“Ryman Auditorium” by Daniel Schwen
The Americana Music Association officially kicks off with its annual awards show at the inspiring and beautiful Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville.  The show ran a bit long this year, clocking in at over 3 hours.  On the other hand, if you’re going to go to the church, you may as well get the sermon.  Although the show has been televised for the last several years on cable, it got a serious shot in the arm by being picked up by NPR.  You’ll be able to hear it on your local station later this fall.
The full list of winners is at the bottom of this post, and here are a few of the performance highlights.
 John Hiatt – One of the wonderful things about this awards show is the performers aren’t scripted the way the big awards shows, with their armies of handlers for all the stars, have become.  So Hiatt’s “back up” guitarist was none other than Ry Cooder.  And his “back up” singers were the McCrary Sisters, both headliners in their own right.
 Keb Mo – Perhaps the most emotional performance of the evening as when BB King was awarded the Presidents Award posthumously.  They brought his guitar, Lucille, out and put her on a stand, and then Keb Mo sang How Blue Can You Get.  It was just brilliant.
Ricky Skaggs – After a laundry list of famous co-performers that reminded us all that he started as barely a teenager, Skaggs was given a Lifetime Achievement award for his instrumental prowess.  He was then joined onstage by Ry Cooder, his wife Sharon White and father-in-law Buck (2/3rd’s of The Whites) for gospel-tinged Glory Land.
 Jason Isbell – After pretty much sweeping last year’s awards with Southeastern, Isbell was nominated this year for Artist of the Year.  Appearing hand-in-hand with wife Amanda Shires, who gave birth just a couple of weeks before the show, the duo did a bang-up job of Something More Than Free.
Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings – After getting their own Lifetime Achievement award for their songwriting, Welch and Rawlings did a song, Short Haired Woman Blues, from the upcoming Dave Rawlings Machine album.
Los Lobos – The final award of the evening went to Los Lobos, for Lifetime Achievement in the Performance category. Â They’re not ones to hog the limelight and they don’t make a lot of best-of lists, but they tore it up with Will the Wolf Survive, oozing so much hipness that Brooklyn and Portland could maybe learn something from East L.A.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.