What Is Americana Music
A roots-music umbrella that began as a loose industry tag now has its own trade association, its own awards and its own Grammy categories.
Photo: DPhan54 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Illustrative image.
Americana is contemporary American roots music: songs that draw on country, folk, blues, bluegrass, R&B and roots-rock and blend them into a sound of their own. It is less a single style than an umbrella for roots-minded songwriters and bands.
The Recording Academy defines it as "contemporary music that incorporates elements of various American roots music and vocal styles, including country, roots-rock, folk, bluegrass, R&B, and blues, resulting in a distinctive roots-oriented sound." The umbrella is broad and is not limited to one kind of instrumentation: Americana records run from spare acoustic sets to full electric band arrangements.
How the Label Took Shape
The label "Americana" was long used loosely in the industry, and it has since acquired institutional solidity. The Americana Music Association, a professional trade organization based in Nashville, was formally established in 1999 to advocate for American roots music; it added the Americana Honors and Awards in 2002 and hosts the annual AMERICANAFEST festival and conference.
The Grammys followed. Best Americana Album was first awarded in 2010, to Levon Helm's Electric Dirt, and the Recording Academy later added Best Americana Performance, first won by Bonnie Raitt's "Made Up Mind." In the Academy's words, Americana "lives in a world apart from the pure forms of the genres upon which it may draw."
How It Differs From Country and Folk
The Grammy structure makes the boundary visible. Americana sits in the American Roots Music field alongside separate categories such as Best American Roots Performance, Best American Roots Song, Best Bluegrass Album, Best Contemporary Folk Album and Best Traditional Blues Album, while mainstream country has its own field. So Best Americana Album is not an award for the pure forms of traditional roots genres; it is for records that take those influences and run with them.
In plain terms, Americana is often folk-like in feel and country-like in subject, but it is not bound to either. It blends elements of those genres into new songs, often with modern production, and it has room for soul, gospel and rock as well as the banjo and fiddle.
Where to Start Listening
The Best Americana Album winners make a solid starting list:
| Artist | Album |
|---|---|
| Levon Helm | Electric Dirt |
| Mavis Staples | You Are Not Alone |
| Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell | Old Yellow Moon |
| Rosanne Cash | The River & The Thread |
| Jason Isbell | Something More Than Free |
| Los Lobos | Native Sons |
| Brandi Carlile | By The Way, I Forgive You |
The label tells you what to expect from an Americana track: roots ingredients, contemporary craft and a sound of its own, distinct from the genres that feed it. Start with the list above, then follow the artists who play with them.
