Americana News

I'm With Her and Brandi Carlile perform a tribute to Dollar Parton at the AMA Awards When the Americana Music Association announced last month that it would give Dolly Parton a Lifetime Achievement Award, at its 2026 Americana Honors & Awards, there was an ominous sentence - in bold type - at the bottom of the first paragraph. It read: Parton will accept the honor via video. It immediately raised speculation in the music media that Dolly’s rumored health issues had returned

The star track on the latest album by Chris Jones & The Night Drivers is a wonderful cover of a little-known Vietnam War song by Tom T Hall Every so often, a gem is unearthed from the song vaults of time which immediately invites intrigue and fascination. The attention may focus on the original song and its composer or the distinctive interpretation of the cover version. It could even raise social issues from a past era. “Mama Bake a Pie (Daddy Kill a Chicken)” fits the

Billy Strings has an emotional attachment to the art work on the cover of his new album For most, the death of a mother means instant heartbreak. But for many recording artists it can provide heart-felt inspiration to produce their very-best creativity to honor that special person. And nobody has done this better than contemporary bluegrass whizz Billy Strings who has just released a new album, aptly named So Much for Goodbyes. It is a back-to-the-basics masterpiece. String

A remake of Dolly Parton's original Coat of Many Colors Few people have written their own obituary on the back of a dry cleaner’s receipt. Dolly Parton did. And yes, it’s in song – “Coat of Many Colors.” The country music legend wrote her lyrically-stunning autobiographic reflection some 57 years before her death, on August 25 at the age of 80. She was in the back of a bus - touring with country star Porter Wagoner – when she started reflecting on her impoverished child

Emmylou Harris and the Red Dirt Boys perform their last London concert at the famous Royal Albert Hall One question remains after the final concert by Emmylou Harris at London’s Royal Albert Hall on May 17: Did the Queen of Americana enter the hallowed Hall through Door 12, the South Porch entrance reserved for royalty? If not, then she certainly deserved to. For Harris marked the somewhat momentous occasion with regal elegance. Like her first performance there on February

Gram Parsons is to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame If there was one endorsement which persuaded Rock & Roll Hall of Fame voters to finally induct country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons into their Early Influence Award category, it has to have been the on-going lobbying by Emmylou Harris. It was Parsons, of course, who plucked Harris from obscurity in a DC folk club to become his singing partner. And, from there, she became an Americana legend. When their collabor

Chip Taylor was one of music's most-admired songwriters Americana has lost a singer-songwriter many in the music industry referred to as “a national treasure.” And for good reason. For Chip Taylor, who died in New York on March 23, had the distinction of being one of the finest multiple-genre songwriters in modern music. Taylor, who was 86, started his 60-odd years in music by writing a number of pop hits which would become classics, among them “Wild Thing” (Troggs/Jimi

Mary Gauthier has joined the list of artists using song to protest against U.S. immigration enforcement. The crucifixion of Christ has inspired Americana stars Mary Gauthier and Eliza Gilkyson to join the protest-in-music against the much-debated immigration crackdown across the U.S. The pair have written “Soldier of Fortune” which questions the morality of gun-for-hire agents and Gauthier has now released it as a single. It has, of course, been motivated by sad events in M

Minneapolis singer-songwriter David Huckfelt has recorded an inspiring song about Native Americans Songwriters in various musical genres have throughout the years never shied away from writing about Native Americans. There have been famous classics, like “The Ballad of Ira Hayes;” songs of indigenous resilience, like “Now That The Buffalo’s Gone” by Buffy Sainte-Marie; through to Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s sorrowful “Indian Sunset” and even The Big Bopper’s romanticiz

Mavis Staples wins two Grammys at the age of 86 Gospel/R&B legend Mavis Staples accentuated her ageless status with two wins at the 2026 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. The 86-year-old star now has a total of five Grammys as a solo artist, plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award she won in 2005 as a member of The Staple Singers. Staples won the Best Americana Performance for “Godspeed” and collected another in the Best American Roots Performance category for ”Beautiful Str

Emmylou Harris has received rave reviews for final shows in Glasgow and Dublin Emmylou Harris has dipped the proverbial toe in Europe’s musical waters with lauded concerts in Glasgow and Dublin which provide a preview to her much-published last “European Farwell Tour” in mid-year. The two shows saw Harris further enhance her long-held status as the Queen of Americana Music. “Spine-tingling goodbye from 78-year-old country legend,” headlined The Guardian after her Janua

Joe Ely who died at 78 left behind many Americana classics When the Flatlanders were formed in the West Texas town of Lubbock in 1971, no one had ever heard the term Americana music. But the eclectic mix this likeable trio would produce in the early 70’s laid the foundation for the Americana genre when it was formally inducted nearly 30 years later. Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock were high school buddies with a love of music. Ely was rock orientated, Gilmo

In what must be Americana Photo of the Year, folk legend Joan Baez is pictured with six of the finest female singers in modern music. From left: Margo Price, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, Baez, Rosanne Cash, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris. It was the movies not necessarily the music which had Americana fans enthralled in 2025. For two of the greatest singer-songwriters in modern music – Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen - had biopics delivered to cinematic audiences around

Willie Nelson, Bobbie Nelson and Paul English backstage in New Orleans in July 2014 Two great musicians who were always 20-feet from stardom - to borrow the title of an Oscar-winning documentary – would have found this year of particular significance had they both not passed. Drummer Paul English and pianist Bobbie Nelson played in Willie Nelson’s famous band, The Family, for decades. But, like most backing musicians, their profiles were somewhat confined to font-size 10 in

Gordon Lightfoot's ballad "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald " transformed a story about just another shipwreck into international folklore It is now 50 years since the freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank on Lake Superior on November 10, 1975, with the loss of 29 lives. So what, you might rightfully ask? For there have been greater shipwrecks in peacetime through the years, with far bigger loss of life. True! But few have been immortalized in song like the Edmund Fitzgera

Tami Neilson and Brett Adams launch G igs for Gaza series at Auckland's Junk & Disorderly Bikes, buckets and boots hang from the ceiling. Antiquated TV’s perch on bookshelves filled with old LP’s. In the middle of all this is a makeshift stage. And standing there is Canadian country-soul star Tami Neilson. It’s a long way from the Ryman Auditorium or alongside Willie Nelson at his July 4 th Texas concert. For the New Zealand-based singer-songwriter was performing at an Auc

Rare recordings from 1956-63 provide a wonderful insight into the early development of Bob Dylan's music You could say Bob Dylan has had more Bootleg Series albums than hot dinners. Speaking of which, his latest – Vol. 18 – is simply a feast! For it goes back, way back. Titled Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series Volume 18: Through The Open Window, 1956-63 , it covers exceedingly rare recordings from when he was a nobody in his mid-teens in Minnesota, to being a somebody in his early

Bruce Springsteen asked author Warren Zanes to take a picture of him in the room where he recorded Nebraska some 40 years ago The wait is over! One of the great mysteries of Americana music has finally been resolved. For on October 24, long-lost Bruce Springsteen studio tapes were finally delivered on Nebraska ’82: Expanded Edition . They contain much of the electric version - recorded in a New York studio with Springsteen’s E Street Band – of his acclaimed acoustic albu

Robert Plant (second left) and his band Saving Grace Robert Plant’s amazing transformation from being a rock ‘n roll legend with Led...

Lucinda Williams delivering her multi-,media life story at the Sydney Opera House Lucinda Williams has taken a rare backseat on an...