News

We were beyond honoured to have Rhiannon Giddens give a keynote address at our annual conference this year - everyone in the room knows they were the lucky ones.  However due to her generous nature she has agreed to share it with us all...

You can read the entire speech here.

Wristband Exchange is from 4pm each day at NIGHT TALES where the bar will be open - The Southern Comfort Networking drinks is on the 29th  5pm -6pm  where The Bluegrass Situation present Rachel Baimen and Chance McCoy

We are so excited this year to have three guest showcase hosts at our festival.

We are thrilled to welcome Canadian Blast to Empire Bar on the 29th, Thirty Tigers to Moth Club on the 30th, and Big Indie to Night Tales on the 30th.  We feel this really elevates our event, and continues our intention to celebrate international members and showcase artists who join our home-grown talent. I hope you will make the most of the showcase evening and that you discover something new and wonderful.

All of these artists showcases are part of your wristband bringing total of artists up to 55 TICKETS HERE . members get DISCOUNT HERE

Firstly Happy New Year to all our members and delegates!

AMA-UK Conference, 29th, 30th & 31st January 2019

Americana: Come On in: Diversity - Equality - Inclusivity

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: RHIANNON GIDDENS

BUY PASSES HERE  

We are really delighted to bring you this years conference schedule, with incredible artists coming to talk: Rhiannon Giddens, John Oates, Ray Benson and many more, great subjects to tackle like diversity, equality, and inclusivity. and with fantastic partners like Help Musicians UK, Musicians Union, British Underground and BASCA -  we feel we can guarantee three days of quality conversation and information...

Take a look at the full schedule, click through to see who we have on each panel - we are sure you will be as excited as we are 

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

REGISTER AS A DELEGATE 

Voting is now open to all members to vote in our annual UK Americana Awards.  Voting closes on Nov 28th at midnight.

UK Album of the Year

• All On Red by Orphan Colours (produced by Steve Llewellyn, Fred Abbott and Rupert Christie) 
• Bennett Wilson Poole by Bennett Wilson Poole (produced by Tony Poole) 
• Shorebound by Ben Glover (produced by Neilson Hubbard and Ben Glover) 
• Treetop Flyers by Treetop Flyers (produced by Reid Morrison, Sam Beer and Laurie Sherman) 

International Album of the Year

• By The Way I Forgive You by Brandi Carlile (produced by Dave Cobb and Shooter Jennings) 
• May Your Kindness Remain by Courtney Marie Andrews (produced by Mark Howard and Courtney Marie Andrews) 
• Ruins by First Aid Kit (produced by Tucker Martine) 
• The Tree of Forgiveness by John Prine (produced by Dave Cobb) 

UK Song of the Year

• Be More Kind by Frank Turner (written by Frank Turner) 
• Chicago by Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker (written by Josienne Clarke) 
• Southern Wind by Dean Owens (written by Dean Owens and Will Kimbrough) 
• Uh-huh by Jade Bird (written by Jade Bird) 

International Song of the Year

• Hold Your Head Up High by Darlingside (written by Auyon Mukharji, Caitlin Canty and Donald Mitchell) 
• Mockingbird by Ruston Kelly (written by Ruston Kelly) 
• Rolling On by Israel Nash (written by Israel Nash) 
• The Joke by Brandi Carlile (written by Brandi Carlile, Dave Cobb, Phil Hanseroth and Tim Hanseroth) 

UK Artist of the Year

• Bennett Wilson Poole 
• Ethan Johns 
• Robert Plant 
• The Wandering Hearts 

International Artist of the Year

• John Prine 
• Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real 
• Mary Gauthier 
• Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats 

UK Instrumentalist of the Year

• CJ Hillman 
• Gwenifer Raymond 
• Martin Harley 
• Seth Lakeman 

Special Awards 

Lifetime Achievement Award 

Selected by the board members, our highest honour is awarded to a UK artist, duo or group in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the Americana genre over the span of their career and life in music. The 2019 recipient will be Graham Nash. 

Trailblazer Award 

Selected by the board members, this special award celebrates a UK artist, duo or group that has taken an exceptional path, inspiring others to follow in their footsteps in developing the Americana genre. The 2019 recipient will be Joe Boyd

Bob Harris Emerging Artist Award 

Selected by Bob Harris OBE, this special award celebrates the breakthrough artist, duo or group that has particularly impressed the legendary music broadcaster throughout the year. The 2018 recipient will be Curse Of Lono

Best Selling Americana Album 

AMA-UK works with The Official Charts Company to create the UK Americana Album Chart. This Award is given to the bestselling Americana Album by a UK Artist. The 2019 recipient will be announced in January. 

Grass Roots Award 

Selected by the board members, this special award celebrates the sometimes un-sung heroes of the UK Americana scene. It is presented to individuals working in the industry (in a capacity other than as artists) who have made outstanding efforts to support Americana music from the grass roots up. The 2019 recipients are Immy Doman and Risa Tabatznik of The Green Note 

We feel very honoured to have Rhiannon Giddens as keynote speaker at our conference in January. 

Rhiannon Giddens is the co-founder of the Grammy Award-winning string band Carolina Chocolate Drops, in which she also plays banjo and fiddle. She began gaining recognition as a solo artist when she stole the show at the T Bone Burnett-produced “Another Day, Another Time” concert at New York City’s Town Hall in 2013. The elegant bearing, prodigious voice and fierce spirit that brought the audience to its feet that night is also abundantly evident on Giddens’ critically acclaimed solo debut, the Grammy-nominated album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, which masterfully blends American musical genres like gospel, jazz, blues and country, showcasing her extraordinary emotional range and dazzling vocal prowess.

Giddens' follow-up album, Freedom Highway, was released in February 2017. It includes nine original songs Giddens wrote or co-wrote along with a traditional song and two civil rights-era songs, “Birmingham Sunday” and Staple Singers’ well-known “Freedom Highway,” from which the album takes its name.

Giddens has performed for President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, appeared on The Late Show, Austin City Limits, Later…with Jools Holland, and both CBS Saturday and Sunday Morning, and dueted with country superstar Eric Church on his powerful anti-racism song “Kill a Word” (including performing the song on The Tonight Show and the CMA Awards, among other programs). In 2017, Giddens was awarded a Macarthur Genius Award and she has also received the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Singer of the Year and the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Bluegrass and Banjo. She has performed a recurring role on the television drama Nashville, playing the role of Hanna Lee “Hallie” Jordan, a young social worker with "the voice of an angel.”

The question we all ask ourselves and each other on a regular basis! This article in Paste Magazine goes some way to explaining it.  The Milk Carton Kids wrote a great parody about this subject during the Annual Honours & Awards in Nashville this September.

"What Even Is Americana"

A country song that’s a little too political 
A feminist anthem that’s a bit too literal
Your lyrics are biblical your twitter feed is liberal 
You ain’t mainstream cause you look atypical
Forget the pop charts, you ain’t on 'em
you need Americana.

A folk song with no discernible chorus
Bluegrass waltzes and Civil War stories
Zydeco, Tejano, original, traditional
Old-time stringband clothing is conditional
An R&B cover with pedal steel on it
I guess that’s Americana.

So what if your songs are a little too sad
And your publicist is your mom and dad
But you keep on rolling in the back of that van
Ain’t no clue when you’ll be home again
But when you’re up on stage every night it don’t seem so bad.

What even is Americana?
A trade group a Grammy category subgenre
An annual award show with Emmylou on it
Don’t need to see the envelope, Isbell won it
A home for all of us who don’t fit in
Who just want to write, and play, and sing
And hear real music whatever you call it
I say it’s called Americana
So what do you say, Americana?
You paid $500 for a weeklong conference so let’s get on the same page and stop asking the question. 
It’s Americana.

Written by Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale, The Milk Carton Kids

It's that time of year again where all members can let the AMA-UK board know who they think should be nominated for an award at the 2019 UK Americana Awards.  The Awards are held at iconic Hackney Empire on January 31st, 2019.  

if you need a reminder on which albums did well in the nomination period then check out the Official Americana Charts page which currently show all the charts for the full nomination period.

The more members who participate in this process the better the results - its your awards and your chance to help shape the nominations so don't delay - they are only open for two weeks.

What you need to do next is log in and follow the instructions to nominate 

We’ve been so busy since AmericanaFest UK 2018 that we thought we should take a few minutes and treat ourselves by remembering what an incredible conference, showcasing and awards show we had just a couple of months ago. AMA-UK YOUTUBE FOR VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS