixed bag. It rolled through an impressive roster of seven Thirty Tigers artists, easily the best of whom were the fabulous McCrary Sisters (Americana Honors winner on Wednesday) and Courtney Marie Andrews, who gave us an all too brief but lovely couple of songs. The music reached a dramatic finale after two hours with Sarah Potenza, who I thought must have been an opera singer because the opener was ‘Nessun Dorma’. This was a little weird, to say the least, but I wasn’t surprised to find out later that Potenza first came to attention for appearances on The Voice. Across the week, there were a number of singers who had made their name on either that show or America’s Got Talent. Not sure about the trend there.
From City Winery it was off to the Aussie BBQ at the Five Spot in East Nashville. This long-running Sounds Australia sponsored event seems to be a fixture on the Americana calendar now. This consists of music in the main bar and a BBQ outside in the beer garden. The usual BBQ chef Dobe Newton, of the Bushwackers, was not there this year. The previous beef sausages, always of dubious quality, had been replaced by alleged ‘Polish’ sausages, which were somehow meant to represent at the typical Aussie BBQ. Carl, my travelling companion immediately identified them as Kransky sausages and, therefore, imposters! Opinions varied as to their appeal. Solution: don’t try to out-BBQ Americans in the South, the stronghold of the BBQ. The interesting aspect of the line-up at the BBQ this year was the fact that it was 80% non-male musicians – a sign of the times?
As for the music, we caught Jordie Lane doing a fine set, assisted by Clare Reynolds for one song, followed by Falls and then Tyla Rodrigues, who impressed and had some predicting big things for her in the next year in the Australian country music scene.
Mid-afternoon arrived and we hotfooted (Ubered) over to the American Legion Hall on Gallatin Pike for the Easy Eye Sound Fish Fry. This was an invitation only gig and certainly more our speed. BT (Brian Taranto of Love Police) was the MC, so the chilled-out vibe was a cross between Out On The Weekend and Boogie. Someone told me that BT’s nickname here is ‘The Mayor of Nashville’. He is certainly highly respected in the music community here and, while I might be biased because he has been a big supporter of Rhythms, I think he has done more than anyone in Australia to promote the whole Americana movement. By the same token, he is probably happy to remain a little under the radar at home and revel in the recognition he gets right here in Nashville. Not many people I know get to drive around in a Cadillac loaned by Dan Auerbach.
As soon as we entered the Legion compound, we were drawn to the music from the band playing outside the hall to people milling around the food, food drink and merch stalls. Turns out it was the great Jimbo Mathus from Mississippi playing some really laid back rock ‘n’ roll rather than the blues we might have expected (which was to come later). After a small portion of the fish fry with some cornbread we wandered inside the hall to see Robert Finley who was impressive indeed with his energetic blues infused with some timely messages. However, the highlight was the act that closed out the day – The Black Keys themselves. Augmented by Mathus and legendary Mississippi blues guitarist Kenny Brown, they launched straight into a powerful hill country blues set for 40 minutes which was pretty awesome. Getting to see The Black Keys in a small hall was awesome in itself.
But wait, there’s more! Carl and I then headed back into town to 3rd & Lindsley to see a brilliant hour and 15-minute set from Rodney Crowell and Friends, including Carlene Carter and Sarah Jarosz. (Amazingly enough we managed to get a seat which seemed to confirm the fact that a lot of people from overseas are not coming to America). The first part of the set featured the guests and later Crowell concentrated on songs from his just released album Airline Highway with many of the musicians who were on the album. At 75 years of age, Crowell is still at the top of his game, singing, playing and writing as brilliantly as ever.
This was a truly great way to end an unforgettable day. Yet that is just one example of the sort of day you could have at the Americana Festival and Conference. All this for the $125 cost of a festival wristband. I could provide you with an even longer list of great shows that I missed because they clashed with another gig I was attending. With between 7 and 10 venues per day offering up to seven acts each there is an absolute plethora of choices.
Other highlights? Thursday night at 3rd & Lindsley featured Hayes Carll, Southern Avenue Tift Merritt (with Robert Ellis on guitar) and Dee White (new image and great new album). Friday night at City Winery we saw a magnificent hour from Joe Henry and Mike Reid playing songs from their new album together, Life and Time. Later, we saw Bernie Leadon with his band playing songs from his new album Too Old To Be Cool, plus songs from his Eagles and Flying Burrito Brothers days.
Apart from the club gigs and concerts, there are also all the record company, publishing house and tourist authority showcase gigs, which entail an array of musicians along with beverages and food. (We never had to go out for dinner for the entire time!).
Then there are all the sessions at the Conference which are too numerous to list but which provided more highlights. The session on Barry Mazor’s new book on the Everly Brothers, ‘Blood Harmony’, also featured Rebecca and Megan of Larkin Poe. A great panel on the new Doc Pomus box set (You Can’t Hip a Square) had songwriter Toni Wine as a contributor. Wine wrote songs for The Mindbenders (‘Groovy Kind of Love’), Tony Orlando and Dawn, and Sonny Charles & The Checkmates (‘Black Pearl’, a co-write with Phil Spector). She also sang the female vocals for the The Archies, most notably on ‘Sugar, Sugar’, as well as singing on songs by Gene Pitney and Neil Sedaka. Tom Piazza spoke about his new book on John Prine. Steve Jennings from the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa spoke about some rare films they are highlighting. Finally, there was a fantastic session with Allsion Russell and Margo Price on Art & Activism. There were dozens of other session of interest to professionals and fans who could afford the US$399 cost for the conference pass.
But wait, there is even more! We were also able to see two major concerts held during the same week. First, Eric Clapton’s masterful show at the Bridgestone Arena on the Monday night prior to AmericanaFest. At 80, Clapton seems to be playing as well as ever with superb touch and a tone that is as distinctive as it has ever been. Clapton ran through his musical history, starting with ‘White Room’ and ending with ‘Cocaine’ and ‘Before You Accuse Me’. I could have done with a shorter acoustic set, but the version of ‘Layla’ was excellent. I would have loved to have heard him really cut loose on an electric version of the song. However, my rediscovery of the night was ‘Old Love’ from Journeyman (and also on 24 Nights and other live albums) during which Clapton’s long and searing solo was awesome! The epic 15-minute version was fabulous. Clapton’s band is remarkable, which helps a lot. Doyle Bramhall II (Little Doyle) on guitar, Nathan East on bass, Chris Stainton on keys, Tim Carmon on Hammond and keys, Sonny Emory on drums and Katie Kissoon and Sharon White on backing vocals. Hard to go wrong with that outfit.
The other highlight of the night was support act The Wallflowers with Chris Masterson, former member of Steve Earle’s Dukes, on guitar, who really starred and added to the sound. I really love this band, fronted by Jakob Dylan. A short sharp 8-song set, with great versions of ‘Roots & Wings’ from the latest album and ‘One Headlight’ and ‘Six Avenue Heartache’ (from Bringing Down the Horse) plus a mighty closer in Tom Petty’s ‘The Waiting’, reminding everyone of just how much we miss Tom.
Then on Tuesday night I missed Daniel Lanois at a club gig because I already had tickets to see Dwight Yoakam supported by Shooter Jennings and Ben Haggard at the Ascend Amphitheatre. Yoakam ran through a catalogue of his hits, almost apologising for playing the song ‘Bang Bang Boom Boom’ from his latest album Brighter Days. Jennings did a tribute to Warren Zevon which was adequate but nowhere near as good as the one Henry Wagons did in Australia a few years back. Ben Haggard really did live up to his father’s name and it is surprising he isn’t way bigger.
So, there you have it. That was my AmericanaFest 2025. Others saw a completely different set of acts and had an equally good time. It is an easy festival to navigate and provides a huge choice for fans of real music. It is really a must for any fan of music in the ever-expanding Americana genre.